Dr. Karel Pančocha is a researcher and practitioner with a comprehensive background in special education and applied behavior analysis. He holds a Ph.D. in Special Education from Masaryk University, an M.Sc. in Applied Behaviour Analysis from Queen's University of Belfast, and is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA).
In his role as a member of the Center of Applied Behavior Analysis at Masaryk University (Czech Republic), Dr. Pančocha has significantly advanced the field through both teaching and administrative roles, including Vice-Dean for Development and Internal Affairs and Vice-Dean for Strategy and International Relations. He has dedicated over a decade to fostering behavior analysis in education and improving outcomes for individuals with special needs.Dr. Pančocha's career is marked by a blend of practical and academic expertise, including positions as a full professor and ABA practitioner. His contributions to ABA and inclusive education are underpinned by his commitment to integrating behavioral analysis in educational settings, ensuring that all students receive the support they need to succeed.
Dr. Pančocha has been focusing on the development and applied research in education and intervention for children with neurodevelopmental disabilities, since 2015. He has collaborated with colleagues from Queen's University Belfast, Ulster University, Montana State University, and Ohio State University on intervention research in ASD.
He has been involved in several key projects, including a Ministry of Education initiative (2016-2020) to introduce postgraduate studies in Applied Behavior Analysis at Masaryk University. Additionally, he participated in international Erasmus+ projects (2020-2023) aimed at integrating and supporting students with autism in mainstream classrooms, providing parent training to address children's problem behavior (2020-2022), and developing educational standards and training for European Behavior Analysts (2020-2022).
Currently, he is the principal investigator of a project sponsored by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic, which focuses on Telepractice to support parents and children with neurodevelopmental disabilities at home. The research has led to the development of a comprehensive model for implementing online behavior interventions in the Czech Republic.
Dr. Pančocha has presented at various national and international conferences, including the European Association for Behaviour Analysis (2018), the Association for Behavior Analysis International (2019, 2021), ICOLLE (2019), Culturo-Behavior Science Conference (2020), and the Czech-Slovak Conference in Applied Behavior Analysis (2021). He has co-authored over 100 publications. Full publication list is available here: https://www.muni.cz/en/people/42604-karel-pancocha/publications