Reducing Electricity Use on Campus: The Use of Prompts, Feedback, and Goal Setting to Decrease Excessive Classroom Lighting

Ten Environmental Sustainability Initiatives for Implementation in Human-Service Organizations

Climate change is happening at an escalating rate. Every organization, including human-service organizations, needs to determine how their policies and practices positively and negatively affect the environment and enact a plan for reducing their negative impacts. There is no targeted guidance for leaders of human-service organizations, like applied behavior analysis organizations, to reduce their negative impact on the environment. This article provides 10 initiatives human service organizations can implement toward this goal.

Toward trauma-informed applications of behavior analysis

Despite a growing acknowledgement of the importance of understanding the impacts of trauma on therapeutic approaches across human service disciplines, discussions of trauma have been relatively infrequent in the behavior analytic literature. In this paper, we delineate some of the barriers to discussing and investigating trauma in applied behavior analysis (ABA) and describe how the core commitments of trauma-informed care could be applied to behavior analysis. We then provide some examples of how trauma-informed care might be incorporated into ABA practice. We conclude by suggesting opportunities to approach trauma as a viable avenue for behavior analytic research and argue that omitting trauma-informed care from ABA could be detrimental not only to the public perception of ABA, but to the effectiveness of our assessment and treatment procedures.

The Smart Classroom as a Means to the Development of ESD Methodologies

Educational institutions are envisioned as principal agents for addressing the current sustainability challenge that society is facing. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is transformational and concerns learning content and outcomes, pedagogy and the learning environment in itself. ESD entails rethinking the learning environment (physical and virtual) in line with sustainable development, which implies classrooms’ transformation towards learner engagement, formative assessments and active methodologies. This paper responds to this need through exploring the relationship between Smart Classrooms and four widely used ESD methodologies (project or problem-based learning, case study, simulation and cooperative inquiry), identifying how the dimensions and categories of the characteristics of Smart Classrooms can contribute and lead to the implementation of ESD methodologies in real teaching practice in an effective way. The method used in this study consisted of a literature review of both theoretical frameworks separately, ESD and Smart Classrooms, and a subsequent expert analysis to identify the interrelation between both. The Smart Classroom shows a high level of adequacy for using problem and project-based learning, case study and cooperative inquiry methods because of its characteristics in terms of technology developments, environmental conditions and processes. Simulation is the ESD methodology with the lowest level of adequacy in a Smart Classroom, because it is primarily held online rather than through face-to-face teaching. Smart Education facilitates the putting in practice of ESD processes as it enables the creation of intelligent, sustainable, resource-efficient, personalised and adaptive learning environments. Further empirical research is needed to explore the influence that the Smart Classroom has in enabling ESD processes and practices, and to identify students’ and teachers’ needs at different education levels. Additionally, teacher training programmes focused on the correct use of Smart Classrooms and on the digital competence of teachers are critical to its successful implementation.

Making a Footprint in Environmental Sustainability: A Behavioral Systems Approach to Engaging the Behavioral Community

Climate change is arguably the most pressing issue facing humanity today. There is significant research to support the argument that climate change is a human-created problem and it can only be addressed by changing human behavior. Despite the magnitude of the issue and the potential for behavior science to make a significant contribution, there are few behavior analysts/scientists currently working in climate change. One possible explanation is that there is limited access to preparation for and opportunities to apply our science to large-scale issues. In response, the Behaviorists for Social Responsibility Special Interest Group of the Association for Behavior Analysis International developed the Matrix Project as a way to apply Behavioral Systems Analysis to issues of social importance. By understanding the contingencies that hinder or promote working in a particular area we can begin to create the conditions that will facilitate such work. The purpose of this article is twofold: 1) to demonstrate how the Matrix Project may be used to increase the likelihood that behavior analysts/scientists will work in areas of social importance using environmental sustainability as an example, and 2) encourage behavior analysts/scientists to target and understand complex systems by providing examples of actionable steps that could be generalized to other important social issues.