We rely on data and evidence for effective mastery of skills to place the emphasis where it belongs - on “learning”. In the end, it is not about what we teach, but rather, what is learned.

Our passion is to help you make a difference on climate change. We synthesize the latest behavioral science demonstrated to change behavior impacting the environment, and translate the lessons learned to help you make a climate difference. Our approach is interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and collaborative. Our online learning platform builds upon twenty years of experience designing effective courses. Our experience with online education, behavior change, outreach campaigns, policy, and local, national, and global conservation means we know what works. Our background ranges from grassroots campaigns to international policies, and from sustainable development to natural resource management of land, freshwater, and oceans.  

The CBC/BDS Difference: The Center for Behavior and Climate builds upon the long educational experience of BDS for efficient learning outcomes, specifically for mastering, retaining, and generalizing skills. We engage students in learning exercises, with questions equipped with instructional content, real-time corrective feedback, and references. 

The Fluency Model: When faster is better: Our model is based on the early pioneering work of behavior analysts such as Ogden Lindsley and others, who emphasized the role of fluency in skill mastery and effective learning. These researchers showed that “accuracy” or correctness of a response is not a sufficient criterion for mastery. Instead, a minimum rate of responding was key to mastering and building more complex skills. Accuracy and rate of response combined are referred to as “fluency” – rapid, effortless, correct responding: building skills to the point where the learner can produce the correct response “automatically.” Fluency has been demonstrated to positively impact information retention and maintenance and the application of learned information to new and novel situations. (Yaber-Oltra, 1993, Fox and Ghezzi, 1993). This innovative approach to skill mastery has transformed the efficiency of instructional programming in education (Binder, 1996 for a review).

Best Practices: 

We combine fluency-focused instruction with other evidence-based learning strategies to provide on-going performance analysis and feedback, promoting rapid and durable skill acquisition in any content area for climate change. For example, we

• ensure careful question construction so that learning questions maintain stimulus control over the correct response (e.g., Strough, 1993);
• immediately reinforce correct responses and provide feedback for incorrect responses (e.g.,Kelley and McLaughlin, 2012); 
• provide a record of individual data on acquisition and fluency performance on both correct and incorrect responding (Cooper, Heron & Heward, 2007; Worsdell, Iwata, Dozier, Johnson, Neidert & Thomason, 2005.); and
• encourage spaced practice to better learn and retain material (e.g., Caple, 1996) building fluency using multiple exemplars (e.g., Marzullo-Kerth et al, 2011).