The Apprentice: an Innovative Approach to Meet the Behavior Analysis Certification Board’s Supervision Standards

Abstract

The Behavior Analysis Certification Board continues to increase the standards for supervision of trainees, which is needed in order for the field to continually improve. However, this presents a challenge for organizations to meet the needs of both their clients and their supervisees based on these increasing standards. Throughout the ages, experts in all trades have passed along their knowledge and skill through apprenticeship opportunities. An apprenticeship supervision model is described that allows Board Certified Behavior Analysts to supervise future behavior analysts by mentoring, educating, and training supervisees on the science of human behavior in a format that is mutually beneficial. This innovative supervision model is discussed as it applies to an applied behavior analysis human service organization with the goal of creating a system that results in high-quality supervision in a cost-effective manner while providing maximal learning for the supervisee. The organization's previous supervision difficulties are described prior to implementing the apprenticeship supervision model, and the benefits of developing and using the apprenticeship supervision model are outlined.

Supervision for Certification in the Field of Applied Behaviour Analysis: Characteristics and Relationship with Job Satisfaction, Burnout, Work Demands, and Support

“…Sellers et al [34] offered an overview of the seven dimensions of the BACB ® professional and ethical compliance code [35] that relate to supervision, reflect on how the code serves as an antecedent for supervisor and supervisee behaviour, and provide a rationale for the need to reflect upon each element of the code. Hartley et al [36] described an apprenticeship supervision model that meets the needs of trainee BCBA ® while proving time and cost-effective for supervisors and organisations, while other researchers have described the evaluation of the supervisor’s effectiveness and sharing of training materials as key components of supervision [37].…”

Cultivating the Ethical Repertoires of Behavior Analysts: Prevention of Common Violations

“…Each of us agreed that across our careers, we commonly encountered concerns with adequate supervision. Hartley, Rosswourm, and LaMarca ( 2016 ) identified inconsistent learning opportunities for trainees as an area of concern for an organization. The organization has responsibilities to the trainee and to other stakeholders to provide appropriate supervision with systems in place to ensure consistency of supervision across supervisors and trainees.…”

Perceptions of Supervisors of Peer Support Workers (PSW) in Behavioral Health: Results from a National Survey

“…The Cognitive Apprenticeship Model shares the traditional apprenticeship's focus on learning complex tasks from experts, but further emphasizes cognitive skills of the teachers and learners, not as readily observable (Collins, 2006;Stalmeijer et al, 2013). The Apprenticeship Model of supervision has been applied in a variety of health disciplines such as certified behavioral analysis, music therapy, psychotherapy, and teacher education (Hartley et al, 2016;Feinstein et al, 2015;Donaldson, 2015). However, across the country, in the behavioral healthcare field, peer support workers (PSW) are being supervised by licensed professionals who have neither experienced nor provided peer support themselves, non-peer supervisors (NPS).…”