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Precision Teaching and Tap Dance Instruction

  • Precision Teaching: Discoveries and Applications
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Abstract

The purpose of this study was (a) to use a precision-teaching (PT) framework to design, train, and evaluate a tap-dancing training sequence and (b) to evaluate fluency outcomes as a function of training tap dance components to optimal frequencies. The study trained a series of 8 tap-dancing steps to 4 novice dancers and evaluated the effects on untrained components and probes of retention, stability, endurance, and application. The study also included a control participant who only completed application probes. Weekly probes examining the facilitative effects of training on the untrained components revealed improvements for some untrained steps, but not all. Retention probes revealed little difference in frequencies from the last data point in training. Stability and endurance probes revealed marked increases in the frequency of corrects and decreases in the frequency of errors. The results of application probes showed improvements to some degree for experimental participants; however, the control participant also made gains in performance. This makes it difficult to draw conclusions regarding application. The study demonstrates how a PT framework may be useful to those interested in enhancing sports performance training. We discuss limitations and future directions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA

    Marisela Pallares & Patrick M. Ghezzi

  2. Fit Learning, LLC, Reno, NV, USA

    Kendra Brooks Newsome

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  1. Marisela Pallares
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  2. Kendra Brooks Newsome
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  3. Patrick M. Ghezzi
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Correspondence to Marisela Pallares.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee of the University of Nevada Institutional Review Board (Project 884209-1) and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Pallares, M., Newsome, K.B. & Ghezzi, P.M. Precision Teaching and Tap Dance Instruction. Behav Analysis Practice 14, 745–762 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-020-00458-3

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