Pro and Con of Single Subject Research in Adapted Physical Education and the Guidance for an Appropriate Research Designing

Abstract

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to describe pro and con related to the single subject research method in adapted physical education and to provide the guideline for checking the appropriateness by the checklist before setting the single subject design. METHODS The research review based on using the single subject research method was applied in this study. The effectiveness of intervention for the single subject with disability could be appropriately interpreted based on the differences of disability level after adapted physical activity instruction. However, the variable threats to the experimental design and the cautions might be needed to avoid those traps of mistakes before setting up the single subject research design in the adapted physical educational instruction, therefore, the advantages and limitations at each single subject design were subscribed. RESULTS The checklist of experimental setting were provided to minimize the threats of internal and external validity such as history, maturation, testing, or measurement error. CONCLUSIONS The author of this article summarized the items to be checked for single subject research design based on the review of many studies done by Glass et al. (1975), Tawney and Gast (1984), Logan, Hickman, Harris, and Heriza (2008), Dixon et al. (2012), Byiers et al. (2012), and Haegele and Godge. (2015). It could help the researcher to conceptualize the reality of experimental setting and to reduce the misunderstanding and error in designing of single subject research prior to activating the experiment.

Keywords

• AB design
• ABAB design
• Baseline
• Intervention
• Multiple Baseline design
• Single subject research design