Precision teaching and education: Is fluency the missing link between success and failure?

Abstract

The Department of Education in the United Kingdom established ambitious targets for achievement in the three core areas of English, maths and science measured by national curriculum testing. Annual results of the assessment for 2005 indicate that the government is some way off achieving these targets, currently 85%, for the academic years 2006–2008, but results indicate a steady improvement from the levels achieved in 1998. If these ambitious targets are to be realised, the consideration of new techniques in the classroom is suggested. Precision teaching has been advocated by a number of academics in the psychological and educational fields. Precision teaching is an effective instructional technology which adopts fluency (accuracy plus speed) as a benchmark of teaching success. This article highlights findings which suggest that fluency training assists higher academic achievement for all learners, and that cumulative dysfluency maybe the antecedent of academic underachievement.