Effects of Training in Functional Behavior Assessment

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of training special education teachers in the process of functional behavioral assessment (FBA) and subsequent development of recommendations to promote behavior change. An original evaluation instrument was developed that included measures of special education teachers' knowledge of function of problem behavior and their ability to generate recommendations to promote behavior change. The instrument was distributed to elementary, middle, and high school special education teachers in a large urban school district. Teachers trained by the school district in the FBA process were compared to untrained teachers. The study incorporated a post-test only design, with data analyzed using a factorial ANOVA. Those teachers who were trained in the district FBA program answered multiple-choice questions related to the function of problem behavior more accurately than those who did not receive training. There was no significant difference between trained and untrained teachers on their ability to make recommendations to promote behavior change. The results of this study have implications for the development of initial and sustained training efforts for teachers in functional behavioral assessment methods. (Contains 6 tables.)