SCOOP
Systematic Carousel Observation of Performance

SCOOP (Osnes and Stokes, 2001) is a system of assessing contingencies that are in effect in any given setting. The contingencies are analyzed to determine the functional relationship between various behaviors and their antecedents and consequences. It is a flexible instrument used across diverse settings and behaviors, both appropriate and inappropriate.

This is done through systematically coding the interactions within a group of people. SCOOP consists of 35 codes that measure 35 discrete behaviors. The primary setting is located at Croyden Avenue School; here it is not necessary to use all 35 codes. We use approximately 20 of those codes, such as, specific praise, general praise, affection, talk, instruction, compliance, non-compliance, follow-through. The complete coding system and will be included in Appendix A.

For example, when a teacher gives an instruction to a student, an observer codes the teacher's instruction as an �gI�h. When the student answers the question, an observer codes it as C; compliance to the instruction within 5 seconds. The SCOOP observation captures various aspects of interactions along the chronological sequence. This assessment tool will provide specific feedback to teachers, seminar facilitators, therapists, etc.

There are a few major advantages of this system. The first is its wide range of applicability. The observation can be conducted in any situation where interactions occur, i.e., in a classroom, business conference, home, or hospital. The second advantage is its cost efficiency. The cost of instruments is low because the observers do not need any instruments except very basic and available tools, such as a pen, a coding sheet, and a timer. The third one is that the main focus of SCOOP is not the topography (what topic a teacher talks about or how loud a teacher's voice is) of behavior, but the function of behavior (what behavior of a teacher follows or precedes what behavior of students). The SCOOP, of course, does not ignore the importance of topography of behavior, such as difference between specific praise and general praise, but the main focus is how often teachers' behaviors follow students' appropriate behaviors or inappropriate behaviors. Appropriate consequences provided by a teacher often play crucial part in increasing students' appropriate behaviors and decreasing inappropriate behaviors.

The SCOOP is applicable to discrete trial training. The observational system could capture all the interactions between therapists and children and could generate specific feedback to the therapists to improve the quality of the therapy. However, there are two major differences between a discrete trial therapy and a group activity situation, where the original version of SCOOP (Osnes and Stokes, 2001) was developed. The first difference is the students' behavioral repertoire including functional skills and disruptive behaviors. Some students in a group activity classroom may be verbally disruptive, while students in Discrete Trial Training may engage in self-stimulation. Some students in a group activity classroom may answer a complex question, while students in Discrete Trial Training may not answer any questions. The other difference is the teacher-students ratio. A Discrete Trial session involves only one-to-one interaction, while a typical elementary classroom involves a teacher's interactions with several students. The ideal frequency and ratio of certain type of behaviors, coded by SCOOP, are different depend on these environmental variables. Feedbacks according to the SCOOP observation should also be different.

The purpose of this manual is to provide a comprehensive manual of assessing discrete trial training, SCOOP-DT, including the definitions of codes involved in observation, the observation sheet, the configuration of the assessment, the ways to provide feedback, and examples of analysis. I appreciate the guidance and feedback by Dr. Pamela Osnes toward the development of the system.

SCOOP: Systematic Carousal Observation of performance. SCOOP is a system of assessing contingencies that cause behavior to occur. This is done through systematically coding the interactions within a group of people. The SCOOP system relies on over 35 codes that describe behaviors of both the student and instructor in a sequential format that is taken in-vivo at the target setting. For example, when a teacher gives a question to a student, an observer codes the teacher's question as Q. When the student answers the question, an observer codes it as a √. The SCOOP observation captures various aspects of interactions along the chronological sequence. This assessment tool will provide specific feedback to teachers, seminar facilitators, therapists, etc.