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| Beyond Successive Approximations: Useful Shaping Strategies and Tactics to Improve Your Teaching |
| Friday, May 25, 2012 |
| 8:00 AM–3:00 PM |
| 305 (Convention Center) |
| Area: AUT/DDA; Domain: Service Delivery |
| CE Instructor: Jesus Rosales-Ruiz, Ph.D. |
| JESUS ROSALES-RUIZ (University of North Texas), MARY ELIZABETH HUNTER (University of North Texas) |
| Description: Shaping is a powerful tool for teaching new complex behaviors and producing engaged and confident students, but poor shaping can easily lead to learning plateaus and frustrated learners and teachers. Shaping is often described as an art and as a difficult skill to learn; however, shaping is an orderly and predictable process with rules. This workshop will teach several tactics and strategies for successful shaping and show different ways to engineer behavior (e.g., shaping, micro-shaping, and adduction). Participants will leave with a newly developed understanding of how to look at the shaping process beyond the general concept of successive approximations. Students will learn the rules regarding the mechanics of shaping, the requirements of a conditioned reinforcer, how to arrange the environment to facilitate shaping, what to reinforce, how to reinforce, how to shape movements and actions, and how to shape the stimulus control based on characteristics of the stimuli (e.g., touching red objects) or characteristics of the response (e.g., stacking objects). |
| Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this workshop, participants should be able to:
Deliver cues, conditioned reinforcers, and primary reinforcers efficiently
Deliver reinforcers in a way that facilitates shaping
Isolate movements through environmental arrangements
Establish stimulus control of behavior
Evaluate students' behavior to decide where to begin shaping
Teach complex behaviors and concepts from simple behaviors |
| Activities: The workshop will use video examples to illustrate key concepts about shaping. Participants will implement these concepts in interactive games designed to allow them to practice and master the strategies and tactics discussed. During the games participants will play the role of both teacher and student. Group discussions will be used to summarize and reflect on the experience gained by playing the games as a teacher and student. |
| Audience: This workshop is designed for anyone interested in the processes of shaping and learning or anyone interested in improving their teaching techniques. The concepts of the workshop can be applied to any population in any learning setting. |
| Content Area: Practice |
| Instruction Level: Intermediate |
| Keyword(s): Complex Behavior, Shaping, Stimulus control, Teaching |