Table of Contents

1. What is Precision Teaching (PT)?
2. What is I.M.A.G.IN.E®?
3. Is PT Applied Behaviour Analysis?
4. How is it possible to claim a minimum month-for-month gain in learning for a maximum of 15 hours per week of instruction?
5. Will PT "cure" autism?
6. Can any child undertake PT?

Questions and Answers

What is Precision Teaching (PT)?

PT is an INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY. It is a system of strategies and their tactics for the self-monitoring of learning. PT monitors the increase and/or decrease of actions or skills through systematic measurement of their frequency acceleration and/or deceleration.

PT uses a universal ratio measure of change - the Standard Celeration Chart - to  monitor the rate of change or growth in learning over clock time, and over calendar time, and to make day-to-day instructional decisions based on that measurable change. Celeration indicates the acceleration or deceleration of the skills and actions.The Standard Celeration Chart (SCC) is a three dimensional measure that evaluates both the learning and the instruction. The SCC is a navigational tool, as it monitors the continuous direction of the course of learning in real time.

A genuine Precision Teacher uses the SCC to effeciently monitor - change instruction according to the directional data - and thereby accelerate the learning of target skills for any learner. 

Precision Teaching has been "bastardized" repeatedly from its original foundation in 1964. A major portion of the post 1964 literature requires careful scrutiny to determine what is science, and what is science fiction. Many claims have been made about PT, mostly from researchers who place themselves in the position of "the teacher knows best".  This is diametrically opposed to the genuine Precision Teacher for whom the child knows best.

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What is I.M.A.G.IN.E® ?

The Intensive Model for Autism of Generative INstruction Excellence - I.M.A.G.IN.E® - is a data based Precision Teaching system for children with autism developed by Dr Giordana Hrga within her experimental doctoral research.

The I.M.A.G.IN.E® research outcomes indicate a minimum month-for-month developmental gain, with an average of 2 months developmental gain for one month instruction across skills.

The I.M.A.G.IN.E® gains were made within 6 to 15 hours of PT instruction per week (Total intervention hours: 240 to 600) over a 12 month period.

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Is PT Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA)?

No. Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) is wholly dependent on controlled procedures. Precision Teaching is wholly dependent on removing control, and implementing "free operant freedom". Put simply, it's a case of "freedom V control". 

PT originated in 1964 directly from the natural sciences.  The experimental analysis of behaviour requires direct observation and direct standard measurement in real time. Dr Lindsley's 1964 paper, "Direct Measurement and the Prosthesis of Retarded Behavior", outlines the principles of PT that remain the cornerstone of the natural behavioural science employed by genuine Precision Teachers. 

PT uses the Standard Celeration Chart - a universal ratio measure of change - to precisely monitor the rate of change or growth in learning over clock time, and over calendar time, and to make day-to-day instructional decisions based on that measurable change. The SCC is three dimensional measure that evaluates both the learning and the instruction.

Applied Behaviour Analysis generally uses dimensionless measures, such as "percentage correct", to record data. Instructional procedures - such as Discrete Trial Training - record the instruction but the instructional procedure remains unchanged regardless of the measures obtained. In the mathematical sense, DTT measures without "monitoring".  For example, Discrete Trial Training (DTT) will be undertaken according to a specified sequence until it records "80% correct" for a given skill, and may then deem a skill, "mastered". Given that frequency - count over time - is a dimension of behaviour, it is impossible to precisely monitor the rate of change in learning where no time base is used.

PT changes its instructional procedures until the count of a skill - for example 100 movements per minute with no errors - becomes stable over calendar time, and the count is retained after a period of non-practice. The specific count for each given skill (how many and how often) is determined by the child, NOT the teacher. THE GENUINE PRECISION TEACHER DOES NOT SET THE MASTERY CRITERION. Hence, the child knows best!

The only evidence of the practice of genuine Precision Teaching is the Standard Celeration Chart. 

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How is it possible to claim a minimum month-for-month gain in learning for a maximum of 15 hours per week of instruction?

PT acts as a "learning opportunity multiplier" by arranging the environment to suit the individual child's learning needs. As children respond correctly more frequently than in typical [non PT] instruction, their skills increase in short amounts of both clock time and calendar time.

By BUILDING the number of actions to very high frequencies, PT increases the likelihood that the practice of those actions will combine to form composite skills, and that the attempted skill will be mastered and retained by the child.

PT rapidly builds the frequencies of skills and actions over minimal learning time, thus eliminating a major portion of teaching or instructional time.

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Will PT "cure" autism?

No. Autism is a neurobiological disorder. I.M.A.G.IN.E® recognizes and treats autism as a severe learning disorder, and addresses the learning, not the diagnosis.

PT provides multiple opportunities to develop compensatory skills for learning and behavioural deficits. With enough skill compensation, the inappropriate and dysfunctional OBSERVABLE BEHAVIOURS of autism can be greatly diminished, and often extinguished.

While children may develop and exhibit compensatory behaviour to the point where they "do not meet the observable criteria for autism", the probability of such children requiring additional one-to-one instruction throughout their schooling remains very high.

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Can any child undertake Precision Teaching?

Yes. Precision Teaching is suitable for any child. PT has been used in varied environments, with many types of learners including competent adults. To date, PT has mostly been used with children who do not have severe learning or developmental disorders. PT can be implemented with anyone at any chronological age.

Greater functional gains are made with younger children given ANY intervention, as they have not had as many years to become practiced in competing dysfunctional behaviours compared to older children.  The earlier the intervention begins, the greater the outcome.

Assuming there is no profound physical brain injury, ANY child can learn given appropriate instruction. With PT, if a child does not learn, it is regarded the fault of the instruction, NOT the fault of the child. Hence the PT maxim, the child knows best. 

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