I Love Data: Professor's Lectures Hit the Mark
Reprinted with permission of
Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services Magazine, Spring 2010
As the editor of the alumni magazine I often have stories and photos forwarded to me to consider for publication. Not long ago, these fun photos were sent. I knew there had to be a story behind them, so I contacted Dr. Tom Higbee of the Special Education and Rehabilitation Department. Here’s what he said:
“At the final exam study session this Fall, the students in my SPED 5010 Applied Behavior Analysis course presented me with an “I LOVE DATA” T-shirt. They also gave me a story detailing how they had demonstrated proficiency in the skills I had been teaching them this semester by taking data on my behavior over the course of the past few weeks. They requested that I wear the shirt to the final exam on Tuesday. I thought that was the end of it. When I came to the final, they all took their coats off and everyone was wearing the T-shirts. Pretty clever!”
Krystal Cook, the author of the delightful piece of literature on the right, explains how the story and the T-shirts came to be.
“Since Dr. Higbee is so fond of data, we tracked his water drinking behavior (he always brings a water bottle to class) and then used my little story to help present our data to him during a study group session.
I wasn’t originally planning on writing the story, but that night I had been studying for a long time and needed a break; so while a few of my classmates were putting together charts I got a bit creative. I basically tried to put in as many of the vocabulary words he taught us as possible, in a way I thought would be amusing.”
~Melanie R. Scott Stein
In the beginning, Dr. Higbee planned for generalization. And he organized data, and he saw that it was good. And he found classroom space, and said, “Let us plan our time to teach students of Operant Conditioning.”
And students came to learn to do as he did. And he explained that behavior is a function of its consequences. And he showed them how to take data and plan treatments, and he gave them orange flash cards, and they were grateful.
And Dr. Higbee positively reinforced the generalization of their graphing behavior, contingent on their accurate responses. And his students wrote a behavioral definition of hydration, stating: “Pouring liquid from a container into his oral cavity, and using the muscles in his esophagus to swallow aforementioned liquid.”
And so they calculated the time he talked, and the number of drinks he took. And they collaborated with IOA, and they saw that they were accurate. And they graphed their responses, and they said, “Let us go down to the front of the room, for there is space there to present our data to him, and that will give Dr. Higbee an Establishing Operation for giving us A’s.”
And he looked at their data, and he saw that it was good, and he complimented them on their generalization skills, and he was happy.
~Krystal Cook. Contributors Clarissa Barnhill, Lyndsay Nix, and Jessie Rosdahl
