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| Developing Scaffolding and Errorless Teaching Skills for Staff in Early and Special Education Environments |
| Sunday, May 24, 2009 |
| 1:30 PM–2:50 PM |
| North 132 BC |
| Area: DEV/DDA; Domain: Applied Behavior Analysis |
| Chair: Roger D. Ray ((AI)2, Inc.; Rollins College) |
| Discussant: David A. Eckerman (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) |
| Abstract: This symposium reviews the advanced teaching techniques of scaffolding and errorless teaching and their applications to preschool and special-needs students. The use of an adaptive expert training system, called Train-to-Code (TTC), for computerized training of staff and teachers in the effective applications of such teaching techniques will also be presented. This training via TTC is designed for near-errorless development of observation and coding skills using videos that illustrate desired teaching tactics being used by experts. Data presentations focus on the degree of transfer from this observation training to the subsequent use of these teaching techniques in training college students as teachers. |
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| Training Direct Observational Coding Skills: Transfer Effects on Errorless Teaching of Children with Special Needs |
| KAITLIN G. CAUSIN (Rollins College), Roger D. Ray ((AI)2, Inc.; Rollins College), Patrick E. McGreevy (Patrick McGreevy, Ph.D., P.A.) |
| Abstract: Train-to-Code (TTC), an artificially intelligent adaptive computerized expert training system, has been shown to be a successful tool for training behavioral observers to high degrees of inter-individual accuracy and intra-individual stability in coding performances (Ray & Ray, 2008). Instructor-generated videos and corresponding expert codings of those videos are used for prompting and feedback to guide a trainee through a nearly-errorless training procedure for coding. TTC adaptively presents six alternative prompting and feedback-based training levels, gradually fading each until an expert-equivalent level of inter-observer accuracy and satisfactory intra-individual stability in coding accuracy occurs without prompts or feedback. Preliminary data have been reported on a transfer effect from such coding training to applied situations requiring that coding trainees actually perform behaviors similar to those coded during training (Ray, Milkosky, & Hogan, 2008). This presentation expands on that theme by reporting use of TTC to train college students to code illustrations of an expert using errorless teaching techniques for children with special-needs. Pre-training versus post-training multi-session comparisons are reported based on these same college students’ performances in executing errorless teaching procedures similar to those viewed and coded during training. |
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| Effectiveness of Errorless Teaching Procedures for Children with Special Needs |
| PATRICK E. MCGREEVY (Patrick McGreevy, Ph.D., P.A.), Kaitlin G. Causin (Rollins College), Roger D. Ray ((AI)2, Inc.; Rollins College) |
| Abstract: In an initial investigation, we used Train-to-Code (TTC) to train college students to code videotaped errorless teaching procedures conducted by an expert with students with special needs. Then, we examined the effects of the coding training on the implementation of these procedures by the same college students. In the present investigation, we examined the effect of the coding and implementation of these errorless teaching procedures on the acquisition of three functional skills by a young woman with a developmental disability. The coding and implementation of the errorless teaching procedures resulted in a rapid acquisition of all three skills. |
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| Use of an Expert System for Observational Training to Teach Scaffolding Techniques |
| NICOLE CATHERINE HOGAN (Rollins College), Roger D. Ray ((AI)2, Inc.; Rollins College), Sharon L. Carnahan (Rollins College) |
| Abstract: Vygotsky’s (1987) concept of scaffolding has had wide-spread incorporation into modern American educational practices. The concept is quite close to those used in errorless training procedures, but often rely on various questioning techniques to assess whether a learner is 1) already fluent, 2) within a "Zone of Proximal Development" where performances are possible with prompting support, or 3) being asked questions totally beyond the learner’s current abilities regardless of the degree of prompting support offered. Preliminary data reported previously (Ray, Milkosky, & Hogan, 2008) suggested that college students trained to code other college students reading to pre-school children increased in their use of the fundamental questioning techniques used for subsequent scaffolding. This presentation reports a follow-up study on scaffolding technique transfers based on less training, thus evaluating the system’s efficacy for use within a Developmental Psychology course as a simple repeated laboratory exercise. Pre-training versus post-training comparisons are reported based on a class of college students’ performances in reading to pre-school children. |
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