Practice Makes Progress: Evaluating Ethics Instruction Using Competency-Based Assessments
Add mastery quizzes and brief role-plays to ethics lessons so staff actually use the 11-step decision model.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The authors built an ethics class around the BACB 11-step decision model.
Students first took short mastery quizzes on each step.
Then they practiced with peers while the coach gave live feedback.
The class met once a week for one semester.
No control group was used.
What they found
Study 1 showed no gain after lectures alone.
Study 2 added the quizzes and BST role-plays.
After that tweak most students hit mastery on role-play tests.
The gain was small but real.
The authors call the evidence preliminary.
How this fits with other research
Clay et al. (2021) used virtual reality BST and got big fidelity jumps for FCT.
Their tech shows ethics training could leave the classroom and still work.
Erath et al. (2020) ran a one-day BST workshop and reached mastery without quizzes.
Russett et al. needed quizzes plus rehearsal, so the quiz piece may matter when content is dense.
Davis et al. (2023) proved virtual BST works for adult professionals.
Together the picture is clear: practice with feedback beats talk, and online delivery is ready when you are.
Why it matters
Ethics errors can cost clients and licenses.
This paper gives you a plug-and-play recipe: break the model into chunks, require mastery on each quiz, then run short role-plays with praise and correction.
You can slide the sequence into a staff meeting, university course, or orientation.
Start small, track role-play fidelity, and add more steps as staff succeed.
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Split your next ethics inservice into 3-step chunks, give a 5-item quiz after each chunk, then run a 5-minute role-play with feedback.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
This pre/post-group design examined the efficacy of using competency-based assessments to teach students of behavior analysis to engage in ethical decision making. Students in the experimental group received feedback on identifying potential, ethical scenarios in quizzes and Behavior Skills Training (BST) on identifying all components of and developing potential action plans for the 11-step decision-making model (Behavior Analyst Certification Board, 2020) and for role plays that simulated meetings that people would encounter in practice to review concerns, gain additional information, and develop solutions-based plans with relevant parties. Students in the control group received treatment as usual. The findings were not statistically significant, and students only met criteria for role plays. The content was iterated, and Study 2 was developed. In Study 2, two students received feedback on the identification of examples and nonexamples of ethical dilemmas and behavior analyst’s best course of action in the situation and BST on identifying and creating actions plans of the decision-making model. Both students met criteria for mastery. Implications, based on this preliminary research, for evidence-based practice and future research are discussed.
Behavior Analysis in Practice, 2025 · doi:10.1007/s40617-024-00949-7