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| Behavior Analysts Should Be the Best Teachers in the Academy. Are We? |
| Monday, May 30, 2005 |
| 10:30 AM–11:50 AM |
| Lake Erie (8th floor) |
| Area: TBA; Domain: Applied Research |
| Chair: Thomas A. Brigham (Washington State University) |
| CE Instructor: Thomas A. Brigham, M.D. |
| Abstract: Behavior analysts have a long history of innovation in instruction. Lead by the efforts of Skinner and Keller in programmed instruction and PSI, many behaviorists have used the principles of behavior analysis to inform their teaching. However, in contrast to the hey days of programmed instruction and the excitement of PSI, the past decade has seen little published research on instructional innovation based on behavior analytic principles. We will present examples of how behavior analytic principles can be used to improve instructional programs and university courses. |
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| Behavior Analysis, Internet Technology, and Conceptual Learning |
| DANIEL J. BERNSTEIN (University of Kansas) |
| Abstract: Beginning with a self-paced introductory course that brought a large percentage of learners to high levels of achievement, I have designed courses at all levels of higher education that make learner understanding the primary goal. Most recently I have been exploring and evaluating various uses of technology to promote student understanding. How the ongoing courses can be used as a laboratory for evaluating the impact of out of class web-based activities on deep understanding of conceptual material will be discussed. I am also interested in representation of the intellectual work in teaching, especially through the external review of electronic course portfolios centered on student work. I will report on work with colleagues from many fields of study in developing ways to showcase the quality of their student work and the practices that have helped that work emerge. This effort falls under the rubric of the “Scholarship of Teaching” which is an increasing important area for the enhancement and evaluation of teaching sponsored by the Carnegie Foundation. As a Fellow of the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, I will describe some of the projects to advance the science of teaching. |
 Dan Bernstein received an A.B. in psychology from Stanford University in 1968 and a Ph.D. in social and experimental psychology from the University of California at San Diego in 1973. He was a Professor of Psychology at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln from 1973 until 2002, when he became Director or the Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Kansas. He is also a Professor of Psychology at KU.
Beginning with a self-paced introductory course that brought a large percentage of learners to high levels of achievement, Bernstein has designed courses at all levels of higher education that make learner understanding the primary goal. Most recently he has been exploring and evaluating various uses of technology to promote student understanding. His ongoing courses are a laboratory for evaluating the impact of out of class web-based activities on deep understanding of conceptual material.
Bernstein is also interested in representation of the intellectual work in teaching, especially through the external review of electronic course portfolios centered on student work. He works with colleagues from many fields of study in developing ways to showcase the quality of their student work and the practices that have helped that work emerge. He has received numerous campus awards for teaching, he was a Charter Member of the University of Nebraska Academy of Distinguished Teachers, and he is a Fellow of the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. |
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BATS: An Organically Evolving, Supportive, Interactive Learning Environment |
| RICHARD W. MALOTT (Western Michigan University), Koji Takeshima (Western Michigan University), Holly C. Harrison (Western Michigan University), Emily Helt (Western Michigan University), Nicholas L. Weatherly (Western Michigan University), Alison M. Betz (Western Michigan University), Christen Rae (Western Michigan University) |
| Abstract: The Behavior Analysis Training System (BATS) is a system my graduate and undergraduate advisees and I continue to evolve within the Behavior Analysis Program at WMU. We have designed BATS to provide as much behavioral support as possible for all our behavior-analysis students from freshmen Honors College students to doctoral students. BATS is a complex, multi-faceted program; and behavior analysis, behavior systems analysis, and organizational behavior management are embedded into its day to day operations and into its design and organic evolution; but behavior analysis, behavior systems analysis, and organizational behavior management are also the subject matter and the basis of the skills we teach within this program. We are a behavioral, systems version of an Escher drawing of a hand drawing a picture of a hand drawing a picture of a hand drawing a picture of a hand. We not only teach behavior analysis, behavior systems analysis, and organizational behavior management, but we and our teaching benefit from these approaches as well. And it works. |
 Richard Malott (DickMalott@DickMalott.com) teaches behavior analysis at Western Michigan University, where he works with students interested in becoming practitioners, rather than researchers. He trains students to work with autistic children and to apply behavior systems analysis and organizational behavior management to human-services settings. He concentrates on training MA students but also works with a few PhD students. Every summer, he runs the Behavioral Boot Camp, an intense 15-class-hour-per-week, 7.5 week, graduate-level, behavior-analysis seminar for students from WMU and around the globe. Originally, he taught an intro behavior-analysis course to 1000 students per semester, who produced 1000 lever-pressing rats per year. Now, his students only condition 230 rats per year, but they also do 130 self-management projects and provide 13,500 hours of training to autistic children each year. He coauthored Principles of Behavior (the textbook previously known as Elementary Principles of Behavior.) Since 1980, he has been working on a textbook called I’ll Stop Procrastinating when I Get around to It. He has presented in 14 countries and has received two Fulbright Senior Scholar Awards. In 2002, he also received ABA’s Award for Public Service in Behavior Analysis. For more information, please see http://DickMalott.com. |
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| “You Can’t Shape an Egg!" The Lecture-Discussion-Practice Course |
| THOMAS A. BRIGHAM (Washington State University) |
| Abstract: For a brief period, Keller’s “Goodbye Teacher” seemed to herald the end of the lecture course. Teachers and researchers rushed to explore what topics could be taught using the personalized system of instruction pioneered in that paper. Replications soon appeared followed by variations designed to deal with problems associated the initial program and increase overall effectiveness. A movement had been born. Unfortunately, it was short lived and the standard lecture course with midterm and final examinations remains the most common form of university instruction. I will describe an approach based on behavior analytic principles where brief lectures are followed by discussion and an opportunity to practice a skill or illustrate a concept. Examples demonstrating the process will be presented and procedures for generating them discussed. |
 Thomas A. Brigham received his Ph.D. in child psychology from the University of Kansas in 1970. He was a member of the faculty at New York University and is currently at Washington State University where he is a professor and scientist in the department of psychology. Professor Brigham has published extensively in the area of self-control/self-management and has developed several teaching programs in that area (Self-management for Adolescents, 1990 and Psychology Applied to Daily Living: Dealing with Friends, Alcohol, and Sex, 2002). He has also done extensive research using behavior analytic principles to design his university courses and instructional programs. In recognition of quality of this combination of research and teaching, Professor Brigham has received the major university and college awards for teaching and research at Washington State University. Additionally, the past two years, he has served as the Executive Assistant for Faculty Affairs to the University President. |
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