Task Analysis

A task analysis takes something that looks like a single behaviour - washing hands, making a sandwich, completing a morning routine - and breaks it into every discrete component step. Each step becomes a teachable unit with its own data.

The granularity matters. A task analysis written for a learner who is just beginning to acquire a skill needs finer steps than one written for a learner who is close to independence. 'Turn on the tap' might be one step for most learners and three steps for someone who needs to learn grip, direction, and force separately.

Task analyses are also measurement tools. Running a task analysis trial gives you a percentage of steps completed independently, which is far more informative than a binary pass/fail on the whole skill. You can see exactly where in the chain the learner breaks down, which tells you exactly where to focus your teaching.