Behavior analysis and education: An unfulfilled dream

As indicated by the Warnock Report, even 40 years ago, the necessity of responding to different student abilities and needs in school and thus the importance of adequate adaption of a regular curriculum regarding differentiation and personalization had already been described. Due to changes in policy and legislative frameworks, more and more students with special educational needs (SEN) attend regular education. However, placing the students with SEN within mainstream classrooms does not automatically lead to changes in teaching practices in these classrooms. In line with this, it would be interesting to know the way in which and to what extent students in inclusive classes perceive established inclusive practices, such as differentiation and personalization. Therefore, data from 47 inclusive classes from North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) were collected. In total, 872 primary school students (grade 4; ages 9–11 years) were asked to rate how frequently their class teachers used inclusive instructional practices (personalization and differentiation) using the Inclusive Classroom Practices Scale (ITPS). In addition to students, teachers were also asked to rate their own teaching practices in general and then in addition for each student separately. As differentiated instruction and multifaceted teaching practices are considered to be measures for meeting the needs of children with different educational needs, results that show a high use of these approaches were expected. Descriptive results indicate a consistent homogeneous understanding of prevailing inclusive teaching practices, which could be characterized by existing, but not intensive implementation, of inclusive practices. Differences regarding students' gender, migrant background, or SEN were not found for the students' ratings of teachers' inclusive practices or the teachers' self-ratings group. Moreover, the teachers' student-specific ratings indicate that teachers did not strongly differentiate or personalize with a focus on students' characteristics. A small overlap between teachers' general ratings of their own inclusive teaching practices and students' individual ratings was found. The results of the current study provide insights into actual inclusive teaching practices in German inclusive classrooms and make it possible to address the need for action and inclusive interventions.

The purpose of this paper is to present to a community of behavior specialists, an overview of the subdiscipline of Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) in three aspects. First, OBM is a sub-branch of the larger field of Applied Behavior Analysis. It also has two other aspects: it can complement the traditional set of skills useful to behavior analysts or be one of the alternative careers for them. Behavior specialists predominantly, and especially in Poland, teach populations with special needs. Whether this is in special education, social assistance or select areas of health care, with young children with autism or adults with intellectual disability, this is where most behavior analysts work. At the same time, they often need to skillfully cooperate in teams, sometimes manage them or instruct people other than those with whom they are usually in contact, such as new team members, parents, and other specialists. OBM can be seen as a supplementary background that answers these needs. It is also a possible alternative career path, with a distinct client base and flagship journal, as well as specific procedures in behavior analysis, experts in the field and specialisms. Different client populations, variations in instruction techniques and knowledge of response generalization all point to that conclusion that traditional behavior analysts might be largely at a disadvantage in the area covered by OBM: that of a management and team leading and training typically developing clients. Behavior analysts require a background in OBM, otherwise they might "reinvent the OBM wheel" or - which is worse - apply their experiences one-to-one with special populations and bring with them harmful assumptions.

