Evidence-Based Educational Methods

"Evidence-Based Educational Methods" answers the challenge of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 by promoting evidence-based educational methods designed to improve student learning. Behavioral scientists have been refining these instructional methods for decades before the current call for evidence-based education. Precision Teaching, Direct Instruction, Computerized Teaching, Personalized System of Instruction, and other unique applications of behavior analysis are all informed by the scientific principles of learning, have been tested in the laboratory, and are often shown to have significant success in field applications. This book details each of these approaches to education based on the principles of behavior analysis. Individuals and agencies responsible for instruction that leaves no child behind will find this compendium an important resource for meeting that challenge, and young educators will greatly benefit from this text, as they will see a blueprint of the evidence-based education systems being planned for the future. The education literature is replete with fly-by-night ideas and unresearched opinions about how to teach children. This book has none of that. The reader is given researched educational methods. In fact, some methods draw on 3 or 4 decades of experimental data. The whole book is cohesive, not just a patchwork of different educators' opinions. All of the chapters are built on basic scientific principles of behavior, and all of the methods can be used with one another. This is a book by scientist-practitioners, but not for scientists only. A parent can read many of these chapters, see the merit in the methods, and convey the need and the process for each of the methods. No book stands alone, but is connected to a greater literature base. The reader is shown where other information can be found about these methods. The only thing better than scientific data is scientific data supported by consumer testimonial.