Newsletter
Volume 31 | 2008 | Number 2
ABAI Accredited Programs at the Ohio State University
By Dr. Sheila A. Morgan
The ABAI accredited graduate programs in special education at The Ohio State University prepare leadership personnel for integrated research, teaching, and professional practice that will enhance special education services across diverse populations. These activities are guided by the philosophical, scientific, and technological principles of applied behavior analysis. The MA program emphasizes the development and implementation of behavioral interventions for improving socially significant behavior. A research thesis is required, and students can choose from a wide variety of school, residential, employment, and other settings in which to complete field experience requirements and conduct their thesis research. The Ph.D. program places major emphasis on helping doctoral students learn to conceptualize, plan, conduct, and disseminate applied research in special education under the close guidance and assistance of a faculty mentor. The course sequences in the MA and Ph.D. programs have been pre-approved by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board. Students who complete one of the graduate programs may qualify to take the BCBA examination.
MA Program
Most graduates of the MA program are employed by public schools, private schools, or community agencies to work as teachers, behavior analysts, or program supervisors providing educational or behavior analysis services to individuals with disabilities. Skills are developed through an intensive one-year full-time or two-year part-time curriculum of course work encompassing principles of behavior, single subject research design, application of interventions, legal and ethical issues, and teaching; supervised field experience; and a thesis with questions and methods based on a behavior-analytic approach to problems or issues. Students attend a thesis seminar presented by all ABA/special education faculty. These seminars provide students with guidance for designing and implementing single subject research and writing their thesis.
Ph.D. Program
Approximately 75% of Ph.D. program graduates are employed as faculty in special education college and university programs (throughout the U.S. and in several other countries) where they train teachers and conduct research. Other graduates of the doctoral program hold a variety of supervisory or administrative positions in local education agencies, state education agencies, and private agencies that provide educational, residential, vocational programs, or a combination of the three,for individuals with disabilities. Research and leadership skills are developed through an intensive, three-year full-time curriculum of formal course work and special topic seminars encompassing conceptual analysis, research and scholarship, design and application of educational interventions, professional communication, legal and ethical issues, and teaching; supervised experiences integrating research, college teaching, and professional practice; a variety of non-credit-earning requirements (e.g., co-advising thesis students, authoring manuscripts for publication); and a dissertation whose questions and methods are based on a behavior-analytic approach to problems or issues. Through their immersion in a rigorous, full-time program of studies, students interact with one another and with faculty mentors on a near-daily basis. This socialization in a behavior analytic community and culture is a key feature of the training program. Other key features include the following.
Strong Cohort
All doctoral students take the same sequence of courses during the intensive first year of the program. This fosters a strong cohort group, which has proven to be a major source of support for our students. Each student’s program of study and research becomes increasingly individualized during the second and third years, reflecting the particular area(s) of application in which the student wishes to develop special expertise.
Teleconference Seminar
Each autumn quarter, the work of prominent researchers in special education and applied behavior analysis is featured in a weekly teleconference seminar. Researchers at other universities serve as guest faculty and provide the seminar’s content. The teleconference seminar has proven to be one of the most intellectually challenging and exciting components of the curriculum, giving students and program faculty an opportunity to explore together current issues and research with the scholars who are producing the work.
Behaviorism Seminar Series
A series of seminars provides students with an understanding of behaviorism as the philosophy of the science of behavior and its implications for research and practice in special education. Students read, write summaries of, and discuss in detail the ideas of Skinner, whose work provides the seminars’ primary content and other authors who have critiqued, debated, and extended the discussion of behaviorism.
Thesis Co-advisement
Thesis co-advisement provides several benefits for the doctoral student: a direct, supervised practicum in advising graduate student research; two additional opportunities to help conceptualize, design, and conduct applied research; valuable practice in editing, writing, and providing advice and feedback to a university student; participation as a “guest examiner” in the student’s oral defense of the thesis; and co-authorship of any conference presentations and/or journal articles derived from the thesis.
Professional Writing Seminar
The program also includes a formal course covering strategies and tactics for writing and submitting papers to professional journals. The journal writing seminar is designed to remove the mystique and aura of complexity that surrounds the authoring/publishing process and to provide students with a basic strategy and a set of specific tactics for systematically planning, writing, and submitting scholarly work.
Admission Requirements
To be admitted to the MA program in ABA, students must have a bachelors degree in special education or a related discipline (e.g., psychology), a GPA of at least 3.0, and competitive GRE scores. To be considered for admission to the doctoral program an applicant must: hold a Master’s degree in special education or a closely related discipline (e.g., psychology), have professional experience serving the educational needs of individuals with disabilities, be willing to commit to an intensive three-year program of full-time study, and have the desire to obtain a leadership position in special education. Admission is also based on a minimum 3.0 from an accredited university, three letters of recommendation from persons competent to judge the applicant’s success in a doctoral program, GRE scores, program match (e.g., with respect to behavior analytic program focus), and an interview with faculty.