Comparison of Single Instance and General Case Instruction in Teaching a Generalized Vocational Skill

Abstract

Using a multiple baseline mirror design, the relative effectiveness of two instructional strategies for teaching the crimping/cutting of biaxle electronic capacitors was investigated. Four severely handicapped high school students were trained to crimp/cut biaxle capacitors using first a single instance training strategy, then a general case training strategy. To measure if the skills acquired through each training method were of a general case nature, 20 capacitors varying in size, shape, color, and lead separation space were selected. The students were never trained on these 20 probe capacitors, but did perform them during nonfeedback probe sessions which were administered according to multiple baseline mirror design format. The results indicate (a) that crimping/cutting of biaxle electronic capacitors is a generalized vocational skill that can be acquired by severely handicapped students, (b) that general case training is a more effective strategy than single instance training when teaching for performance across nontrained examples, and (c) that errors following single instance training are functionally related to the restricted range of training stimuli the student encounters in a single instance training format. Implications for educational programming with severely handicapped students in school, work, and community settings are discussed.