Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2869-7973

Date Available

4-16-2019

Year of Publication

2019

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

College

Education

Department/School/Program

Early Childhood, Special Education, and Rehabilitation Counseling

First Advisor

Dr. R. Allan Allday

Abstract

Functional behavior assessment is a process that should involve all individuals that work closely with a student who is engaging in problematic behavior that impacts their own or others’ learning. General educators are typically involved in this process through indirect or descriptive assessments, such as collecting antecedent-behavior-consequence data (ABC). However, there are many factors that can impact a general educator’s ability to collect accurate ABC data. Inaccurate data can misinform appropriate responses and interventions for challenging behaviors made by a student’s decision-making team, such as an Individual Education Program (IEP) team. Therefore, it is critical that researchers empirically evaluate training interventions that can be used to provide instruction on this skill. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of behavioral skills training (BST), with video vignettes used for modeling and rehearsal, to train pre-service general educators how to collect accurate antecedent-behavior-consequence (ABC) data using a structured recording format via a single-case research design. This study also sought to program and assess generalization of the skill to a narrative format. This format is typically used in schools but often yields less reliable and more subjective data. Lastly, four administrations of a pre- and posttest were used to assess incidental learning of non-target information provided via instructive feedback. Results indicate BST was effective for training pre-service general educators to collect ABC data using a structured recording format. Participants were able to generalize the skill to a narrative recording format. Performance on non-target information posttests were variable across participants. These findings extend the literature on BST and highlight a way for researchers to facilitate generalization within the context of an experimental design.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2019.054

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