Abstract
A variable affecting the success of staff training programs conducted by behavior analysts is trainee acceptance of the training. This study constituted a large-scale evaluation of staff acceptance of behavioral training workshops. Over a 10-year period, 646 human service staff who participated in 132 workshops were questioned regarding the best and worst thing about the workshops. The most common staff comments concerning the best thing pertained to the training content, followed closely by trainer style and then trainee activities. There were far fewer comments regarding the worst thing, with most involving aspects of the physical environment in which training occurred. Implications of the results for practitioners are offered in terms of conducting workshop training in accordance with trainees’ reported preferences. Emphasis is placed on ensuring training content is specific in nature as well as new and relevant for the trainees’ work situation, providing frequent demonstrations and examples, and structuring repeated opportunities for active trainee responding.
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This study did not include any experimental procedures with human participants. It drew instead on anonymous archival records obtained during the routine course of public agency practices. Therefore, Institutional Review Board oversight and conventions of informed consent do not apply.
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Appendix
Appendix
The following information was added to selected subcategories to facilitate subcategorization of trainee comments. Each subcategory with additional information is listed followed immediately by the category within which the subcategory was recorded (in parentheses).
Additional Information for Subcategories of Comments in Response to the Question “What was the Best Thing About the Training?”
Specific information acquired (content): a comment that specified a particular piece of knowledge or skill (e.g., “how to do a task analysis”, “how negative reinforcement affects problem behavior”).
General information (content): a comment about what was presented with no specificity (e.g., “the information the trainers presented”).
Instructors (trainer style): a comment only listed “instructors” or “trainers” with no other descriptor.
Nonspecific praise for presentation (trainer style): an approval statement about the presentation with no other specificity (e.g., “good presentation”, “well presented”).
Nonspecific interactions (trainee activities): a comment referred just to “interactions” with no other descriptor.
Scenarios (trainee activities): scenarios referred to detailed descriptions of situations an instructor had experienced that were incorporated into trainee role plays or paper/pencil activities (e.g., trainees were directed to identify likely reinforcers for problem behavior on written descriptions of past events).
General praise (miscellaneous): an approval comment that was not specific to any other category (e.g., “it was good”).
Prizes (miscellaneous): a comment referred to an item provided to trainees at the end of some of the workshops (e.g., a button with a slogan relevant to the content of the training, a pen with a slogan).
Additional Information for Subcategories of Comments in Response to the Question “What was the Worst Thing About the Training?”
Accessibility (physical environment): a disapproval comment about getting to the training site (e.g., “the drive to get here was too long”, “directions to the center were not clear”).
Location (physical environment): a disapproval comment about the training site that did not include information about accessibility (e.g., “the room was too noisy”).
Everything or all was good or great (miscellaneous): Even though the comment was in response to what was “Worst” about the training, the comment indicated general approval for the overall training.
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Reid, D.H., Green, C.W., Parsons, M.B. et al. The Best and Worst Things Staff Report About Behavioral Training Workshops: a Large-Scale Evaluation. Behav Analysis Practice 12, 523–535 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-018-00297-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-018-00297-3