Applying Pragmatism to Improve Student Progress - Group

This event will discuss the forgotten client- our students and supervisees. As instructors (either in University or clinical settings) we tend to forget that our students’ progress is a direct result of the contingencies we design to help them acquire the skills they need to be successful. While we are quick to be optimistic and analytic for our identified service recipients, the field tends to gravitate towards mentalism and dogmatism when it comes to supervisees that are not responding to our instructional program. This event reminds BCBAs how to use the science of human behavior- pragmatism, empiricism, contingency management- to create behavior change systems that work for each and every student/supervisee and to troubleshoot ineffective they progress.

1. Attendees will discriminate between mentalistic and radical behavioral explanations of lack of student progress.
2. Attendees will identify examples and nonexamples of pragmatic approaches to behavior analytic instruction.
3. Attendees will be able to evaluate students’ progress, analyze causes of performance deficits, and recommend solutions for individuals that are not acquiring new skills at an appropriate rate.
4. Attendees will be able to state the advantages of using learner efficiency as a pragmatic measure of student skill acquisition.