Top 10 Responses to the Commentaries on Dixon, Reed, Smith et al. (2015)

Exploring the validity of university-based practicum tailored to develop expertise in addressing challenging behavior

In theory, the principles, processes, and concepts of applied behavior analysis are universally applicable. In practice, clinicians commit their lives to serving specific populations in specific settings for which specialization is needed. The purpose of this 6-year retrospective consecutive case series was to describe and evaluate the quality and validity of a practicum experience tailored to develop specialized expertise in the assessment and treatment of challenging behavior for pre-service practitioners enrolled in a department of a special education program.

Experimental Analysis of Behavior Readings Assigned by Accredited Master's Degree Programs in Behavior Analysis

Although a foundation in the basic science of behavior represents a common goal of practitioners and educators of behavior analysis, the content covered in master's degree-level courses on the experimental analysis of behavior (EAB) can vary widely across university programs. The purpose of our study was to analyze the syllabi of master's degree programs accredited by the Association for Behavior Analysis International to develop a list of common readings and topics in EAB coursework that might be useful for curricular development. We identified the most frequently cited references, journals, and participant characteristics. We found commonalities among the syllabi with regard to the types of readings assigned and the topics covered. We discussed our findings in terms of current trends in EAB and quality graduate training in behavior analysis.

Casting a Wider Net: an Analysis of Scholarly Contributions of Behavior Analysis Graduate Program Faculty

As interest in careers in behavior analysis has grown, there has been a concomitant increase in the number of training programs providing coursework in behavior analysis. There is a growing need for indices of quality of these programs, with some authors recently suggesting that faculty research productivity might serve as one indicator of program quality. We continue this conversation, taking a broad view of faculty scholarly contributions by conducting a search of all articles authored by instructors in graduate-level Behavior Analyst Certification Board verified course sequences (VCSs) and published from 2000 to 2015 in peer-reviewed journals indexed by the PsycINFO database. The resulting list includes 8,906 publication records in 715 journals, authored by 1,232 instructors from 224 programs. Our analysis suggests that graduate-level VCS instructors have published in a broad array of journals and topic areas. We discuss implications of these data for prospective students' evaluations of program quality and fit.