Behavior analysis is the underclass of psychology. It is under-funded, under-taught, and underappreciated. A lot is happening that is positive, but just beneath the surface, there are grave dangers lurking that could significantly worsen our already poor status. I prefer to believe that most of these dangers are things we can control by our own behavior (itself a rather behavioral idea), and I offer this list of dangers in that spirit. As someone once said: if you always do what you always did, you'll always get what you always got. Behavior analysts need to appreciate the following six dangers and adapt to them. LOSS OF MISSION Behavior analysis was initially strategically committed to the field of animal learning, but from the beginning its ultimate purpose was an understanding of complex human behavior: importance of a science of behavior derives largely from the possibility of an eventual extension to human affairs (Skinner, Behavior of Organisms, 1938, p. 441). In the early decades that was merely a promise, but the arrival of applied behavior analysis turned it into a program. Over the years, however, both basic and applied behavior analysis have narrowed and that original vision is being lost. Applied behavior analysis is gradually becoming a subfield of developmental disabilities, as a glance at a recent issue of JABA will confirm. The depth of the risk this creates is covered over by methodological rigor and applied impact within that narrow domain. Basic behavior analysis clings largely to narrow and precise questions of self-stimulatory interest in the animal laboratory, even while animal laboratories are being closed one by one, and areas of research within behavior analysis are being opened up that require human research. The depth of the problem is covered over by the productivity of a few major behavioral laboratories and the emergence of a handful of international labs, where protection from political winds have allowed the old seeds to grow a few new sprouts. In some ways, all of the other dangers I list can be traced back to the following core concern. Behavior analysis was always a carom shot. Instead of approaching human complexity directly, it tried to develop conceptual tools based on simple behaviors in simple contexts with small non-human animals, and then to apply these to an analysis of virtually every form of complex human behavior. It was a bold and even slightly preposterous idea, and yet it was one that worked far beyond what anyone had a right to expect. Now, however, we seem to be on the verge of forgetting what the mission was in the first place. Many basic behavior analysts have begun to believe that basic behavior analysis is a subfield of animal learning or (perhaps worse) behavioral biology. Where are the experimental analyses of emotion, friendship, sexuality, health, reasoning, humor, intelligence, and so on? Interpretation is not enough--we need an experimental analysis of such behaviors. Without the basic account, applied behavior analysts either ignore these areas or build common sense approaches to them. TOOL POLISHING No field so enjoys principles as does behavior analysis. Principles of behavior are ways of speaking about the prediction and influence of the historically and currently situated actions of organisms that are precise, broadly applicable, and coherent in terms of the larger fabric of science. Principles are the intellectual tools of analysis. They are not, however, ends in themselves. Sometimes behavior analysts are like the watchmakers who decided to make a set of extremely fine tools before actually making some complicated new watches. Forgetting what the tools were for, the talented watchmakers did not build the watches and display them in a glass cabinet, but instead put the tools themselves in that cabinet, taking them out only to polish them and to show how they work. Basic behavior analysts are especially prone to this error. …

The study highlights Special Education as a comprehensive teaching modality, which encompasses all levels, stages and educational modalities. It focuses on Specialized Educational Assistance (AEE), providing resources, services and guidance to improve the teaching and learning process in regular classrooms. According to educational policy, Special Education must be implemented in all teaching contexts, aiming to serve students with disabilities, pervasive developmental disorders (TGD) or high abilities/giftedness.The current approach emphasizes the coexistence and collaboration between Special Education and regular education, moving away from the previous substitutive vision. In this sense, the responsibility for the education of students with disabilities, TGD or high abilities/giftedness is shared between the regular class teacher, responsible for the curriculum, and the teacher specializing in AEE, responsible for creating conditions that meet the specific needs of these students. This approach seeks to overcome barriers to promote inclusive education, ensuring not only access and retention, but also the effective learning of these students, integrating them in a meaningful way in common classrooms. From this new perspective, Special Education is no longer seen as a substitute alternative to regular education, taking on a complementary or supplementary role. This implies a change in the understanding of the role of the specialist teacher, who now works together with the regular class teacher to ensure inclusive and effective education.

For thousands of years, societies actively practiced the oppression, persecution, and dehumanization of sexual and gender minority (SGM) people (e.g., lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals). Rekers and Lovaas'(1974) study is part of that history within behavior analysis. Following requests for retraction, the Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior and LeBlanc (2020) issued a formal Expression of Concern about the work. Continued conversation and debate have followed. First, we contextualize debate around retraction of Rekers and Lovaas and the history of behavior analysts' work on SGM issues. Second, we propose 5 steps that leaders in behavior analysis can take with relative immediacy, and we describe 5 research areas that individual behavior analysts could pursue. We conclude that behavior analysts can contribute much toward the liberation of SGM individuals if we begin to bring our science to bear on pressing, socially significant issues facing SGM communities.

Supporting people with neurodevelopmental disabilities often requires interdisciplinary collaboration and effective partnerships with clients and their families. Behavior analysts receive intensive training and supervision in a variety of domains; however, expanding interdisciplinary training for behavior analysts is needed. Interdisciplinary training programs, such as the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) programs, offer trainees the opportunity to hone their skills as advocates for people with neurodevelopmental disabilities and collaborators as part of an interdisciplinary team. Historically, many LEND programs have not offered training positions specifically to behavior analysis students or professionals, although some behavior analysts have participated as trainees in other disciplines such as psychology or special education. The benefits, barriers, and possible future directions of interdisciplinary training for behavior analysts within a LEND program are discussed through the experience of the University of Cincinnati LEND Program which added an Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) training track in 2020.

