Instructional improvement: Using precision teaching to enhance the lecture /discussion method, cooperative learning, and direct instruction

This study attempted to determine if regular educators, special educators, and administrators felt it was advantageous to use more than one instructional technique/aid during the same instructional period to enhance student learning. Furthermore, test performance after a three week period of instruction, and retest performance and rate of retention at one and three month intervals were examined for groups of fifth and eighth grade learning disabled and regular education students who were taught using six different instructional approaches.;Direct instruction was more effective than either cooperative learning or the lecture/discussion method when student test performance was examined. However, the addition of precision teaching to each approach significantly increased student performance. No significant differences in student performance were attributable to either difference in instructor or grade level.;Student retest performance and rate of retention at both one and three month intervals also were enhanced by the addition of precision teaching to each instructional approach. Regular education students' one month retest performance was significantly higher than that of special education students only in the lecture/discussion and cooperative learning groups, while significant differences based on student classification across all instructional groups were not found. The cooperative learning group was the only instructional approach to reveal significant differences between special education and regular education students on three month retest performance.;Student classification had no significant impact on student rate of retention at either one or three month intervals. Further statistical analyses showed no significant differences between or across instructional groups' retest performance and rate of retention at one and three month intervals when taking into account the effects of difference in instructor and difference in grade level.;Most educators felt that instructional techniques/aids were mutually exclusive regardless of position, however special educators were more likely to believe that using more than one instructional technique/aid during an instructional period was possible. Educators, regardless of position, were more likely to believe that using more than one instructional approach/aid during an instructional period was not beneficial for enhancing student performance.