Transcript Research Based Principles What Practice Can’t Do Without

Research Based Principles
What Practice Can’t Do Without
Trina D. Spencer
ABA 2009
Best
Available
Evidence
research
based
principles
Professional
Judgment
experience
empirically
supported
interventions
Client Values
best
practices
Evidence
Based
Practice
Principles Provide Systematic Basis
for Professional Judgment
 Select interventions
 Create Individualized Interventions
 Adapt Interventions
Types of Principles
Basic Principles of Behavior
 Reinforcement
 Punishment
 Extinction
Types of Principles
Principles and Tactics of Intervention
 Shaping
 Chaining
 Prompting
 Differential reinforcement
 Experimental functional analysis
 Monitoring through direct measurement
 Operationalizing targets and procedures
Types of Principles
Discipline-Specific Principles
 Principles of Effective Instruction
 Providing immediate feedback
 Increasing number of opportunities to respond
 Principles of Reading Instruction
 NRP’s five recommendations for reading curricula
 Principles of Early Childhood Education
 Family involvement and choice
Practice
= what practitioners do
Interventions
Empirically-Supported
Interventions and Best
Practice methods tend to
address the intervention
as the level of practice.
Tactics
Methods
for identifying
research-based
principles and tactics do
Principles
Principles
not yet have a secure place within
the evidence-based practice context.
Strengths of Research-Based
Principles Approach
 Infinite number of interventions
 Conceptually systematic
 Avoid a “collection of tricks”
Strengths of Research-Based
Principles Approach
 Inform practice when research
evidence for interventions is sparse
 We can’t do nothing
 Connect the dots
Strengths of Research-Based
Principles Approach
 Adapt to local circumstances
 Practice dimensions vary across practitioners and
contexts
 Practitioners apply research findings and adapt to
their specific circumstance
 Principles provide a systematic way in which this is
done
Strengths of Research-Based
Principles Approach
 Increase sustainability of empirically-
supported interventions
 Understanding the principles behind the intervention
allows the practitioner to adjust
 Which features can be adjusted and maintain integrity of
intervention
 Being able to adjust can lead to sustained use of
effective interventions
 Klingner, Vaughn, Hughes, & Arguelles (1999)
 Baker, Gersten, Dimino, & Griffiths (2004)
Limitations of Research-Based
Principles Approach
 It requires a high level of skill
 Extensive didactic and applied training
 Scientist/Practitioner model
Limitations of Research-Based
Principles Approach
 Practitioner developed
interventions have not been
validated
 More steps to effective implementation
 More assumptions for making generalizations
 More room for error
Limitations of Research-Based
Principles Approach
 It is not sufficient for large scale
needs
 Can’t individualize for 500 students
 Need interventions
Research-Based Principles & EBP
 This approach is not widely
recognized
 Level of practice – principles & tactics
“Research-Based” Defined
 Used by several human service fields
including behavior analysts
 Often used as an umbrella term
 At least some research support
 Systematic review
 Meta analysis
 A few studies
 Not operationalized
Process of Identifying
Research-Based Principles
 “A principle describes a basic
behavior-environment relation that
has been demonstrated repeatedly in
hundreds, even thousands, of
experiments.”
 “A principle has thorough generality
across individual organisms, species,
settings, and behaviors.”
– Cooper, Heron, and Heward, 2007
Process of Identifying
Research-Based Tactics
 A “tactic is a research-based
technologically consistent method
for changing behavior that is
derived from one or more basic
principle.”
 A tactic has “sufficient generality
across subjects, settings, and/or
behaviors .”
– Cooper, Heron, and Heward, 2007
Process of Identifying ResearchBased Principles and Tactics
 Scientific Consensus
o Replication of consistent findings
o Peer reviewed journals
 Experts
o Text books
o Common practice
This process is not objective or explicit
Reasons for an Explicit Process
 Perceived credibility
 Align with other disciplines
 Organizes Knowledge
 Guidance to practitioners
 Inform applied research
Identifying Principles and Tactics
DECs Recommended Practices
• Professionals monitor child progress based on past
performance as the referent rather than on group
norms.
• Family members and professionals jointly develop
appropriate family-identified outcomes.
• Consequences for children’s behavior are structured
to increase the complexity and duration of
children’s play, engagement, appropriate behavior,
and learning by using differential reinforcement,
response shaping, high-probability procedures, and
correspondence training.
Identifying Principles and Tactics
 DEC’s Process
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Experience-Based Knowledge – Focus Groups
Research-Based Knowledge – Literature Reviews
Synthesized knowledge and developed practice
recommendations
Conducted field validation of practices
Produced and disseminated practice guides
Take Home Points
 Practice can’t do without principles
 Weaknesses should not be ignored
 Strengthen this approach by
developing an explicit process for
determining research-based
principles and tactics
 Combine this approach with
empirically-supported intervention
and best practice approaches