The Use of Behavioral Skills Training to Teach Components of Direct Instruction

Sherman and team worked with four veteran teachers who already used Direct Instruction every day.

The researchers used Behavioral Skills Training: short instructions, a demo, practice with kids, and quick feedback.

They tracked three skills: giving the signal to respond, fixing errors fast, and praising correct answers.

After only two or three BST rounds each teacher hit 95-a large share accuracy on all three skills.

The gains stuck for weeks and showed up when teachers worked with different autistic students.

Ausenhus et al. (2019) got the same jump in fidelity, but they gave feedback through Zoom instead of in-person coaching. The match tells us BST works face-to-face or online.

Al-Nasser et al. (2019) reached near-mastery with no live coach at all—just a picture-rich self-instruction packet. Their success doesn’t clash with Sherman; it shows you can pick live BST or a slick packet depending on time and staff numbers.

Mulder et al. (2020) ran a five-session BST workshop in Japanese correspondence high schools and saw both teacher confidence and student behavior improve. That wider setting says Sherman’s brief model can travel across cultures and age groups.

You don’t need a semester course to fix core DI mistakes. A single 20-minute BST cycle—tell, show, practice, feedback—can push experienced teachers to near-perfect delivery, error correction, and praise. Use it during prep period or team meeting tomorrow; the skills generalize to new students and hold for weeks.