The article “There’s a Policy for That: A Comparison of the Organizational Culture of Workplaces Reporting Incidents of Sexual Harassment” (Hertzog, Wright, & Beat, 2008, this volume) explores organizational variables related to reports of sexual harassment and other negative behaviors in organizations. The paper considers relatively new ground for behavior analysts in terms of broad organizational assessment and exploratory analyses of work contexts. Extending and integrating these analyses of organizational contexts with behavior analyses would be interesting, challenging, and provocative. Behavior analysis rests on accurate measurement of individual’s behavior and experimental analysis of environmental variables that determine functional relationships between behavior and environments. A few key concepts such as reinforcement and stimulus control are elaborated to explain a great deal of behavior. Behavior analysis has shown in multiple replications that all sorts of targeted behaviors in organizations can be altered by practical adjustments of reinforcement contingencies and contextual variables (Daniels & Daniels, 2006). A general observation is that behavior is as complex as the contexts that generate and maintain it. A methodology for very large scale organizational assessment is under-developed in behavior analysis and the complexities of organizational environments are perhaps limited in scope to evaluations of features of the individual’s local environment and learning history. Possible connections across levels of inquiry from broad surveys of organizational climate and the types of more molecular organizational behavior analyses conducted within behavior analysis may show interplay and enhance both methodologies. Exploration of the National Organization Survey (NOS) provides an interesting high altitude window into organizational settings, and Hertzog and colleagues provide and describe a molar level perspective on organizational climate that might influence behaviors such as sexual harassment and incivility. These are important topics not often addressed by behavior analysts although work is beginning in this area. No direct observations of organizational variables or dependent variables are reported so the extent to which the reported measures match actual events is undetermined. Correspondence between what people say

How to Think Like a Behavior Analyst is a revolutionary resource for understanding complex human behavior and making potentially significant quality of life improvements. Behavior analysts offer a worldview of the human condition different than almost any other professional perspective. To a behavior analyst, human behavior is largely learned and subject to change if the right variables are put into play. This is an empowering outlook, providing an opportunity for individuals to analyze the actions of those around them and an understanding of why others exhibit such behavior. Practical, clear, and direct, this book addresses basic questions such as how behavior analysis is different from psychotherapy, what analysis involves, and the meaning of evidence-based treatment. A chapter on Applications presents tips on using behavioral procedures to improve lives and deal with others, and articulates how behavioral procedures are used in community settings. In question and answer format, the text thoroughly covers 50 frequently asked questions about behavior analysis in an educational and entertaining manner. It was developed out of questions raised by students in behavior analysis classes over the last 35 years, as well as questions raised by consumers of behavior analysis services. This text is written for all professionals concerned with behavior, including undergraduate students in psychology and behavior analysis, parents, teachers, employers, and employees. The book can easily be used as a supplement to primary texts in introductory psychology courses, and the exercises that follow each question can be used to stimulate lively discussion in role-play and other active learning situations.

At least half of the children called learning disabled are misidentified; they need help in school but do not warrant the label handicapped. The costs of special services for these children are excessive because much of the extra resources are eaten up by the bureaucratic requirements of assessment and staffing. The authors of the foregoing articles are commended for their altruism because they are willing to give up power, to relinquish the separate dominion of special education. If special education were merged with regular education, children's needs could be met without bureaucratic costs. However, the national reports are an impediment to the merger of special and regular education because accountability demands make classroom teachers less willing to take responsibility for hard-to-teach children.

The study sought to determine the “level of consciousness” of selected regular and special educators for 50 competing educational policy statements. Fifty of the most frequently occurring policy items were selected, 20 arising as key concepts of the 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act (P.L. 94–142), intermingled with 30 of the most pressing issues drawn from the current regular (general) and vocational education literature. A Q-sort procedure required 199 general and special education teachers and administrators to prioritize the general and special education policy items, sorting them according to their importance. A discriminant functions analysis disclosed that respondents could be correctly classified as special or regular educators with 68% accuracy (cross-validated) on the basis of their level of consciousness for 11 P.L. 94–142 policy items. Special education administrators demonstrated the highest level of consciousness, general education administrators the lowest, and teachers the middle range.

Across many countries in Europe, the last decade has seen a rapid increase in the number of early intervention programmes for children with autism based on applied behaviour analysis, and a related growth in demand for competent behaviour analyst practitioners. There has also been a rapid growth in university-based courses that are focused solely on behaviour analysis, and these have all aligned their curriculum with the Behavior Analyst Certification Board task list. We describe the context of these developments and discuss some of the ways courses have been developed and some of the future challenges to be faced in developing an international profession of behaviour analysis. These have been positive moves for behaviour analysis in Europe. Now there is a solid foundation to continue this work, and to ensure that behaviour analysts play a central role in helping those who need their expertise.

