Association for Behavior Analysis International

It's not a matter of whether or not new digital technologies will revolutionize education--they are, have, and will continue to do so. Digital education is not just another fad or reform; it signals a major phase change in transforming teaching and learning. Tremendous synergy exists between disruptive developments such as personalized learning (individualizing education not just for instruction but also interest), learning analytics (using formative and summative evaluation to determine what works from students to schools), online, hybrid, and blended delivery models (which promotes greater instructional reach), gaming technology (the clear use of levels, badges, mastery, and goals in learning), and much more. Will behavior analysis add to innovation and lead early adoption, or simply follow along with the majority, or even lag behind? Tremendous opportunities exist for behavior analysis to lead and support vital change, and this conference offers an exceptional opportunity for behavior analysts to both learn about and learn how to transform education.

Anyone interested in learning about digital education.

Enhancing education has been a target of interest since the beginning of the behavioral tradition, especially influenced by scientists such as Skinner, Dewey, Keller, Lindsley, and Engelman. While no one should be surprised by the fact that behavior analysis has influenced the education of folks with autism and other developmental disabilities, many are surprised to learn that education qua education is in fact part of the purview of behavior science. This panel will consist of a brief summary of several specific approaches to education from the behavioral tradition, their origins, where they stand today, and what directions they can go in the future. In the discussion of these approaches, the use of technology (established and emerging) in the service of these educational approaches will be highlighted. This is the perfect panel for an audience member who wishes to see what behavior analysis has and can contribute to the state of our educational systems, now and in the future.

Anyone who wishes to see what behavior analysis has and can contribute to the state of our educational systems, now and in the future.

Frequently one hears that behaviorist approaches to teaching and learning focus on the more mundane "basic" skills and often neglect the important aspects of advanced learning. That is, there is an emphasis on the simple, rather than the complex, and on direct teaching rather than on enquiry and problem solving. This presentation looks at complexity and argues that the meaning of complexity, especially as it applies to education, is not well understood and requires an examination of a range of teaching and learning issues. Further, complexity of task is different than complexity of teaching the task, and often repertoires of increasing complexity may become increasingly simpler to teach. Enquiry may itself be one of those instances. As one builds the component repertoires for enquiry, one may find increasingly more complex patterns may emerge with little direct instruction. A model for teaching and applying enquiry repertoires to increasingly more demanding criteria will be suggested that topographically looks unstructured, but in fact builds upon careful contingency shaping.

Anyone who is interested in direct teaching and contingency shaping.

--Describe the relationship between entry repertoire and complexity.

--State how the use of a contingency-defined learning hierarchy can help teach complex topics through enquiry.

--Distinguish between complexity of repertoire and complexity of program.

--Describe how enquiry can be sequenced so as to potentiate academic success as a reinforcer.

On one hand, games are a creative medium full of incredibly nebulous, fluffy concepts like "fun," "storytelling," and "adventure." At the same time, modern games produce terabytes of exquisitely detailed behavioral data, letting us analyze everything from how our players respond to contingencies to the substance of their in-game conversations. The games industry is driven by a unique mix of talented designers who work by instinct and experience and analysts who use rigorous behavioral testing methodologies, battling and collaborating with each other to produce fun experiences for our players. This talk will cover some of the ways research has been incorporated into the game design process, from small-scale lab studies to beta tests with millions of active participants. The talk will cover why behavioral approaches have been so unexpectedly successful in games and cover the secret methods used to persuade stubborn designers to listen to data. Finally, Dr. Hopson also will discuss some of the ways that behavioral analysts are still way ahead of game designers and what the games industry needs to do in order to catch up.

Anyone interested in how behavior analysis research is incorporated into the game design process.

Increasingly, students' educational experiences occur in the context of online learning environments, creating opportunities to study student behavior in a fashion that is both longitudinal and very fine-grained. In this talk, Dr. Baker will discuss the use of Educational Data Mining methods on this type of data to automatically infer student problem behaviors during online learning, and to make basic discoveries about the factors that lead students to engage in these behaviors. He will illustrate this process through discussing his research group's work to leverage a combination of field observation and data mining to develop automated detectors that infer when a student engages in a range of problem behaviors, including gaming the system, off-task behavior, and carelessness. Dr. Baker will then discuss his group's work studying the ways that these behaviors and emotions are influenced by student interaction with online learning environments, and how that work influences developing next-generation online learning environments that students are more likely to choose to use appropriately and effectively.

Anyone who is interested in educational data mining and online learning.

The explosion of education technology products holds great promise for learners with special needs. Modern technologies can teach learners with the greatest needs new skills, provide opportunities for practice, application, and problem solving, and allow collaboration with others in the classroom or across the globe. Teachers can see, in real time, what students have learned or still need to know. But with hundreds of thousands of possible solutions (there are more than 115,000 educational apps in iTunes alone), how do teachers and parents know what products are worth buying for their learners? This session will focus on one of the most popular education technology categories today—mobile educational apps. The most important features of apps for special needs learners will be discussed, along with how to identify the presence or absence of those features.

