Precision Teaching: A First Steps Guide and FAQ

We all share a professional mission: to nurture the unique abilities in every child that steps into our classroom. But, if we’re honest, sometimes the path to achieving this is less of a well-paved road and more of a labyrinth. Diverse learning speeds, varied abilities, and a range of other juggling acts make every year and every class a new tapestry of challenges. While any approach will never be the panacea of all ails, there is something which myself and many teachers as well as researchers would recommend to have as a mainstay within the classroom; Precision Teaching. Firstly, because it works to accelerate learning and attainment in different areas. Secondly, because after a bit of set up and training with TAs, it is a simple and practical approach which is sustainable no matter what year group you may teach in future years.

Precision Teaching isn't and never really has been an ‘Educational Fad’. Perhaps because it’s never been over-exaggerated or used nonsensical neuroscience (remember ‘brain gym’?), and isn’t a singular commercialised product with a marketing force behind it. But, its longevity of being a key ‘go to’ for over 20 years for children who are struggling with their learning illustrates, if nothing else, the value that those who have used it place on it.

At its core, Precision Teaching is a focused, data-driven, and deeply child-centric approach that allows you to 'pinpoint' specific skills that each child needs to master. Its power (core ingredients of what makes it work) is short and hyper-focused sessions to memorise key learning facts several times a day. What this leads to is an incredibly strong memory of the learning which maximises retention and recall (i.e. long-term memory), and build fluency. As a great side effect of this, we often see that Precision Teaching as an intervention builds confidence and engagement in lessons more generally (because they now have the key skills they need for these!).

While there are ready made training and resources in excellent programmes like Precision Teaching Plus by Dr Lee Randall, the following can also give a good opportunity to get started with Precision Teaching:

Key Points of Precision Teaching

• Precision Teaching is More Than Metrics: This approach allows us to pinpoint specific skills, measure them rigorously, and adapt our teaching methods accordingly.
• It's Complementary To What You’re Already Doing: Precision Teaching is a complementary approach which, only in quite extreme cases, should replace the main teaching method. Its strength is in memorisation and fluency (i.e. giving children a boost in a particular area). Its downside is that it doesn’t teach a process (e.g. how to blend with phonics, predict or infer from text etc.), and this is what you do best.
• It's Flexible and Adaptable: You don't have to overhaul your entire curriculum. Even introducing one pinpointed skill can yield noticeable benefits. It can be related to any learning or skill where fluency is beneficial e.g. reading and spelling (i.e. dyslexia), writing formation (i.e. dysgraphia), and number bonds or multiplications tables (i.e. dyscalculia), and any other area you identify as being beneficial.
• It's Sustainable: Precision Teaching is primarily a brief 1:1 intervention, taking around 10 minutes per child a day. Given how we’re always juggling and prioritising what the children in our class need, this means that we can easily offer more or less children access to Precision Teaching depending upon the other priorities we hold.

Tips for Taking the First Step

• Start Small: You don’t need to pinpoint multiple skills at once. Begin with one that one or more children find particularly challenging.
• Involve the Children: Empower the children by asking what it is that they want to achieve. Let them score their own performance each session. They'll be more invested and proud of their own progress this way (rather than waiting on us to tell them how they’ve done).
• Review and Reflect: After a week or two, review the data. Ask yourself if the pinpointed skill is improving. If not, is it the skill you've chosen, the learning channel, or perhaps the measurement time that needs to be adjusted?
• Celebrate the Wins, No Matter How Small: Recognition fuels motivation. Acknowledge improvement, whether it's a single percentage point increase or a significant leap.

First Steps to Try in Practice

Wondering where to begin? Here’s a simple first step:

• Identify a Skill: Let's say it’s “word reading” for this example.
• Pinpoint a Measurable Task: Break it down into something quantifiable like, “the number of common exception words which can be read fluently within 4 minutes.”
• Identify the Learning Channel: This is the ‘input’ and ‘output’ we will use e.g. "seeing the word and saying the word without blending."
• Set The Schedule: Decide where we can find 1 x 10 minutes in the day to go through this with the child.
• Get The Resources. In this case, flashcards with the common exception words on, provide the best form of teaching. Depending on their ability level, we can focus on anywhere between 3 – 7 words a week (duplicated 3-4 times).
• Go! Show the flashcard. If they can read the word, great, give it to them to hold on to and collect! If not, say the word and ask them to repeat it before placing it at the back of your pile.
• Chart the Results: Keep a simple chart on your desk or use one of the automated tools from Precision Teaching Plus to log the data.
• Review After One Week: This initial review will give you enough information to decide whether to continue, tweak, or try something new.

What we almost always see is that, by taking these steps, we’re not only equipping the children with the specific skills they need, but also instilling the confidence and self-belief in them by continually showing that they’re making more and more progress each and every day. In a sense, a key benefit of Precision Teaching isn't just academic improvement; it's their increased academic self-esteem.

Frequently Asked Questions: Unpacking Precision Teaching for Primary School Teachers

What is Precision Teaching?

Precision Teaching is a child-focused, data-driven instructional approach that involves pinpointing specific skills, measuring performance frequently, and using this data to inform teaching strategies. It uses high-intensity and high-frequency rote learning approaches to maximise retention of learning (i.e. can remember and recall from long-term memory much better).

How Does Precision Teaching Work in the Classroom?

In the primary classroom, a teacher selects a particular skill to focus on, often referred to as the 'pinpoint.' They work with a TA to schedule 1 x 10 minutes in the day per child / pinpoint, and use the additional information from this to further inform general teaching.

Some schools have ‘Precision Teaching TAs’ who have been trained using Precision Teaching Plus. Having all the resources and experience to hand, they often work across school, with children with various different learning needs. This maximises the efficiency of rolling this out across school, although we’ve also seen that it’s worked best when they run most sessions, with one being completed by the class TA or Teacher, mainly due to the increased generalisability of these skills, and the child's confidence by sharing their progress with more than one adult.

What are the Benefits of Precision Teaching?

The benefits of Precision Teaching are multi-faceted, but mainly including effective and targeted instruction which accelerates retention and recall of key learning facts. We also often see improved confidence and engagement across the curriculum.

What is a Learning Channel in Precision Teaching?

A learning channel specifies the way a child demonstrates a particular skill. For example, in learning to read, the channel might be "seeing text and saying words." It essentially describes the input and output method for the pinpointed skill.

Can I Use Precision Teaching for Any Subject?

Absolutely, Precision Teaching is not limited to any particular subject. Whether it's English, Maths, or Science, the principles of pinpointing a skill and measuring it can be universally applied.

Conclusion

In the scheme of educational methodologies, Precision Teaching is one of the few methods which has stood the test of time (and benefited from being refined in the process). It stands out as a remarkably targeted, data-driven, and child-centred approach. It’s not just a matter of 'what' to teach, but takes a different yet practical approach in 'how' to teach it; which has transformed the learning trajectories of many millions of children over the years.

Precision Teaching Plus Online CPD

Precision Teaching Plus is a complete, straightforward and rapid online intervention program to boost children's learning. PT+ has 5 chapters of flexible online training, and dozens of resources to support you to accelerate children's learning rate.

Find out more about Precision Teaching Plus here.