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Direct Instruction
Direct instruction is a general term for the explicit teaching of a skill-set using lectures or demonstrations of the material, rather than exploratory models such as inquiry-based learning.
This method is often contrasted with tutorials, participatory laboratory classes, discussion, recitation, seminars, workshops, observation, case study, active learning, practica or internships. Usually it involves some explication of the skill or subject matter to be taught and may or may not include an opportunity for student participation or individual practice. Some direct instruction is usually part of other methodologies, such as athletic coaching.
Direct instruction may be ad hoc or even an incidental digression. Although there is usually some element of frontal instruction and a general concept of the skill or lesson, there may or may not be a formal lesson plan.
In some special education programs, direct instruction is used in resource rooms, when teachers assist with homework completion and academic remediation.
The foundation of DI
Direct instruction was founded by Siegfried Engelmann in 1964 at the University of Illinois Institute for Research on Exceptional Children. However, the direct instruction model is not to be confused with DISTAR, a specific direct instruction model also developed by Siegfried Engelmann and Wesley C. Becker. “Project Follow Through,” the largest educational study ever conducted in America, found that the DISTAR program was proven to be by far, the most effective model in education. Moreover, all direct instruction models that exist are based on Engelmann’s original theories and research regarding the most effective way to teach children.
Success for All
Another popular direct instruction approach is the Success for All program which uses scripted teaching to instruct elementary children in phonics intensive reading instruction program. What the teacher says is carefully scripted in the program. The program was designed by Johns Hopkins University professor Robert Slavin in the mid 1980s for failing inner city schools in Baltimore. The program requires a dedicated 90 minutes of reading instruction each day in which the teacher must follow a pre-ordained lesson plan that has every minute filled with scripted instruction and specific activities designed to teach reading to every child in the class.
Discovery learning
This form of instruction is often contrasted with discovery learning (Tuovinen, & Sweller,1999). While many support discovery learning, because they feel students learn better if they "learn by doing," there is little empirical evidence to support this claim, quite the contrary in fact (Tuovinen and Sweller, 1999). Kirschner, Sweller, and Clark (2006) suggest that fifty years of empirical data does not support those using these unguided methods of instruction. Hmelo-Silver, Duncan, and Chinn (2007) argue that Kirschner, et al., are conflating several different models of instruction under the term "discovery learning", and that there is, in fact, empirical data that supports the effectiveness of some of these models.
Opponents of direct instruction believe methods of measuring student progress favor skills that are themselves emphasized by direct instruction and deemphasized by discovery education. In addition they suggest aptitude tests focus on students' ability to solve problems, while discovery education emphasizes critical information-seeking and active, fruitful participation in social discourse, goals that cannot be easily measured by traditional empirical methods.
AF Sitemap
- Education Topics
- Achievement Gap
- Alternative Education
- Assessment & Evaluation
- Educational Leadership
- Educational Philosophy
- Educational Research
- Educational Technology
- Educational Videos
- Education Economics
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- Homeless Education
- Homeschooling in the United States
- Migrant Education
- Neglected/Deliquent Students
- Pedagogy
- Sociology of Education
- Special Needs
- National Directories
- After School Programs
- Alternative Schools
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- Prom Services
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- School Districts
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- School Supplies
- School Travel
- School Vendors
- Schools Worldwide
- Special Education
- Special Needs
- Study Abroad
- Teaching Abroad
- Volunteer Programs
- Youth Sports
- For Schools
- Academic Standards
- Assembly Programs
- Blue Ribbon Schools Program
- Educational Accreditation
- Educational Television Channels
- Education in the United States
- History of Education in the United States
- Reading Education in the U.S.
- School Grades
- School Meal Programs
- School Types
- School Uniforms
- Special Education in the United States
- Systems of Formal Education
- U.S. Education Legislation
- For Teachers
- Academic Dishonesty
- Childcare State Licensing Requirements
- Classroom Management
- Education Subjects
- Educational Videos
- Interdisciplinary Teaching
- Job and Interview Tips
- Lesson Plans | Grades
- Professional Development
- State Curriculum Standards
- Substitute Teaching
- Teacher Salary
- Teacher Training Programs
- Teaching Methods
- Training and Certification
- For Students
- Academic Competitions
- Admissions Testing
- At-Risk Students
- Career Planning
- College Admissions
- Drivers License
- Educational Programs
- Educational Television
- Educational Videos
- High School Dropouts
- Higher Education
- School Health
- Senior Proms
- Sex Education
- Standardized Testing
- Student Financial Aid
- Student Television Stations
- Summer Learning Loss