OBM in Educational and Human Service Settings cont.

by Beth Sulzer-Azaroff, Ph.D., BCBA
Professor Emeritus University of Massachusetts, Amherst

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Receiving Dense Reinforcement Contingent on Progress. Feedback can be reinforcing under particular circumstances, depending on the individual’s learning history. Not being privy to each associate’s learning history, effective supervisors and managers make no such presumption. Instead they see to it that reinforcement is forthcoming, at least intermittently, as a function of each person’s progress. Reinforcing value, of course, varies across individuals, depending on learning history and current conditions. In many cases, though, when tied to performance, individual attention, merited praise, treats, access to special events, symbols of accomplishment and so on assume that function.

In our BIA courses, we dispensed hefty portions of merited praise and individualized positive feedback. Additionally, our students earned certificates of achievement on completion of each course. (Shortly new enrollees will be able to earn academic and continuing education credits as well.) Once class groups had begun to cohere, input and comments by peers and instructors seemed to become increasingly reinforcing, as judged by the amount and quality of contributions to the discussion board.

Figure 2. A sample performance graph from a student project.

Summary
As an offshoot of ABA, OBM incorporates behavior analytic principles and practices within its operation. In return though, OBM has much to offer to managers of programs providing ABA-based services. Managers can play a powerful role in the successful operation of their programs by assuring that personnel are informed about and have mastered what they are supposed to, are provided with productive performance feedback in the form of evidence of their progress and supportive guidance, and that they receive meaningful reinforcement as their skills advance. Measures accruing from our BIA courses, including mastery rates, overt behavioral measures, course completion rates and other hard data, plus feedback we have received on satisfaction, support the validity of this assumption (Fleming, 2004; Sulzer-Azaroff, 2004; Fleming & Sulzer-Azaroff, 2005).

Figure 3. Course 4 Practicum Mid-Term Ratings Scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the most satisfied

References

Fleming, R. (2004, May). Teaching behavioral intervention in developmental disabilities
via distance learning: Challenges and solutions. Invited tutorial presented at the meeting at the 30th Annual Convention for the Association for Behavior Analysis. Boston, MA.

Fleming, R.K., & Sulzer-Azaroff, B. (2002, May). eABA: Designing a PSI-type curriculum in Autism education. 28th annual convention of the Association for Behavior Analysis International, Toronto, Ontario.

Fleming, R..K & Sulzer-Azaroff, B. (2005, January). Weaving the essential tapestry: OBM research to practice in training autism personnel on line. Paper presented at the 10th Organizational Behavior Management Conference, Sarasota, FL.

Keller, F. (1968). Goodbye teacher. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1, 79-90.

Sulzer-Azaroff, B. (2004, May). Saying is good; doing is better. Paper presented at the meetings of the Association for Behavior Analysis, International, Boston, MA.

Beth Sulzer-Azaroff, Ph.D., BCBA Professor Emeritus University of Massachusetts, Amherst	..
		Dr. Sulzer-Azaroff with her husband Leonid Azaroff