Applied Behavior Analysis PhD

The Teaching as Applied Behavior Analysis Ph.D. incorporates an approach to teacher training in which all instruction used by teachers is based on scientific evidence and the use of scientific procedures to fit the appropriate science-based practices to individual students’ varied learning and language developmental needs.

Research is a central component of the training—both the applications of research using science based tactics and measurement, and the generation of new research. The focus of the MA program is in the application of scientific procedures in classrooms, while Ph.D. students engage in research throughout their program, building on their research training in the MA, culminating in a dissertation that identifies and investigates a topic related to our mission.

Dissertations must make contributions to both the applied and basic science. The faculty and the students generate a substantial body of research leading to publications and presentations at international scientific conferences each year and this is a key component of the Ph.D. training. Programmatic research is conducted in the following areas: effective classroom practices, language/verbal development interventions that result in children learning to learn in different ways, observational learning, and systems wide scientific approaches to education.

Students who already hold M.A. Degrees from other institutions must take the twelve M.A. core courses because the core prepares them with the means to be successful in completing milestone Ph.D. requirements. Ph.D. students also need to be dually certified in New York State for teaching children from birth to grade 6.