Theoretical Framework Science & Values

1. Theoretical FrameworkScience & Values Chris Borgmeier, PhD Portland State University

2. Questions • How should special educators make decisions about choosing practices to support student needs? • Why are research, theoretical frameworks and data each important for guiding decision making and choosing professional practices in special education? • How does research inform practice? • How do I identify research based practices when I need interventions for a student challenge?

3. Research Based Theoretical Framework • What if there isn’t really a research-based curriculum or intervention for the individual needs of my student? • No random control trials; no group research • Look to single case research • Application of Research Based Principles • Grounding in a sound theoretical framework

4. Learning TheoriesBehaviorist & Constructivist

5. Constructivism as a Learning Theory • “Discovery Learning” or “Experiential Learning” - learning involves constructing one's own knowledge from one's own experiences • Promotes a student's free exploration within a given framework or structure • Teacher acts as a facilitator who encourages students to discover principles for themselves and to construct knowledge by working to solve realistic problems.

6. Constructivism: What the researchers say • Based on the results of their research, these authors do not support the idea of allowing novices to interact with constructivist learning environments contexts • Paas, 1992; Moreno & Mayer, 1999; Mousavi, Low, & Sweller, 1995; Chandler and Sweller, 1992; Sweller & Cooper, 1985; Cooper & Sweller, 1987 • Ill-structured learning environments rely on the learner to discover problem solutions. Novices should be taught with "well-structured" learning environments. • Jonassen, 1997

7. Constructivism: What the researchers say • After a half century of advocacy associated with instruction using minimal guidance, there appears no body of research supporting the technique. In so far as there is any evidence from controlled studies, it almost uniformly supports direct, strong instructional guidance rather constructivist-based minimal guidance during the instruction of novice to intermediate learners. Even for students with considerable prior knowledge, strong guidance while learning is most often found to be equally effective as unguided approaches. Not only is unguided instruction normally less effective; there is also evidence that it may have negative results when student acquire misconceptions or incomplete or disorganized knowledge” • Kirschner, P.A., Sweller, J. & Clark, R.E. (2006). Why minimal guidance during instruction does not work: An analysis of the failure of constructivist, discovery, problem-based, experiential, and inquiry based teaching. Educational Psychologist, 41, 75-86.a

8. Behavioral or Learning Theory Assumptions of Behavioral Theory • Behavior is Learned • Focus on the observable and measurable • Behavior is related to the environment in which it occurs • Behavior serves a purpose • Focus on how environmental variables can be manipulated to effect changes in behavior & learning • Measure student outcomes & learning • Educational approaches that have emerged from behaviorism include: • applied behavior analysis • Functional assessment • curriculum based measurement and progress monitoring, and • Direct instruction have emerged from this model • Discrete Trial Training • Modeling, shaping, fading, reinforcement, contract, extinction, etc.

9. Behaviorism Conceptual Foundations Laws of Behavior ABA Applied Behavioral Technology Effective Instruction PBS RTI & SW-PBIS Social Validity All Students

10. Foundations of Behavior

11. Behavior • Identify the Target Behavior • Desired Behavior or Non-desired Behavior • Behavior must be identified so that it is observable & measurable • Define the behavior so that someone else could go into the room and both of you could measure the behavior without question

12. Operational Definition Behavioral Definition: Observable & Measurable definition

13. Operational Definition Hands, Feet and Objects to Self: Student does not touch other students with their hands, feet or objects, with intent to hurt, bother or get peers attention at inappropriate times

14. ABC’s of Understanding BehaviorOperant Conditioning • What happens before (A or antecedent) the behavior occurs? • Trigger • What is the behavior (B)? • What happens after (C or consequence) the behavior occurs? • Response or Outcome of the Behavior A  B  C

15. AntecedentsWhat triggers the behavior? • What happens immediately preceding the problem/target behavior? • What triggers the behavior, be specific... • What activity? • What peers? • What tasks? • Describe in detail • If you wanted to set up the student to engage in the problem behavior, what would you have do?

16. Consequence What is the response to the behavior? • What happens immediately following the behavior? • How do peers respond? • How do the adults respond? • What are the consequences for the student? • How many times out of 10 do each of these responses occur following the problem behavior? • What is the student gaining as a result of engaging in the behavior? • How is it paying off for the student?

17. Learning A  B  C Student Learns through repeated experience, that under these specific Antecedent conditions, if I engage in this Behavior, I can expect this Consequence

18. Learning & ABC

19. Reinforcing Consequence AB C If the consequence is rewarding/desired, the subject learns the behavior is functional for getting what they want Behavior Increases in the Future Rewarding or Desired Consequence

20. Punishing Consequence A  B  C If the consequence is punishing/undesired, the subject learns the behavior is not functional for getting what they want Behavior Decreases in the Future Punishing or Undesired Consequence

21. ABC’s of InstructionAcross the Continuum of Learners DIFFERENCES across Continuum - # of trials to mastery - explicitness of instruction

22. Reinforcing Consequence AB C If the consequence is rewarding/desired, the subject learns the behavior is functional for getting what they want Behavior Increases in the Future Rewarding or Desired Consequence

23. A-B-C A-B-C

24. A-B-C A-B-C

25. Instruction & Support A-B-C A-B-C Student Independence

26. Phases of Learning/TeachingAlberto & Troutman, 2009 • Acquisition – student’s ability to perform a newly learned skill/response to some criterion of accuracy • Fluency– describe the rate at which students accurately perform a response; learner begins to build speed & efficiency in use of the skill or knowledge (but may not remember skill/knowledge over time without prompting) • Maintenance– student is able to recall & use the skill/ knowledge with a high rate of accuracy over more extended spans of time with limited review • Generalization– student generalizes skill or knowledge to novel contexts and as prior knowledge for learning new information

27. Acquisition Phase • Acquisition – student’s ability to perform a newly learned skill/response to some criterion of accuracy • Strong use of reinforcers • Regular prompting & error correction • Modeling & Guided practice • Model-Lead-Test/Model-Prompt-Check/I do-We do-You do • Important to have critical background knowledge & prerequisite skills A-B-C

28. Fluency • Following skill acquisition -- focus on improving the RATE at which the learner performs the behavior • What is an appropriate rate required for functional performance? • Reading, bus money, small talk, etc. • Teaching Strategies • Frequent structured practice • Fading to intermittent reinforcement A-B-C

29. Maintenance • Once learners can perform a skill fluently, it is important to maintain the skill over time • What • Teaching Strategies • Make sure you are teaching functional/useful skills • Student access to natural reinforcers • Over-learning • Delayed reinforcement A-B-C

30. Generalization • Learners can use skill across settings other than the initial instructional conditions • Train for generalization v. Train & Hope • Teaching Strategies • Vary training across (Antecedent stimuli): • Settings • People • Signals/Prompt types • Teach the universe of examples • Intermittent reinforcement w/ link to natural reinforcers (Consequences) • Reinforce occurrences of generalization • Reinforce response across settings A-B-C

31. Reinforcement Continuum & Phases of Teaching Stages of Learning/Teaching Acquisition Fluency  Maintenance Continuous Intermittent…………fading… Rates of Review & Reinforcement Continuous – provide reinforcement/corrective feedback on every occurrence of behavior – reinforcement may be tangible paired w/ verbal praise Intermittent – fade tangible, continue w/ intermittent verbal praise Can usually anticipate that academic success or social benefits will continue to maintain desired behavior. A-B-C

32. Instruction & Support A-B-C A-B-C Acquisition Fluency Maintenance Generalization Student Independence