Enhancing quality of teaching by direct care staff through performance feedback on the job

Performance feedback was used on the job as the primary procedure to train four direct‐care staff at a large state residential facility to administer a comprehensive set of teaching behaviors while they taught self‐care skills to developmentally delayed residents. All trainees improved their teaching when provided feedback on the job, but maintained their skills to a lesser extent after a two month follow‐up assessment. Residents made modest progress toward independence. Implications for designing methods to promote acquisition and maintenance of staff teaching skills and to provide more effective learning experiences for residents are discussed.