We used an adapted alternating treatments design to compare the effects of traditional and embedded discrete trial teaching (DTT) with adults with autism. Traditional DTT consisted of the instructor presenting a discriminative stimulus to start each trial ("Point to___"), implementing a prompt (i.e., manual guidance), and providing…

This brief addresses two evaluation questions: (1) What are the effects of supporting educators to intentionally intensify their practice on their overall implementation of targeted classroom practices (i.e., prompting, engaging, and praising)? and (2) What are the effects of educators intentionally intensifying their classroom practices on the…

"Emergent learning" refers to the unplanned and unexpected learning that can occur through student engagement with complex curricular tasks. In this article, we explore expanded conceptions and practices of assessment that recognise and promote emergent forms of learning. We begin our argument by drawing on complexity thinking to define…

Descriptive praise has been recommended widely as an important teaching tactic for children with autism, despite the absence of published supporting evidence. We compared the effects of descriptive and general praise on the acquisition and maintenance of intraverbal skills with 2 children with autism. The results showed slight advantages of…

Criteria for evaluating behavior support programs are changing. Consumer-based educational and behavioral programs, such as School-Wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS), are particularly influenced by consumer opinion. Unfortunately, the need for and use of social validity measures have not received adequate attention in the empirical literature…

This article describes the procedures and utility of the Benchmarks of Quality as part of a comprehensive evaluation plan to assess the universal level of implementation fidelity of behavior support for a school. However, results can also be examined to determine the level of implementation fidelity across a district or state for ongoing…

In 2008, the "Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions" ("JPBI") celebrated 10 years in publication. As the flagship journal of positive behavior support (PBS), it is important to periodically examine the research published in "JPBI" to determine whether it reflects the basic principles of PBS, to explore the ways in which PBS is being…

In this study, the authors examined the concurrent validity, predictive validity, and concurrent and predictive classification accuracy of using schoolwide behavior expectations as a universal behavioral screener. Three elementary schools implementing schoolwide positive behavior supports (SWPBS) participated. Within each school, the entire school…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop, illustrate, and apply the concept of choice architecture to schools. Design/methodology/approach: The analysis is a synthesis of concepts from the social science research that nudge people toward positive actions. Findings: A dozen concepts are identified, defined, and illustrated as a set of…

This group of commentaries on teaching human rights in Turkey includes: (1) Reflection on Turkish Human Rights Lesson from Turkey (Alper Kesten)--A lesson on human rights in Turkey is analyzed for its representativity and methodology within the Turkish teaching culture from the viewpoint of a Turkish researcher; (2) Commentary on a Turkish Lesson…

This paper reviews the evidence on sight word instruction as a method of teaching students with autism and significant cognitive and verbal limitations to read printed words. Nine single-subject studies were rated using Reichow et al.'s ("J Autism Dev Disord" 38:1311-1319, 2008) evaluative method for identifying evidence-based practice, and…

We evaluated the addition of stimuli after the praise statement of a trial (instructive feedback) in which the stimuli were not attached sequentially to the target stimuli. All students reached criterion level responding of target behaviors despite the extra information presented, and three of four high school students with disabilities acquired…

This article explores problems with the trend of business language making its way into schools and provides strategies for how to address this issue.

This paper presents a description of ongoing work of an Alberta school district that is working to support and enhance effective inclusive practices that reach and teach every student. The district is implementing a Pyramid of Supports model that is built upon four critical elements: a belief in social justice and the value of every child, a…

In this study, the authors evaluate the efficacy of videotape analysis with structured expert consultation and self-evaluation to improve teacher candidates' instructional delivery. A single-case, multiple-baseline, across-participants design was used to evaluate lesson components, rate of praise statements, and rate of opportunities to respond…