SPCE 691: Supervising Human Service Staff in ABA

You have several large assignments in SPCE 691.

This page of the guide provides general suggestions for doing research on a variety of topics in your field.  It's a good place to start so that you understand the tips mentioned later.

The Literature Review & SJDEI assignment requires you to find recent literature on your topic.  Visit this page for specific suggestions for the research you need to do:

• Literature Review & SJDEI

These two topics will come up in assignments later in the semester:

• Research on the effectiveness of personalized system of instruction
• Research on coaching and performance feedback for teaching a skill

These other topics may be useful, though, as well:

• Research on the effectiveness of instruction with PowerPoint
• Research on the social validity of training methods
• Research on the effectiveness of using modeling as a means of instruction
• Research on the effectiveness of roleplay as a means of teaching a skill

For starters, please remember that doing library research can take a long time.  Allow yourself a big chunk of time, so that you can find the resources you need.  And remember that some documents may need to be requested from other libraries (through Interlibrary Loan), which takes several days.

Additionally, bear in mind that research is an iterative process, requiring you to continually search, evaluate and revise.  As you search and read what you've found, you're able to improve your searches using terms and ideas you've found in your results.

If you've used APA PsycInfo and ERIC in the past, you'll notice that they have a new user interface.  Don't worry!  Most of the changes are intuitive, and there are some new features you'll love.

This brief video from EBSOhost (the database provider of APA PsycInfo and ERIC) highlights the use of the new interface.

When you're doing academic research, start on the Ball State University Libraries' homepage.  Then look for the Databases link.  Use the options under the "Subjects" drop-down menu to explore the available resources.

There are two principle research databases in the field of applied behavior analysis: ERIC (under the Education category) and APA PsycINFO (under the Psychology category).  Try both of them, but depending on your topic, you may find that one is more helpful than the other.

While you can use the same general search techniques in both databases, be alert for differences in terms used.

The words you use as your search terms have a big effect on the relevance of the results that you get.  So choose carefully!

• Start with terms used in the topic description.
• Then think of other ways you can describe that topic such as: 
  • direct synonyms (ex. teenagers, adolescents)
  • related terms (ex. mainstreaming, inclusion)
  • broader or more specific terms (ex. autism, developmental disorders)

• It may be helpful to consult:
  • a thesaurus,
  • class readings,
  • titles or description of articles you find in a database that look promising.  Subject headings are super-helpful!

Unlike Google and OneSearch, library research databases like ERIC and APA PsycInfo assign subject headings to each record, indicating the focus of the article.

When you're trying to come up with good terms to search on, the Subjects field is the place to look!

When searching in a database, put quotes around phrases of two or more words where it's important to keep the words together.  Then your words will be searched as a unit; it prevents the database from searching for the words individually.

So, when searching on a topic this can be important.  Here are some examples:

• "zero tolerance"
• "experimental function"
• "applied behavior analysis"

It's also helpful when searching for a title -- of a governmental act, an organization, an article, as shown here:

• "education for all handicapped children"
• "national autism center"
• "evidence-based practice in autism educational research: can we bridge the research and practice gap"

CHOP, DROP, and OR is a method for constructing your search on a topic.  You use it with a database's Advanced Search form (which has multiple search boxes).  While your topics may not always be complex enough to really need it, it's a technique that's really good to know about.

Here are links to CHOP, DROP, and OR tips:

• CHOP, DROP, and OR method...illustrated
• Constructing and revising database searches: An example