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THE USE OF A PRECISION TEACHING COMPUTER CURRICULUM TO TEACH GREEK PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES

Michelle I. Harrington, Jill E. Hunt, and Matthew L. Israel, Ph.D.

Judge Rotenberg Educational Center
Canton, MA USA

The Judge Rotenberg Educational Center (www.judgerc.org) operates day and residential programs for children and adults with behavior problems, including conduct disorders, emotional problems, brain injury or psychosis, autism, and developmental disabilities. The fundamental approach taken at JRC is the use of behavioral psychology and its various technological applications, including behavioral education, programmed instruction, precision teaching, behavior modification, behavior therapy, behavioral counseling, self-management of behavior, and chart-sharing.

This study examined the effectiveness of teaching through the use of a computerized curriculum that is based on the tenants of Precision Teaching (Greek prefixes and suffixes). The computer program uses the See/Type learning channel. Through a series of visual and audio prompts, the participant was visually presented with the meaning of a prefix or suffix and then typed the corresponding answer. Material was presented in small curriculum steps, and was then learned to “fluency”, before moving on to new material. The material was then combined into review lessons, which served as fluency checks. Data was collected and plotted on a Standard Celeration Chart. The effectiveness of this teaching method will be presented.

Methods

Participants and Setting

There were three participants in this study; two females and one male. Their ages ranged from 17.7 to 20.11 years. Diagnoses included PTSD, PDD, ADHD, Intermittent Explosive disorder, Panic disorder, Language disorder, Mood disorder, Conduct disorder, Bipolar Disorder and Oppositional Defiant Disorder. Full scale IQ’s ranged from 56 to 71.

These participants were chosen because they had similar reading decoding grade levels and when given the pre-test, did not know any of the information presented. The participants were in different classrooms during the academic day, Monday through Friday, 9AM to 3PM. All participants attended school at the Judge Rotenberg Center and lived in one of JRC’s group homes. Each participant worked on a computer that was configured to meet their individual behavioral and academic needs.

Measures and Instruction

All participants worked on the JRC proprietary software, Just the Facts. They worked through a series of lessons that first presented the Greek suffix or prefix on the screen, and the participant was required to type the meaning of the prefix or suffix in the appropriate location. The second unit presented the meaning of the prefix or suffix and the participant was required to type the corresponding Greek prefix or suffix. During the timing, the participant could hit a specific key, to request a visual prompt of the answer. Prompts included the initial letter(s), of the prefix or suffix, and for each additional time the prompt request key was hit, another letter of the answer appeared. When the student entered a correct response, a green check appeared on the screen and when an incorrect response was entered, a red X appeared on the screen. Each lesson was worked on, until a rate of 20 words per minute with 0 incorrect responses and 0 prompts was reached. The aim had to be met two consecutive times before moving to the next chapter. The software automatically moved the participant to the next chapter. Upon mastering a chapter, the student received points that could be exchanged for various rewards, such as free time, items from JRC’s Behavior Boutique, or other personalized rewards.

All data were plotted on a Standard Celeration Chart, which included correct responses, incorrect responses, prompts used and the time it took to complete a cycle (Lindsley, 1992). A cycle was defined as a certain number of problems, a certain number of correct responses, or by a pre-determined amount of time.

Greek Prefixes and Suffixes Learned

Results

All participants showed significant improvement in their knowledge of the meaning of Greek prefixes and suffixes. Participant 1 was originally able to define zero out of thirty-six Greek terms and after working through the computer curriculum, was able to define all thirty six terms. Participant 2 was originally able to define zero out of thirty-six Greek terms and after working through the computer curriculum, was able to define all thirty six terms. Participant 3 was originally able to define zero out of thirty-six Greek terms and after working through the computer curriculum, was able to define twenty of the thirty six terms. The material was also shown to generalize from the computer to pen and paper. All pre-tests and post-tests used the See/Write learning channel, while the computer curriculum used the See/Type learning channel. Also, there was some evidence that the participants overall vocabulary increased. Two of the three participants completed vocabulary tests with words that were made up of the Greek prefixes and suffixes. Before completing the computer curriculum, none of the students were able to identify any of the meanings of the words. After completing the computer curriculum, which taught them the meanings of the prefixes and suffixes, both students were able to choose the meaning of at least 30 vocabulary words, from a multiple choice format.

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Discussion

The pre and post test data that was collected indicates that using a computer curriculum and learning material to a pre-determined rate of fluency generalizes to pen and paper tasks. This appears to be an effective method for teaching vocabulary terms. Participants were able to go from having no knowledge of the meanings of various Greek prefixes and suffixes, to being fluent in choosing the meanings of words containing these prefixes and suffixes from a multiple choice format. Further study could examine retention of previously learned material and to what extent the participants’ vocabulary increases.

References

Lindsley, O.R., (1992). Precision Teaching: Discoveries and effects. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 25, 51-57