Effects of part versus whole instructional strategies on skill acquisition and excess behavior

The relative effectiveness of part versus whole teaching strategies for students with moderate and severe handicaps was investigated. Students were taught two functional tasks using the two methods, with outcome assessed by measures of acquisition, initiation, problem solving, and inappropriate behavior. Although trends in the data suggest the superiority of the part method for acquisition by students with the more severe handicaps, these effects were not significant. The whole method had a significant carryover effect on task preparation and termination. A significant effect of method was found for excess behavior: students taught by the part method exhibited less excess behavior than did students taught by the whole method.