Association for Behavior Analysis International

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.