Abstract
Increasing diversity in the field of behavior analysis may begin with an evaluation of culturally responsive practices in the college classroom. This study leveraged the various backgrounds of students in a university nationally recognized for diversity to evaluate the effects of peer-generated course materials on student performance in an undergraduate behavior analysis course. First, graduate students created multimedia examples (videos, pictures) of the behavioral principles in their everyday lives. Next, we curated an online bank of these examples corresponding to 4 topics (respondent conditioning, reinforcement, antecedent control, extinction and punishment) taught in an undergraduate behavior analysis course. We used a multiple-probe and between-group design to evaluate the effects of these peer-generated materials as supplements to traditional instruction. Students showed evidence of concept acquisition on all topics. However, results showed that peer-generated examples, as supplements to textbook and lectures, did not enhance students’ performance on knowledge assessments but were rated by students as more preferred, culturally responsive, and diverse than textbook examples.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the California State University, Northridge, Master of Science in Applied Behavior Analysis students for their vast contributions to the completion of this study. We thank Emily Tierman, Jasmine Poetry, Elizabeth Hernandez, and Carissa Basile for their help with this study.
Funding
This research was supported in part by NIGMS BUILD (Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity) grants TL4GM118977 and RL5GM118975.
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Research Highlights
• Designing instruction for an increasingly diverse student body is of great relevance to the cultivation of diversity in the field of behavior analysis.
• Current technologies easily enable students to generate and share in-the-moment examples of the principles of behavior analysis in their everyday lives.
• Peer-generated content can supplement traditional college textbooks to increase the cultural responsiveness of teaching practices.
• Students performed similarly on tests of knowledge whether or not they had access to peer-generated examples as supplements to textbook chapters and lectures.
• Students rated peer-generated examples of behavioral concepts as more preferred, diverse, and culturally responsive compared to traditional textbook examples.
Appendices
Appendix A
Stylized button on Canvas site for “Antecedent Control” (Topic 3)
A collection of peer-generated examples, shared with permission by Uilani Elmer, Alejandra Chiu, Michael Aragon, and Neomi Garzon. Example of the behavioral jargon description of the top left example, above: I complained (highly aversive auditory stimulus) very much about the sun in my face one day until he stuck this piece of cardboard on the visor. Then my complaining suddenly stopped. Now when the sun is bright and I'm in the car, he sticks this up and avoids my complaining (negative reinforcement)
Example of the flowchart to accompany the topic “Extinction and Punishment” (Topic 4)
Cumulative Graphs of Each Participants’ Preference Assessment
Appendix B
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Nava, C.E., Fahmie, T.A., Jin, S. et al. Evaluating the Efficacy, Preference, and Cultural Responsiveness of Student-Generated Content in an Undergraduate Behavioral Course. Behav Analysis Practice 12, 747–757 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-019-00344-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-019-00344-7