Being able to construct simple sentences is necessary for effective written expression. The present study investigated effects of a sentence construction intervention on small groups of middle school students with disabilities and writing difficulties. The intervention entailed sentence instruction and frequency building to a performance…

In the generative classroom, teachers provide well-designed learning environments that result in the combination, recombination, and reorganization of repertoires such that new untaught repertoires are likely to occur. One component that can contribute to such generativity is Precision Teaching (PT), a frequency building instructional…

In discussing the effectiveness of precision teaching, three questions are addressed: (1) What is different or unique about it? (2) What kind of data are necessary to prove that precision teaching affects learning? and (3) What evidence supports its use? (Author/CL)

The advantages of using precision teaching in a secondary level special education science class are discussed. Among benefits considered are providing the student and teacher with a daily progress check, allowing the student an opportunity to use science vocabulary, evaluating individualized methods and materials, providing information on changing…

The article describes two ways that universities are involved in precision teaching: (1) the use of precision teaching to teach precision teaching to students of special education and (2) faculty work with public school personnel to help teachers maintain charting skills by meeting monthly to discuss issues and procedures. (Author/CL)

The "Try Procedures," a diagnostic teaching strategy used with precision teaching, provides a way to determine which teaching methods produce the greatest gains for individual students. Five steps feature initial assessment, dividing items to be taught, teaching by two or more methods, probing, and looking at the data. Comparison of two sight word…

The author reviews systems providing objective guidelines to facilitate ongoing, daily instructional decisions, focusing on those which utilize the sensitive datum and uniform charting procedures of precision teaching. Potential users are warned that the special education teacher must remain a critical and vigilant analyst of the learning process.…

Two proponents of the precision teaching approach to teaching the handicapped discuss such principles as: the problem of partial application of the method; relationship to behaviorism; relationship to experiential learning; and the importance of fluency in task performance, mastery learning, and recordkeeping. (DB)

Use of precision teaching principles with learning problem students involves five steps: specifying performance, recording daily behavior, charting daily behavior, recording the teaching approach, and analyzing data. The approach has been successfully implemented through consultation of school psychologists in Walsall, England. (CL)

The monograph describes various aspects of data collection, analysis and data-based decision-making for the regular or special education classroom teacher. Direct and repeated measurement of student progress and program effectiveness is advocated. Four fundamental steps are outlined: (1) identify instructional objectives and collect data on…

Several alternative curriculum-based measurement (CBM) assessment models for use with handicapped children are discussed: the resource/consulting teacher and Vermont consultant teacher models, directive teaching, precision teaching, and data based program modification. A case example showing the use of CBM to make instructional and placement…

Through inservice instruction, three research-based teaching and learning strategies (keywords, study guides, and graphic organizers) were presented to teachers of students with disabilities. When the teachers implemented the strategies in their classrooms using precision teaching techniques, student achievement increased. (JDD)

A survey of preservice and inservice teachers indicated high levels of expressed satisfaction with their special education methods course that focused on precision teaching. Approximately 50% had used the procedures since completion of the course in the content areas of geography, math, reading, science, vocabulary, spelling, sight vocabulary, and…

This critique discusses conceptual and practical issues raised in a paper by D. Marston (EC 210 837) on choosing the most technically adequate graph for measuring progress on individual education plans. The critique argues that the Standard Behavior Chart is a technically adequate and useful measurement tool. (JDD)

This article responds to a criticism (EC 231 964) of a paper that discusses graphs for measuring progress on individual education plans (EC 210 837). It notes that the type of chart used is not a major issue; the important point is that teachers repeatedly gather data on educationally relevant tasks and evaluate intervention effectiveness. (JDD)