This study examined Tinto's (1975) model of student attrition, which suggests that student's dropout decisions are social and academic worlds. The model was tested with path analysis using LISREL8 software (Jöreskog & Sörbom, 1993a) using maximum likelihood estimation. Findings were that the model does not provide an acceptable description of the data. The ndings were based on a global test of the model as a whole, as well as tests of individual paths within the model. Prior investigations into the model have been largely supportive, and reasons are considered for the disparity between previous and current ndings. It is suggested that Tinto's perspective may not be the most appropriate for attrition research. Instead it is contended that interactionist and ethnographic approaches may result in a more appropriate theoretical framework.
Background Staff with varying backgrounds and educational qualifications can be effectively trained to implement procedures in line with evidence‐based practice. Behavioural skills training (BST) is a competency‐based training model used to effectively educate a broad selection of professionals, including front line staff, in a range of work‐related skills. However, BST has yet to be evaluated in a large group‐based experiment. Methods This study involved a parallel cluster randomised control trial. Six service sites, with a total of 54 participants, were randomised to the intervention condition using the ‘coin toss’ method. The intervention condition used BST to coach intellectual disability staff in reinforcement, systematic prompting, functional communication training and task analysis. Six service sites, with a total of 50 participants, were also randomised to a control condition in which generalised training in behavioural interventions was restricted. Recruited service sites were randomly assigned to the intervention condition (N = 6, n = 54) or the control condition (N = 6, n = 50) at one point in time, immediately after recruitment and before baseline testing took place. Allocations were stratified by service type (residential or day) and geographical region. One member of the research team allocated service sites using the ‘coin toss’ method, and another member, blind to the allocations, decided which experimental arm would receive the intervention and which would be designated as control. It was not possible to mask the intervention from participants, but they were recruited prior to randomisation. Results Participants in the intervention condition demonstrated statistically significant improvements in their knowledge scores over the study period. Participants in the control condition showed no change or a statistically significant decrease in their knowledge scores. No statistically significant changes to well‐being were observed for either group. There was clear evidence of knowledge maintenance, as well as skill acquisition and subsequent generalisation to the workplace environment, among participants in the intervention condition. Participants also evaluated the BST intervention positively. Conclusions Results support BST as a method for disseminating evidence‐based practice to front line staff working with adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
We evaluated the effects of systematic prompting plus reinforcement on listeners' independent responses to peer mands and on speakers' peer-directed mands using the picture exchange communication system (PECS) in two studies. In Study 1, three PECS users with a diagnosis of autism were trained to direct PECS exchanges toward peers, whereas in Study 2, three peers with autism were taught to accept a PECS card, select the requested item from an array of three items, and place it in front of their peer. Study 1 showed an increase in peer PECS mands that generalized to novel trained peers for all participants. Results of Study 2 demonstrated an increase in correct independent responses to PECS exchange for all participants, a response that readily generalized across peers and settings for two out of three participants. These results suggest that this intervention protocol may be an effective way to increase interactions between peers with autism.
Verbally competent volunteers, 6 male and 6 female, served as participants. They were exposed to two experimental procedures. Initially two nonsense syllables (A2 and C1) were paired with positive adjectives and two nonsense syllables (A 1 and C2) were paired with negative adjectives, using a procedure analogous to classical conditioning. Following this they were exposed to a stimulus equivalence training procedure. They were taught to match three nonsense syllables A 1, A2, and A3 to three novel nonsense syllables 81, 82, and 83 respectively, and subsequently to match 81, 82, and 83 to three new nonsense syllables C1, C2, and C3. Testing revealed that the equivalence class involving entirely neutral stimuli (A3, 83, and C3) emerged for most participants but that the classes involving A and C stimuli that had acquired opposite meanings from the first procedure did not emerge.A new direction for the study of the equivalence phenomenon has emerged because of the failures on the task by language-competent adults that appear to be caused by prior learning. Watt, Keenan, Barnes, and Cairns (1991) demonstrated that an individual's social history can interfere with equivalence responding. Their study was set in the context of Northern Ireland's (NI) political situation. This situation gives rise to two distinct social identities, Catholics and Protestants. Both groups identify and categorize "their own" and "others" using a wide variety of cues, for example, a person's name, or the community they live in (Cairns, 1980). Watt et al. used procedures developed in the study of stimulus equivalence to examine the relations that exist between stimuli and responses within this social context. Six NI Protestant participants and twelve NI Catholic participants served as the experimental group and five English students served as the control group. Participants were trained to relate three Catholic names to three nonsense syllables and then to relate the nonsense syllables to three Protestant symbols, for example: "Brendan Doherty" > "Zid" and then "Zid" > "Lambeg Drum."PartiCipants were then tested to determine whether the Protestant Reprint requests should be sent to Maeve Bracken, Department of Applied Social Studies, University of Paisley, High St. , Paisley PA 1 2BE. Scotland.
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