Sidman Goes to College: A Meta-Analysis of Equivalence-Based Instruction in Higher Education

Equivalence-based instruction (EBI) is a pedagogy based on the principles of stimulus equivalence for teaching academically relevant concepts. This self-paced and mastery-based methodology meets many of the instructional design standards suggested by Skinner (1968), adds generative learning by programming for derived stimulus-stimulus relations, and can be particularly useful in the context of a college course in which students must learn numerous concepts. In this article, we provide the first meta-analysis of EBI in higher education. The authors conducted a systematic literature search that identified 31 applied, college-level EBI experiments across 28 articles. Separate meta-analyses were conducted for single-subject and group design studies. Results showed that EBI is more effective than no instruction and an active control and that studies comparing EBI variants show differences between training variants. Future research should increase internal, external, and statistical conclusion validity to promote the mainstream use of EBI in classrooms.