Association for Behavior Analysis International

A new approach to documenting the intellectual skills and repertoires of professionals is emerging in several fields of study, including education, medicine, and information technology. The technology is called micro-credentialing. A micro-credential is an award, based on a short, verifiable presentation that demonstrates that a scientist-practitioner has mastered a specific skill in a content area. An individual with a micro-credential can demonstrate competent, mastery-level performance of its corresponding skill— on demand. Three presenters will describe a micro-credentials process for documenting the intellectual skills of behavior analysts. First, Kent Johnson will present a behavior-analytic view of micro-credentials, and describe some “best practices” in instructional design that one could incorporate when building a micro-credential learning program. Next, Andrew Bulla will present examples of micro-credentials for behavior analysts from both the experimental- and applied-behavior analytic domains. Finally, Jennifer Ninci and Marija Colic will describe a micro-credential program to document a behavior analyst’s fieldwork supervision skills. Establishing skill-based credentials across the field of behavior analysis would provide additional reassurances about the skills of potential employees or supervisors and may provide a data-based way for individuals to demonstrate specific expertise in an area.

introductory instruction level

I will describe a behavior analytic view of the concept, micro-credential. I will focus on micro-credentials relevant to intellectual skills and repertoires—skills related to “doing” vs. recitation or “saying” repertoires. Intellectual skills require teaching for generative responding. The learner must go beyond what has been taught and demonstrate mastery of responding in new situations, those never seen before. I’ll give examples of some intellectual skills of behavior analysts engaged in basic and applied research, theoretical and conceptual work, and service delivery. I will focus upon micro-credentials relevant to applying principles and procedures in the situations that a behavior analyst encounters in their work each day, whenever a situation requires their application. Then I’ll use the context of intellectual skill development to describe some “best practices” in instructional design that one could incorporate in a micro-credential learning program, including component-composite analysis, task analysis, defining antecedent conditions that should control responding, and mastery of underlying concepts and pre-requisite component skills. Finally, I will relate my discussion of intellectual skills to a new analysis of generalization, breaking it into two kinds of active processes—simple and complex generative responding.

Several service-delivery fields have begun using micro-credentials and similar badge systems to verify and document an individual’s ability to engage in specific skills and repertoires necessary for their success in their professional role. The Association for Behavior Analysis International has recently rolled out a new initiative to establish micro-credentials in the field of behavior analysis across all domains of the science (e.g., basic investigations, applied techniques and procedures, etc.). The current presentation will build on the prior presentation and give examples of how one can construct rubrics for evaluating behavioral performances demonstrating competent performance for common behavior-analytic techniques. I have selected examples of how we can create rubrics for specific repertoires in both basic and applied areas of behavior analysis, with an emphasis on the learners actually engaging in the necessary behavior and submitting a permanent product of their performance for evaluation. I will also demonstrate sample videos of learners and how we can use the rubrics to evaluate their performances to see if they meet the criteria to issue a badge for the micro-credential.