Precision Teaching and Tap Dance Instruction

The purpose of this study was (a) to use a precision-teaching (PT) framework to design, train, and evaluate a tap-dancing training sequence and (b) to evaluate fluency outcomes as a function of training tap dance components to optimal frequencies. The study trained a series of 8 tap-dancing steps to 4 novice dancers and evaluated the effects on untrained components and probes of retention, stability, endurance, and application. The study also included a control participant who only completed application probes. Weekly probes examining the facilitative effects of training on the untrained components revealed improvements for some untrained steps, but not all. Retention probes revealed little difference in frequencies from the last data point in training. Stability and endurance probes revealed marked increases in the frequency of corrects and decreases in the frequency of errors. The results of application probes showed improvements to some degree for experimental participants; however, the control participant also made gains in performance. This makes it difficult to draw conclusions regarding application. The study demonstrates how a PT framework may be useful to those interested in enhancing sports performance training. We discuss limitations and future directions.