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A Tutorial for the Design and Use of Assessment-Based Instruction in Practice

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Abstract

Assessment-based instruction can increase the efficacy and efficiency of skill acquisition by using learner data to select an intervention procedure from a comparison of potential interventions. Although there are many published examples of assessments that guide the selection of skill-acquisition procedures, there are limited resources available to practitioners to guide the development of assessments for use in practice. This article describes a sequence of steps that Board Certified Behavior Analysts can follow to design and use assessment-based instruction in practice. These steps include (a) pick a topic to evaluate, (b) identify interventions to include in the assessment, (c) identify target behavior, (d) select an experimental design, (e) select a skill and targets, (f) equate noncritical procedures across conditions, (g) design templates for data collection, (h) conduct the assessment, and (i) use assessment results to guide practice. Included in these steps are examples and materials for how to conduct components of assessment-based instruction.

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Correspondence to Tiffany Kodak.

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Conflict of Interest

Tiffany Kodak received financial compensation for consulting with an organization on the use of assessment-based instruction in practice and an honorarium for presenting on the design and use of assessment-based instruction. The authors have no other potential conflicts of interest to report.

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No data on human participants or animals were included in this tutorial.

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Kodak, T., Halbur, M. A Tutorial for the Design and Use of Assessment-Based Instruction in Practice. Behav Analysis Practice 14, 166–180 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-020-00497-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-020-00497-w

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