Abstract
Although interdisciplinary teaming within a multi-tiered system of support is valuable, barriers to collaboration exist among professionals because of competing standards, lack of understanding roles, and lack of common language. These challenges may relate to how pre-service training is arranged. Training is usually provided in separate programs with little overlap in courses and field experiences. Interprofessional education (IPE) is a potential means of addressing the siloed approach. The goal of this chapter is to describe an IPE preparation program designed to develop scholars to meet the emotional and behavioral health needs of diverse students. Participating scholars complete a plan of study that includes shared coursework and courses that are unique to their field, participate in a weekly professional seminar, and take part in an interdisciplinary practicum experience. The authors also offer recommendations for university programs seeking to create interdisciplinary opportunities for pre-service professionals.
TopPersonnel Development Program
Given the value and potential positive outcomes of IPE, our team developed an interdisciplinary personnel preparation training project for school-based professionals to increase capacity to meet the behavioral needs of students. The project involved three disciplines at the graduate-level: applied behavior analysis, special education, and school psychology. In this section, we describe the development of the project, goals, activities, and evaluation methods.
Project Development
As described above, many professionals are involved in supporting students within an MTSS framework and special education, yet most professionals do not receive training in how to effectively collaborate across disciplines. Although members of our faculty team often participated on each other’s student research committees and students had opportunities to take coursework across the programs, our efforts were not specifically aimed to increase interdisciplinary practice and the students did not have shared practicum opportunities. Overall, we recognized that although we had an understanding and appreciation for related fields, this was not systematically communicated or demonstrated with our students. Therefore, we decided to create an IPE training program to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration and leadership skills to meet the diverse needs of students with behavioral concerns.
We identified the Personnel Development Grant funding opportunity through the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Programs and developed a team to write a proposal. Our team began preparing materials for the grant approximately a year in advance. In writing and implementing the grant, we identified project goals, competencies, activities, and evaluation procedures. Each is described below.
Project Goals and Aims
The long-term goal of the project was to increase the pool of trained behavioral interventionists who can effectively implement systemic behavioral interventions in school settings to improve behavioral and academic outcomes for children and adolescents with or at-risk for behavioral issues. Increasing the number of trained professionals is important to address the significant shortages in special education (AAEE, 2022; U.S. Department of Education, 2021), school psychology (Goforth et al., 2017; NASP, 2021), and behavior analysis (BACB, 2022).
The specific objective was to provide interdisciplinary leadership training for preservice providers in our applied behavior analysis master’s program, school psychology educational specialist program, and special education master’s program so that they may effectively implement systemic behavioral interventions in school settings. The primary aims were to: (a) establish an interdisciplinary training program focused on systemic behavioral intervention in school settings for youth with significant behavioral issues; (b) recruit and retain high quality masters level scholars in applied behavior analysis, school psychology, and special education to complete an interdisciplinary program focused on systemic behavioral intervention in school settings for youth with significant behavioral issues; and (c) train scholars to competence in evidence-based behavioral intervention and leadership skills needed for systemic implementation to address the multifaceted needs of children and adolescents with and at-risk for significant behavioral concerns.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Special Education Teacher: Provide specialized instruction through the use of accommodations and modifications to curriculum to meet the unique needs of the student outlined in their individualized education program.
Cultural Humility: A process of ongoing self-reflection to enhance partnerships.
Cultural Responsiveness: Using cultural characteristics, perspectives, and experiences to enhance intervention outcomes.
Interprofessional Education: Education that involves students from more than one discipline with the purpose to enhance knowledge of roles and increase skills to effectively collaborate.
Multi-Tiered System of Supports: A tiered approach to delivering evidence-based interventions to address unique needs of students as indicated through an ongoing data-based problem-solving approach.
Applied Behavior Analyst: An individual certified by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board who engages in a data driven process to examine the role of antecedents and consequences on behavior to inform development interventions to improve students’ outcomes.
School Psychologist: Provide comprehensive evaluation, consultation to support teachers and related providers in developing and delivering interventions, direct services to students to support their success, and progress monitoring of services and supports.