Anyone who is interested in helping learners with special needs use digital technology.

Behavior analysis has contributed in a meaningful way to the development of higher-order thinking skills at all levels of education during the past decades. The use of small units of study, requiring that students prepare for lectures and discussions, monitoring student performance, and providing and responding to feedback, are all critical features of an approach called Interteaching. Developed by Boyce & Hineline, and expanded by Saville, this approach to teaching has been studied extensively during the past decade, and continues to gain traction as a method to promote student engagement, including pre-reading of the material and on-task class discussion. In this session, research on Interteaching will be reviewed, along with practical strategies for use in the classroom and ideas for research projects. The goal is to provide participants with practical strategies for use in various classroom settings, and to discuss how Interteaching might be adopted for online use.

Psychologists, behavior analysts, practitioners, graduate students, and anyone interested in learning about Interteaching.

B. F. Skinner (1968) defined problem solving as a two-stage process, first is "the situation for which a response has not previously been reinforced," and the second as the process of solution, that is, "the behavior which brings about the change is the problem solving and the response to it is the solution." Stated otherwise, the behavior that solves the problem is absent and the problem solver must find a way to produce it. That process can, at times, be described as reasoning. Reasoning involves what Skinner called the inspection or reinforcement contingencies such that behavior can be described that meets contingency requirements without direct contingency shaping or rules (Robbins, 2011). Such a process involves those activities "where the speaker generates stimuli to supplement other behavior already in his repertoire" (Skinner, 1968). This session will have participants identify the problem to solve, ask the "right question," classify examples and nonexamples of the critical attributes of the performance of an expert reasoner and problem solver, and examine resources that lend themselves to peer tutoring or self-instructional repertoires required of classroom and everyday activities.

Anyone interested in teaching how to develop problem solving and reasoning skills.

The ubiquity of handheld smart phones should be revolutionizing the data collection landscape of behavioral and educational professions. In fact, as platforms for user-developed applications grow, the creation of professional tools designed to increase efficiency and productivity in the workplace has exploded. Apps can increase efficiency from listing to-dos to typing reports. Fortunately, developers are beginning to create tools focused on the needs of a behavior analyst: data collection, delivery of instruction or therapy, and case management. Even with technologies that can greatly enhance the efficiency of these activities, a large proportion of analysts still are using tree- and graphite-based technologies. One potential problem with early adoption of smart-phone apps is that analysts have experienced effects opposite of those that were promised: They resulted in inefficiencies for the professional. Once bitten, twice shy--these professionals then become hesitant to abandon practices and tools which already work for those which may not. The purpose of this breakout is to kindle the appetite of its audience, provide a menu of the various options currently available, and break down the overwhelming and complex environment of smart-phone apps into accessible, bite-sized content.

Anyone interested in learning more about apps for behavior analysis data collection.

Teachers have been using machines to facilitate instruction for almost 100 years (Benjamin, 1988). Many of the same principles of learning used by these early machines continue to form the foundation for modern e-learning software. The objective of this breakout session is for participants to discuss how e-learning software programs like Adobe® Captivate®, Articulate®, and Lectora® can be used to design lessons that capitalize on effective instructional techniques such as active responding, mastery, scripting, branching scenarios, and individualized feedback. During the session, participants will learn how to quickly create their own content using the award-winning Adobe® Captivate® 6 e-learning software. By the time participants leave the session they should have a better understanding of some of the pitfalls and benefits of incorporating e-learning software into their courses.

Anyone interested in learning how e-learning software programs can be used to design lessons.

One of the more prominent features of what is often called “gamification” is that certain behaviors, such as correctly solving a problem, are followed by points, medallions, or awards made contingent on the behavior. But what makes the points or medallions valuable? Is solving the problem really important to the individual? And herein lies the one of the great dilemmas of gamification. The points, awards, etc. are often assumed to be reinforcing in and of themselves. Or, perhaps they are linked to prizes or to avoiding penalties. But are these really meaningful to the person? And if they are, do they derive their meaning from outside the activity being reinforced? Such consequences have been described by Skinner as “spurious,” and by Goldiamond as “program-extrinsic.” The identification and programming of “program-intrinsic,” activity-specific consequences, as contrasted with program-extrinsic, spurious consequences, will be the focus of the breakout. This session will allow participants to design those practices that help learners find the fun in math (and other topics), rather than design practices that simply make math fun.

Anyone interested in gaming and reinforcement.

--Define "program."

--Distinguish between program intrinsic and program extrinsic consequences.

--State how potentiating program intrinsic consequences differ from potentiating program extrinsic consequences.

--Describe under what conditions knowledge of correct responding can act as a reinforcer.