Journal of Behavioral Education最新文献

Alternative school educators often have minimal training or support to manage disruptive classroom behaviors. To combat this, school-based consultation may be provided to assist alternative school educators with classroom management strategies. However, face-to-face consultation may be limited due to the numerous responsibilities placed on school-based consultants. Fortunately, research has begun to examine the effectiveness and feasibility of emailed prompts as an implementation support. This study included a concurrent multiple baseline design across three teachers to test the effects of emailed prompts to increase alternative school educators’ rates of behavior-specific praise. Additionally, we evaluated concomitant changes in students’ behavior and teachers’ perceptions of the social validity of emailed prompts and behavior-specific praise. Results indicated that there was a functional relation between emailed prompts and increases in behavior-specific praise. More nuanced discussion of the impact on teachers’ corrective statements and student behavior are included. Limitations and future directions are also discussed.

Increased acceptability and implementation of online instruction in higher education has increased the diversity of students that are being taught within a course. Online courses are more likely to include students from varying geographic regions and countries, as well as students of various races, cultures, and ethnicities. This study reviews conceptual and empirical peer-reviewed articles to assess existing strategies to increase the engagement of culturally diverse students in higher education. The search was conducted on PsycINFO and ERIC databases to find articles that were: published in peer-reviewed journals prior to January 2023, included students of a higher education institution where courses were taught at least partially online, reported students’ cultures and linked directly them to student engagement, and were available in English. Thirty-one articles fit the inclusion criteria and were analyzed, by two independent raters, across the measures of research methodology, participant demographics, course format, dependent and independent variables, identified cultural barriers, outcomes, and recommendations. Implications for educators are reviewed and included strategies that involve: timing and pacing manipulations, modifications to course flexibility, attention to language use, strategies for accessing help, increasing material accessibility, providing cultural training, implementing the use of tutors/mentors, strengthening peer collaboration, and increasing compassion.

Functional behavior assessment (FBA) and function-based interventions are empirically validated interventions employed in schools. Teachers play a necessary role in the development and implementation of these individualized behavior plans to prevent and manage student challenging behavior. The current study sought to conduct a scoping review on the content and instructional delivery of FBA and function-based interventions’ training for in-service teachers. We employed methods consistent with standards for systematic review and meta-analysis (e.g., Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses [PRISMA]). The methodological rigor of included studies was also evaluated using Cochrane’s tool for assessing the risk of bias and what works clearinghouse guidelines for group and single case experimental design studies, respectively. Five databases were searched, and our initial search yielded 20,827 articles. After deleting duplicates on Endnote 9, titles and abstracts were screened by two independent reviewers resulting in 177 articles for full text article screening. Full text article screening across two independent reviewers resulted in nine studies for further thematic analyses of results based on this scoping review’s inclusion criteria. Implications of findings for future research and practice directions in in-service teacher professional development are further discussed.

Play, positioned powerfully in many cultures as a human right, is massively heterogeneous and resists a one-size-fits-all definition. Compared to typically developing individuals, researchers have characterized play in some individuals with autism as repetitive, stereotypical, less imaginative, and isolated. As such, the effectiveness, acceptability, and overall value of play-based interventions for individuals with autism have focused on discrete skills that facilitate normative play as opposed to the essence of play, such as playfulness and joy. The purpose of the current study was to use a mixed-method analysis to examine the effects of a video modeling-based play intervention implemented using a single-case multiple-probe design across playsets for a preschooler with autism. Visual analysis indicated that video modeling alone was not effective in enhancing scripted play, but combining video modeling with in situ modeling improved the participant’s explicitly taught play. Our interaction analysis highlights five themes, providing nuanced insights into the participant’s play that would not be otherwise captured through quantitative methods. Implications of adopting mixed-method analytical approaches to play in autism are also discussed.

Overlap is one of the data aspects that are expected to be assessed when visually inspecting single-case experimental designs (SCED) data. A frequently used quantification of overlap is the Nonoverlap of All Pairs (NAP). The current article reviews the main strengths and challenges when using this index, as compared to other nonoverlap indices such as Tau and the Percentage of data points exceeding the median. Four challenges are reviewed: the difficulty in representing NAP graphically, the presence of a ceiling effect, the disregard of trend, and the limitations in using p-values associated with NAP. Given the importance of complementing quantitative analysis and visual inspection of graphed data, straightforward quantifications and new graphical elements for the time-series plot are proposed as options for addressing the first three challenges. The suggestions for graphical representations (representing within-phase monotonic trend and across-phases overlaps) and additional numerical summaries (quantifying the degree of separation in case of complete nonoverlap or the proportion of data points in the overlap zone) are illustrated with two multiple-baseline data sets. To make it easier to obtain the plots and quantifications, the recommendations are implemented in a freely available user-friendly website. Educational researchers can use this article to inform their use and application of NAP to meaningfully interpret this quantification in the context of SCEDs.

