ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Special Educational Needs
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1600643
Conducting research in real world settings -lessons learned from an Implementation and Process Evaluation of Headsprout Early Reading® in Special Schools (HERiSS)
Provisionally accepted
Louise D Denne1*
Samantha Flynn1
Paul A Thompson2
Rebecca Morris1
Emily J Tyler3
Richard P Hastings2
Nikita Hayden4- 1University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom
- 2University of Birmingham, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom
- 3Bangor University, Bangor, Wales, United Kingdom
- 4The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, England, United Kingdom
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: Evaluating the success of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) requires an understanding of the processes and experiences of those involved in implementation as much as an analysis of outcomes, particularly when conducted in real world settings. This implementation and process evaluation (IPE) explores the experiences of pupils and staff from special schools in England participating in an RCT examining whether Headsprout® Early Reading (HER®), an established on-line reading intervention shown to be effective at teaching early reading skills to pupils in mainstream schools, with additional support strategies and supervision, could be delivered successfully by school staff to pupils with intellectual disabilities. Method: The study used an embedded mixed methods approach within a RCT design, the results of which are reported elsewhere. It is the first study to include interviews with pupils with intellectual disabilities. With fifty-five schools (382 pupils in Key Stages 1 and 2) successfully recruited, it is also possibly the largest study of its kind to be conducted to date in special schools. Results: It was not possible for staff in the context at the time of the study (extreme pressures on staffing, meeting individual pupil needs, and pupil and staff absence, compounded by COVID-19) to comply with implementation and to deliver HER® to pupils with fidelity or to the dosage expected.Conclusion: Despite implementation challenges, the study demonstrated an appetite amongst special schools to be included in research to find effective ways of teaching key skills to pupils with intellectual disabilities.
Keywords: reading skills, Compliance, fidelity, Facilitators and barriers to implementation, Special schools
Received: 26 Mar 2025; Accepted: 03 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Denne, Flynn, Thompson, Morris, Tyler, Hastings and Hayden. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Louise D Denne, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.