Precision Teaching and Direct Instruction: Measurably Superior Instructional Technology in Schools

Abstract

Although educators, policy‐makers, business leaders, and the general public have become increasingly concerned about the “basic skills” crisis in American schools, research‐based solutions have existed for over two decades in the form of measurably superior teaching methodologies: Precision Teaching and Direct Instruction. In federally validated research, each of these instructional technologies has been shown to produce far greater achievement and self‐esteem among students than more traditional teaching practices, with favorable cost‐benefit ratios when implemented in schools. These results have been obtained despite adverse socio economic influences on students so of ten blamed for failure in the classroom. These methods have not been widely adopted, partly due to political and philosophical resistance to measurably superior instructional technology among educators. This article provides overviews of Precision Teaching and Direct Instruction, discusses their origins and research backgrounds, cites effec tiveness data, and describes how they can complement one another when used together. It provides sufficient references to the literature and pointers to existing programs to enable interested readers to learn more about each of these measurably superior educational solutions.

Unpacking the Information, Media, and Technology Skills Domain of the New Learning Paradigm

“…In particular, Hartman's (1995) work shows that the use of technology can cater well for the learning preferences of students. Although the traditional, direct instruction method of teaching that broadcasts the same message to all students simultaneously still has room and can in fact be used to effectively support learning (Binder & Watkins, 1990), teaching with the modern information, media and digital technologies gives teachers the opportunity to let each student personalise their learning in their preferred way. In most cases, their preferred way involves the always-on Internet interconnected learning with peers, not only in the same class and school, but also with others from across the World Wide Web, on a 24/7 timeframe.…”

Interteaching: Bringing Behavioral Education Into the 21st Century

“…And finally, the presentation of course material moves from simple to complex, with complex concepts broken down into simpler subcomponents that students must master before moving on. Although extensive discussion of these teaching methods is beyond the scope of this article, suffice it to say that behavioral teaching methods have consistently outperformed more traditional teaching methods at all levels of education (for reviews, see Binder & Watkins, 1990;Buskist, Cush, & DeGrandpre, 1991;Jaehnig & Miller, 2007;Kinder & Carnine, 1991;Moran & Malott, 2004).…”

A Review of Training Intraverbal Repertoires: Can Precision Teaching Help?

“…The DI curriculum entails a specific sequence of examples and non-examples selected through a general case strategy. This approach sequentially builds intraverbal repertoires (Binder & Watkins, 1990;Englemann & Carnine, 1982). DI is effective for teaching basic academic intraverbal repertoires, yet it is not commonly used to teach other intraverbals such as conversational language.…”

“…Direct Instruction (DI) is a research-based approach to instructional de- Investigations specific to retention, endurance, application, and stability sign and implementation that is supported by the basic principles of behavior analysis (Becker & Carnine, 1980;Binder & Watkins, 1990;Englemann & Carnine, 1982;Weisberg, Packer, & Weisberg, 1981). DI encompasses an instructional approach in which the primary focus is rapid skill acquisition in the core academic subject areas: math, reading, and language arts.…”

“…They emphasized evaluation and revision of teaching strategies through visual inspection of charted data. Some PT philosophies and strategies that have driven both research and practice include: (a) that "the child knows best"-based on Skinner's "the rat is always right," exemplifying that it is the teacher's job to alter variables controlling behavior until they produce preferred behaviors, (b) daily measurement of performance, (c) self-recording and sharing discoveries, (d) functional and descriptive definitions of the variables occurring or changing behavior, and (e) assessing "behavior tracks" the results of performing the behavior (an extension of the functional approach used in operant conditioning laboratories; Binder & Watkins, 1990).…”