Behavioral skills training to teach pre-service elementary general educators to conduct descriptive assessments

Abstract

A pretest-posttest control group design with switching replications was used to examine the effectiveness of a one-time, 75-minute behavioral skills training (BST) package. Fifty pre-service elementary general educators enrolled in a classroom management course were shown a video depicting challenging behaviors and were asked to collect antecedent-behavior-consequence (ABC) data. Using the data collected, participants from two instructional groups were asked to hypothesize the function of the problem behaviors. Results suggest a statistically significant increase in correct responses for both instructional groups from pretest to posttest following BST. A series of ANCOVAS suggested that, when controlling for initial pretest performance, BST significantly improved correct responding in posttest when compared to performance on the second pretest. However, participants did not reach an optimal level of performance following a one-time administration of BST. Practical implications for teacher education contexts, limitations, and future research directions are thoroughly addressed.

Keywords:

• Behavioral skills training
• descriptive assessments
• functional assessment
• general education teachers
• pre-service teachers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mark D. Samudre

Mark D. Samudre is an assistant professor of special education at the University of Kentucky and a board-certified behavior analyst. His research interests include teacher training in behavioral support implementation.

R. Allan Allday

R. Allan Allday is an associate professor of special education and a board-certified behavior analyst at the University of South Alabama. His research interests include changing teacher behaviors and the effects on student behavior.

Megan Jones

Megan Jones is an adjunct professor of special education at Western Kentucky University. Her research interests include improving transition outcomes for at-risk youth.

Amy Fisher

Amy Fisher is a postdoctoral scholar at the Schubert Center for Child Studies at the Case Western Reserve University. Her research interests include educational attainment gaps due to systemic school practices.