Errorless Learning

Title page

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Errorless Learning

Session objectives: Today we will learn a teaching strategy called Errorless Learning
commonly have used for Special Education students to teach ESOL students.

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Errorless Learning

Standards addressed:
CSTP 1.4 Using a variety of instructional strategies, resources, and technologies to
meet students’ diverse learning needs.

CSTP 3.6 Addressing the needs of English learners and student with special needs to
provide equitable access to the content

Teacher Leader Standards Domain II: Accessing and Using Research to Improve
Practice and Student Learning: a) Assists colleagues in accessing and using research in
order to select appropriate strategies to improve student learning

NBPTS Proposition 1: Teachers are committed to students and their learning

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Errorless Learning

Educational Hook: We will learn Errorless Learning Strategy commonly have used
for Special Ed. students for those students.

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Errorless Learning

This method of teaching skills minimizes opportunities for errors, increasing the
frequency at which the child encounters reinforcement. Minimizing errors also
reduces the likelihood that the child engages in challenging behavior.

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Errorless Learning

When an instructor first introduces a new skill acquisition target, she utilizes most to
least prompting. If she decides to errorlessly teach the child to clap his hands when
she says “clap your hands,” she begins by providing the SD and immediately uses a
full physical prompt. She then systematically fades the prompt through the prompt
hierarchy until the child responds independently.

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Errorless Learning

• Advantages

It minimizes mistakes made by the learner and decreases the

likelihood that errors will be repeated during future trials.

It reduces the learner's frustration and any problem behavior that may
be associated with it.

Errorless learning provides more opportunities for reinforcement than

traditional teaching methods and increases the time available for instruction as
problem behaviors are reduced or eliminated.

• Disadvantages

The primary disadvantage of EL is that learners may

become dependent on the prompts used to assist them in responding correctly.

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Errorless Learning

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Errorless Learning

• It may be appropriate if you are working with a learner who is struggling to learn
a new skill through traditional teaching strategies.
• You may choose errorless learning when new tasks or mistakes cause the learner
to engage in problem behaviors.
• It can also be a valuable tool when working with learners who develop routines
quickly and may repeatedly respond incorrectly because it is part of a routine.

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Errorless Learning

Avoid using errorless learning for learners who

• Acquire skills quickly with traditional teaching methods.
• Easily become prompt dependent.

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Errorless Learning

Progress monitoring questions

Let’ s try to check for understanding now.
1. What are the advantages of Errorless Learning?
2. What kinds of prompts are there? 3. Is Errorless Learning suitable for all
students?
3. Is the Errorless Learning suitable for all students?

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Errorless Learning

There are 4 steps to implement the strategy, and let’s learn specific step by step.

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Errorless Learning

Step 1: Identify the skill to be taught and how you will know the learner has mastered
the skill.
To begin implementing errorless learning, first identify the skill you want to teach and
the mastery criteria for that skill. For example, you decide to teach the child to tact
“cat.” You then decide that the learner meets mastery criteria when he responds
correctly during 9 out of 10 trials during 3 consecutive teaching sessions without
prompts.

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Errorless Learning

Step 2: Identify the level of prompt needed to ensure a correct response

The second step is to identify the level of prompt needed to ensure that the learner
responds correctly. This will typically be done based on experience with your learner
and what has been successful in the past. Here’s a quick review of the different types
of prompts you may choose:

Physical-Learner cued by moving part of learner’s body

Gestural-Nonverbal cue such as pointing
Verbal-Vocal cue that could be a phrase or syllable
Visual-Picture or text cue
Modeling-Correct response is demonstrated
Positional-Item placed to increase likelihood of correct response

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Errorless Learning

Step 3: Begin the teaching trial

In the third step, the instructor begins the teaching trial. Start by presenting the
discriminative stimulus (SD). Immediately provide the level of prompt identified in
Step 2. Attempt to block and physically prompt your learner if you observe the
learner is about to make an error.

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Errorless Learning

Step 4: Repeat trials, systematically fade prompts to ensure continued correct

responses until the learner is able to respond independently at the level identified
during Step 1.
The final step in the process is to repeat the trials while systematically fading the
prompts to ensure that the learner continues to respond correctly. You will continue
this process until the learner has reached the level identified during step 1.

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Errorless Learning

Demonstrate the Errorless Learning to the participants

Step1: I decided to teach sight words

Step2: Modeling: show the flashcard and demonstrate reading the word, Verbal: give
first letter sound of the word, Visual: color
I chose rainbow sight words from teacherspayteachers.com for color-coded sight
words. I used one color group by one color(visual prompt) and demonstrated reading
the words(modeling prompt) on the first trial and will fade out the modeling prompt
and give the first letter sound (verbal prompt) and monitor the student on the next
trial.
Step3: Demonstrate the teaching.
Step4: If the partner recognizes every word, move on to verbal prompt and/or move
on to the next color group or mixed color group (fade out visual prompt).

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Errorless Learning

Culminating activities
Now let’s try to practice.
- Pair up
1. Try the Errorless Learning strategy to your partner using the sight words
flashcards prepared for you.
2. Let’s fade out modeling prompt and move on to verbal prompt.

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Errorless Learning

Thank ou for listening.

Do you have any questions?

Reference
Amelia Dalphonse, "4 Things You Need to Know About Errorless
Learning" https://masteraba.com/errorless-learning/

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