Teaching Behavior Analysts to Address Unethical Behavior: Developing Evidence-Based Ethics Instructional Methods

The authors built a short ethics module for graduate ABA students. It blended behavioral skills training with light gamification.

Students first heard a brief lecture on the ethics code. Next they watched a model confront a supervisor who faked data. Then each learner role-played the confrontation while classmates scored points for spotting correct steps.

The course lasted one class period. A comparison group got the usual lecture-only ethics lesson.

Students who played the game-like role-plays later acted alone when they saw unethical behavior. The lecture-only students still waited for an adult to step in.

The authors call this “independent ethics responding.” The BST-plus-points package created more of it right away.

Bowman et al. (2023) and Harper et al. (2023) already showed that brief BST lifts graduate-student skills. Schreck adds cheap gamification and still gets a big gain.

Kirkpatrick et al. (2021) used plain BST to teach token-economy setup. Their students also hit high fidelity, but the lesson took longer and felt less fun. The new data hint that a quiz-game layer can cut training time without hurting mastery.

Cruz et al. (2023) trained BCBAs to supervise DTT. They used many meetings and no game. Schreck’s single-session success does not replace that deep training; it simply shows you can seed core confrontation skills fast and then build later.

You can copy this ethics warm-up in any university or staff meeting. One model, one role-play, and a five-minute point game give learners the muscle to speak up when they see code violations. Try it next time you teach ethics or onboard new RBTs.