At its core, productive collaboration between speech-language pathologists and behavior analysts requires effective communication between both parties. Successful communication can be gained in par...

Readers of Behavior and Social Issues will likely find this an interesting little book. It is 100 word processed pages long, not formally typeset, and is in part a collection of the author's previously published essays which appeared in The Behavior Analyst. Two reciprocal themes are present: how behavior analysts and humanists have interacted with each other in print, and how behavior analysts and commentators on utopian writing have had similar exchanges. As Newman has ably argued at greater length elsewhere (Newman, 1992), to a great extent, behavior analysis is the application of humanistic philosophy. Unfortunately influential segments within the humanistic camp are either unfamiliar with, or reject, the compelling parallels between the two fields, and behaviorism has fared less well at the pens of the humanists than the latter have at those of the former. One thing I learned from this book is that humanists, like members of many disciplines, can be divided into hard and soft varieties, with the former stressing reason, science, and critical thinking, (materialists and realists, in a philosophical sense) and the latter holding the view that humanity is a more elevated aspect of the universe than can be accounted for by science. Most (but not all) of the criticisms of behaviorism come from the latter group. Behaviorists (notably Skinner) have contributed numerous constructive applications to the literature on utopian cultures. Regrettably, commentators on this literature have often chosen to interpret these contributions as either satire, as dystopian, or in the worst case as the foundation for a totalitarian state ruled by skilled behavioral manipulators, a regime made more pernicious by the fact that

Behavior analysis continues to struggle with professional recognition. This occurs contrary to the mounting research evidence that shows behavior analysis to be the treatment of choice for a variety of problems. One population in particular that behavior analytic studies have shown success with is in lowering recidivism of offenders. Keywords: Behavior analysis, professional recognition, recidivism, offenders ********** A recent meta-analytic article, looking a program impact for offender populations, found that Behavior Therapy (operant and respondent conditioning principles, antecedent control strategies, self-control training, etc.) and Cognitive Behavior Therapy were the only two treatments that produced an effect (Redondo-Illescas, Sanchez-Meca, & Garrido-Genovaes, 2001). These two interventions lead to a 12-15% decrease in recidivism over a two years post treatment. All the other interventions produced effects substantially much lower including therapeutic communities, non-behavioral treatments, dissuasion, and diversion programs. With crime so out of control across this nation, it would seem that a call for action for behavioral programs in prison would be one of the top public out cries but it is not. Part of the reason for this is that behavioral programs have received a great deal of bad press in the treatment communities and are often beholden to other professions in the community. For example, behavior analysts might work under nurses or psychiatrists in the hospital. This has an effect on the behavior targeted for intervention programs. Take for example the literature by behavior analysts on token systems in the institutions in the 1970s. The whole body of literature was on focused on building behaviors- a constructional view (Golddiamond, 1974), with patients setting goals and interventions directed toward community living on the outside (Atthowe, 1973; Bassett, Blanchard, & Koshland, 1975; Milby, Pendergrass, & Clarke, 1973; Fairweather, Sanders, Cresseler, & Maynard, 1969; Rybolt, 1975; Swartz & Bellack, 1975). Yet, when Page, Caron, & Yates (1975) did their famous survey of token systems they found that out of 280 programs surveyed almost all token systems were co-opted to just enforce nursing routines. This is the problem when one field is beholden to another. Being beholden to other professions is harmful or at least not in the consumer's best interest. The tools of behavior analysts become secondary to helping the other profession achieving its professional goals. Thus, instead of building behaviors that would prevent rehospitalization, the behavior analyst find himself or herself designing programs focused solely on getting the client to take medication and comply with hospital routines. …

The importance of parental participation in the educational process has been recognized in both regular and special education. However, most of what is known about parent involvement in special education has been garnered through studies at the elementary age level and with families of students with mild disabilities. In this study, mothers of students with severe disabilities were compared with mothers of nondisabled students and students with mild to moderate disabilities regarding their perceptions of school involvement. A total of 117 mothers were interviewed. The results indicated that in comparison to the parents of students in regular education, parents of students with disabilities were offered more opportunities to be involved, were more satisfied with their involvement, and felt more able to influence their children's education. This was true over the school age span. No significant differences were related to the severity of the children's disability. Types of activities in which the mothers were involved suggest that some of the parental involvement mechanisms developed in special education might profitably be extended to regular education.