Curriculum-based Evaluation of Cultural Competency Coursework in an Online Applied Behavior Analysis Graduate Program

Culture affects the practice of applied behavior analysis in many ways. An individual's family culture or a community's culture often influences what behaviors are considered appropriate or inappropriate. Practitioners of applied behavior analysis need to adjust service delivery to accommodate the unique language and cultural needs of each of our clients to deliver behavior-change interventions that are likely to be accepted and adhered to after the behavior analyst is not present. It is important that this focus starts while practitioners are developing their own practice behaviors, as early as when they are students. This study explores a method for evaluating the effectiveness of cultural competence coursework using embedded assignment questions based on complex case examples. A quasi-experimental design was used to evaluate the effects of cultural competence coursework on increasing student knowledge of how culture can affect human behavior. In a course on functional behavior assessment, responses to specific scenarios, including cultural and disparity concerns, were provided to students. The responses of the students who completed a cultural competence course prior to taking the FBA course were analyzed and compared to those students who had not yet taken the cultural competence course. Results showed that students who had previously completed the cultural competency course were more likely to identify cultural variables only after completing a subject-specific training module in the FBA course.