WITHIN SUBJECT DESIGNS IN THE EVALUATION OF EVIDENCE BASED PSYCHOEDUCATIONAL PRACTICES

ABSTRACT

In many countries evidence-based education (EBE) plays a central role in decision making regarding educational processes and procedures. In Brazil, EBE is still not widespread in Education, but given the gradual increase in publications and organizations related to this topic, and given its importance in the international educational scenario, it is hoped that this practice be more intensely discussed in the country, especially by professionals working in the intersection between Psychology and Education. Based on the decision making process of EBE, more specifically, on the need for a systematic evaluation of educational interventions, and having Behavior Analysis as theoretical and conceptual basis, this article has the goal of (a) presenting how the diagnostic and formative evaluations proposed by the Behavior Analysis are related to traditional ways of implementing the evaluations of psychoeducational practices and (b) demonstrating the importance of intra-subject designs as a way of evaluating and monitoring psychoeducational interventions in the quest for decisions that lead to EBE, having the published literature as its basis. The analysis made throughout this manuscript led to the conclusion that intra-subject designs can be used as evaluations in the educational practice as evidence producers.

Keywords:
Experimental methods; evaluation; psychopedagogy