Scenarios in which a teacher provides the student with an initial description or demonstration of some procedure to be learned are common in many science and technology fields. Structuring such initial presentations to assist rather than inhibit the student's representation of the target procedure is a real pedagogical concern. Production systems approaches to depicting procedural learning were used to derive four implications for such structuring. These implications were tested in two studies, one in a real class context of undergraduate mathematics study. Corroborating earlier research, clear learning advantages were found for embedding a procedure's steps in an explicit hierarchical goal structure. Extending earlier research, learning advantages were also found for distinguishing and making explicit both the actions and the signalling conditions that comprise those steps. The development of teaching proficiency in the specific skill of initially describing or demonstrating procedures is considered.