Hall, R. Vance

R. Vance Hall (1928–) was a behavioral psychologist who with Don Baer, Mont Wolf, and Todd Risley formed the core group of behavior analysts in the Department of Human Development and Family Life at the University of Kansas from the 1960s to the 1990s. Of the group, Hall's work was most directly related to the public schools and K–12 education. His research focused on the impact of applied behavior analysis on children in the school and home environments and on teachers and parents as behavior modifiers. Hall began his career as a public school teacher and administrator. Therefore, his emphasis was on developing skills in teachers and parents that would enable them to structure effective, developmentally appropriate activities for children. For educational leaders, Hall's work ties directly to the principal's role in instructional leadership and improvement.

Hall pioneered the efficacy of techniques now widely employed in school settings, such as systematic teacher attention for desired behavior and systematic ignoring of inappropriate behavior. He also advocated the structured training of teachers, particularly beginning teachers, in the use of behavioral principles to enhance academic performance and study general classroom behavior. The ongoing development, revision, and validation of these procedures evolved into the responsive teaching model, which became the foundation of Hall's work with teachers and schools.

Hall's work also had an impact in the area of educational research. He developed the changing-criterion design for single-subject research and employed this design in a variety of settings with a variety of behaviors.

Along with Todd Risley, Hall spent over 20 years working with the Juniper Gardens Project, a federally funded program for parents and children in inner-city Kansas City, Kansas. This program supported parent training and a developmental preschool for lowincome, minority individuals. It also served as a training ground for both teachers and psychologists. The Juniper Gardens Project became the most notable model for the application of applied behavior analysis in community settings. Hall's work with this program resulted in the American Psychological Association honoring him with the Fred S. Keller award in 1998.

Hall's work has had a direct impact on schools and schooling. Many of the techniques he pioneered are still regularly employed by teachers and form the foundation of the most effective classroom management programs. The principal's role as the leader in school improvement and the efficacy of well-trained teachers were of prime importance to him.

However, Hall felt that the promise of behavioral techniques in the regular classroom were, as yet, unrealized. This failure was not due to teachers, but behavioral psychologists themselves, who failed to develop easily implemented techniques that fit regular classroom ecology and also failed to disseminate their research results properly to ensure their inclusion in undergraduate teacher training.