Task Analysis, Handwriting, and Process-Based Instruction

Te use of process-, or modality-based, instruction has been heavily criticized because of the often questionable reliability of process testing and an absence of demonstrable process-linked academic gains in groups of students with whom the approach has been employed. Its critics have advocated product, or subskill, teaching as the only acceptable approach. While we agree that product teaching should be the primary instructional strategy, we feel a need for alternative approaches as well because teachers, faced with pupil failure, must often ask themselves, dWhat do I do now?d One alternative is process-based teaching, to be used if product teaching does not work and if the child presents process deficits. To implement our view that product and process teaching are complementary and