Education Is a Public Health Problem: How Behavior Analysis Can Help

“I think having 50 million students as a target for impact is by definition a socially important setting.”

Ronnie Detrich, PhD

Abstract

We all know that our education is one of the most important aspects of our lives. We are sometimes told that failing to succeed in school will lead to difficulties in life later on. However, we rarely are shown the relation between rates of high school graduation with obesity, smoking, and incarceration rates. We are also not told how important the first years of schooling are and that at some point it would be unlikely to catch-up in skills like reading. A part of the problem is the fact that teachers are not being trained to meet certain competencies to be effective teachers. Behavior analysis could alleviate this with our ability to produce robust improvements in behavior as well as effective instructional methods.   

Learning Objectives

What you’ll learn in the course and be able to do afterward

1. Describe the socially significant important outcomes related to health and incarceration related to the level of education and how the public health model for prevention can be applied to education. 
2. Identify how behavior analysis is currently being applied in public education 

Partnership

This course is delivered through Florida Tech. Clicking "Enroll Now" will take you to Florida Tech’s website where you can Add to Cart, Checkout, and complete the course. Come back to our website for podcasts, blogs, courses, and content.