2014 Volume 52 Issue 4 Pages 287-296
The present study examined the impact of behavioral instruction on 2 second-grade students' fluency with multiplication facts. The participants were public elementary school students who had difficulty in learning multiplication facts. After-school instructional sessions were conducted twice a week. The instructional package consisted of the "Cover-Copy-Compare" method (Skinner, Turco, Beatty, & Rasavage, 1989) and a timed-trial procedure with goal setting and feedback. First, each student learned multiplication facts with the Cover-Copy-Compare method. Then, they practiced them in 30-second timed trials with goal setting and feedback. If they beat their previous score, they received stickers that they liked. The number of correct and incorrect problems in these trials was recorded. A multiple probe design across 3 sets of instructional materials was used to evaluate the impact of the behavioral instruction. The results showed that both students increased their fluency with multiplication facts. However, 1 student's degree of improvement was not adequate, even though the instructional materials were modified for that student. The discussion deals with the need for refining instructional procedures and using other experimental designs.