Due to the challenges in reciprocal pretend play in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the current study examined the effectiveness of a set of procedures, including in vivo modeling, the differential observing response procedure, and prompt delay with differential reinforcement, on improving reciprocal pretend play responses in children with ASD. We recruited three target children and three non-target peer partners, all diagnosed with ASD and aged between 4 and 5 years. In a multiple baseline design, the intervention produced independent reciprocal play actions and verbalizations in the target participants and increased consecutive reciprocal exchanges within each dyad during pretend play. Improvements were maintained after the intervention was removed and when using non-instructional toy sets.

Researchers have continually sought to refine interventions targeting reading-related skills in an effort to improve their efficacy, efficiency, or social validity. Despite their prominence in early reading materials, pictures are often excluded from reading intervention procedures, likely because pictures have been shown to impede stimulus control by the textual stimuli when pictures and text are presented simultaneously. The current study describes the use of a novel prompt type, picture-text compound prompts, embedded in a strategic incremental rehearsal procedure to teach sight words to four children exhibiting reading challenges. Prompted opportunities resulted in the presentation of four picture-text compounds (e.g., the word dog appeared below a picture of a dog). To correctly respond, the participant was required to match the identical target textual stimulus to the element in the corresponding compound. Doing so then allowed the picture element of the compound stimulus to function as a tact prompt. Picture-text compound prompts produced mastery levels of responding in three or fewer instructional sessions and participants’ responses during generalization and maintenance probes were generally high. The current findings suggest that picture-text compounds prompts are efficacious, although additional research is needed to evaluate the relative efficiency and social validity of similar arrangements.

A common difficulty in introducing reading instruction involves teaching students to blend letter sounds to form words. Often, this difficulty can occur with and without textual stimuli. In 2 experiments, we tested the effects of behavioral momentum blending on acquisition of textual and spelling responses with 11 preschool students. The 3- and 4-year-old participants presented with language and social delays and were selected due to their explicit difficulty in blending as beginning readers. Prior to intervention, we taught participants to rapidly respond to mastered words with up to 5 phoneme–grapheme correspondences. During intervention, textual responses to mastered words were followed by the presentation of a novel word. Participants heard vocal models of component phonemes prior to requiring a blended textual response; models and the behavioral momentum antecedents were faded within sessions. Dependent measures consisted of novel textual and spelling responses and vocally blended responses. In Experiment 2, we added a response-to-extinction measure to compare the reinforcing value of observing text prior to and following intervention. Increases in textual and spelling responses occurred for all participants as well as a shift in reinforcement value in Experiment 2. Results highlight the educational significance of blending when establishing textual responding.

Behavior analysts frequently work in professional areas that necessitate treatment from an array of professionals, each representing different disciplines and specialties within healthcare, education, rehabilitation, and human services. Therefore, to best meet the diverse needs of clients and their families, behavior analysts are often required to work collaboratively with professionals from other disciplines and must acquire the skills to do so effectively. To learn more about behavior analysts’ collaborative relationships with colleagues from other disciplines and identify opportunities for further education and training, we surveyed professionals from other disciplines including speech-language pathologists, educators, administrators, occupational therapists, social workers, and psychologists. Overall, participants agreed that continued collaboration with behavior analysts would be useful, although the results revealed challenges in collaboration and disparities in reported perceptions and experiences. These findings, as well as ideas for fostering better collaboration, will be reviewed.

There has been a steady growth in the use of online instruction in higher education. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased both the need for and the use of this technology when schools were shut down, further establishing online learning as a viable educational platform for higher education. Many online higher education courses rely heavily on reading textbooks, articles, or both, where students complete assignments and quizzes to demonstrate their knowledge of the presented material. Instructors often require students to complete activities to provide evidence that they have read the assigned materials. There is limited research on the extent to which assignments lead to the best student performance. The current study examined quiz scores after students completed either study questions or reading summaries. Instructors provided students with choices on which assignments to complete during some weeks and quiz scores were compared with weeks when students were not given a choice of assignments. Results showed that there were higher quiz scores in the weeks when students were given a choice of assignments. There was no difference in quiz scores across the types of assignments. Results are discussed in terms of embedding more choice into graduate-level online classes.