Instructional Principle: When teachers explain exactly what students are expected to learn, and demonstrate the steps needed to accomplish a particular academic task, students learn more.
Direct instruction rejects (or at least sets aside) the assumption that students will spontaneously develop insights on their own. Rather, direct instruction takes learners through the steps of learning systematically, helping them see both the purpose and the result of each step. The basic components of direct instruction are:
Note that Direct Instruction (spelled with capital letters) often refers to a specific system for implementing direct instruction, developed by Siegfried Engelmann and others. (See the link to the Association for Direct Instruction.)
Direct instruction does not contradict the notion of constructivist learning, which maintains that learners must construct meaning for themselves with regard to any topic. A constructivist would simply say that with direct instruction learners receive assistance in developing meaning for themselves. That is, learners are more likely to develop insightful understandings about relatively "objective" topics if they receive expert guidance. The function of the teacher is to maximize the learner's active thinking about the topic. The learners still actively construct their own knowledge.
Not all topics are amenable to direct instruction. Direct instruction has proved especially effective in teaching basic skills (such as how to use a microscope or the definitions of important terms in biology) and skills that are fundamental to more complex activities (such as basic study skills or the prerequisite skills for long division). Direct instruction is not as likely to be useful for teaching less structured topics, such as English composition or the analysis of social issues. However, research has shown (e.g., Cotton, 1991) that as long as teachers also employ other effective pedagogical principles, direct instruction works in a surprisingly wide range of situations. An excellent discussion of direct instruction can be found in Rosenshine (1986).
Direct instruction is one of the activities that the computer performs especially well.
(Select a specific example to develop here for Figure 3.5. Also add a few extra examples that readers can access if they wish.)
The use of computers as part of direct instruction varies with different instructional objectives. For example, the application of direct instruction to learning cycles in science may be different from its application to mathematics or language arts instruction.
Let's consider an example from science education. Contemporary science education emphasizes a learning cycle approach to instruction (Renner & Marek, 1990), which can be considered to be a form of "guided discovery." The learning cycle includes the following phases:
Direct instruction is important during each phase of the learning cycle.
In the Exploration and Application phases, it is essential that the teacher intervene directly in the activity of students if the students are not asking the right question, not making appropriate observations, getting sidetracked into an unprofitable learning behavior, not collecting appropriate data, or not paying attention to the data that they are collecting. In such cases, direct instruction means that the teacher asks questions and provides suggestions at appropriate times to help students focus on profitable activities.It is equally important that the teacher not let students digress on irrelevant or erroneous activities and that the teacher refrain from giving simplistic, fact-oriented feedback that will promote trivial memorization rather than understanding of the processes and concepts under consideration. In these phases of instruction, improper feedback focusing heavily on "right answers" could cause students to memorize trivia or purely rote information, and such outcomes are the exact opposite of what students should accomplish during these phases.
Students must be guided by the teacher (or textbook or computer program) to construct or apply the concept themselves. Students should "know" the concept is a good one because it helps them understand a real problem or because it helps them explain the data they have collected, not because "the teacher (or the textbook or the computer) said so." The important thing in both phases is that the students interact with materials and work out patterns and concepts for themselves.
Direct instruction is also commonly used during the "Concept Introduction" phase of the learning cycle. Interaction during this phase should be structured, but not authoritarian. Learning best takes place in a convivial atmosphere, where there is a give and take between teacher and students, each contributing something to the invention of the pattern and accompanying operational definition of term; each suggesting critical and variable attributes related to the concept, and each suggesting ways to apply the concept.
Some educators misinterpret the role of direct instruction. They equate it with the memorization of a term; but this is far from an accurate perception. The preceding example has shown that direct instruction can and should play a role in all phases of the learning cycle in science. Similar examples can be derived from all areas of the curriculum. Direct instruction requires not mere rote memorization, but also the application and practical use of higher-order thinking skills.
It should be clear from the preceding discussion that even if a program does not incorporate all the features of direct instruction, teachers can use almost any good computer application as a component of this strategy. It is merely necessary that the teacher clearly point out the objective of a unit of instruction, point out the connection between the objective and the computer program, and then monitor the student's use of the software.
Educational theorists have recognized the inadequacy of the term direct instruction and have recommended such terms as active teaching (Good, 1983) or generative teaching (Wittrock, 1990, 1991) as broader terms that describe the ideal way to teach.
Active teaching: Teachers whose students learn effectively are active in presenting concepts, providing opportunities for useful practice, and monitoring those activities carefully. These teachers actively look for ways to determine whether their students understand what they are doing. They assume partial responsibility for their students' learning and are prepared to reteach when it is necessary to do so. Computers can be an important part of active teaching.Generative teaching: Constructivist learning theory holds that students learn by actively creating relationships between what they are learning and what they already know. Teachers who employ generative teaching help students generate relationships - that is, they attempt to help students become active and responsible for constructing (generating) meaning from class activities by building relations both (1) across subject-matter concepts and (2) between the subject matter and students' existing knowledge.
When employing generative or active teaching, teachers use materials and procedures to stimulate students to recognize or create relationships. Sometimes effective teachers will use direct instruction; sometimes a more student-centered approach. However, even during direct instruction, effective learning will occur only if the learners actively generate relationships.
Students who look at a table in a book or on a computer screen and see the information may generate relationships by seeing how the concepts in the table are connected. On the other hand, these students may fail to make these connections, perhaps because the designer of the table has already done all the work, and there is no need for the learner to become engaged. If teachers ask the students questions about the table or have the students themselves create the table, then active thought about the relationships is likely to take place. This active thought is what turns engaged time into effective learning time.
Note that scaffolded instruction, which is discussed later in this chapter, is an effective strategy for promoting both direct instruction and active or generative teaching. That section will specify guidelines for using scaffolded instruction at the computer.
One of the most important applications of instructional computing is to use the computer to enable students to actively generate relationships among ideas.
Direct Instruction
Carnegie Mellon Researchers Say Direct
Instruction, Rather Than "Discovery Learning" Is Best Way To Teach
Process Skills In Science
http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/direct-sciskill.html
According to this article, direct instruction can be used to teach some fairly sophisticated skills. This 1998 press release is online at this web site:
Instructional Design as a School Reform
Strategy by Northwest Regional Educational
http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/natspec/catalog/directinst.htm
Summary of numerous other curriculum models for educational reform, many of which involve direct instruction, mastery learning, or generative teaching:
Direct Instruction in Education by Martin
A. Kozloff. Louis LaNunziata, and James Cowardin.
http://www.uncwil.edu/people/kozloffm/diarticle.html
This 1999 report gives a comprehensive analysis of the research that supports direct instruction and related methods.
Direct Instruction Information
http://www.uncwil.edu/people/kozloffm/aftdi.html
A comprehensive summary of information about programs using direct instruction and sites at which direct instruction is implemented on a large scale can be found at this site:
Direct Instruction
http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/18/61/1861.htm
This is a comprehensive summary sponsored by the Educational Commission of the States.
The Courage to Be Constructivist by Martin
G. Brooks and Jacqueline Grennon Brooks.
http://www.ascd.org/frameedlead.html
These authors point out ways in which high-stakes state assessments pressure teachers to depart from instructional practices that foster meaningful learning.
MathWings: Effects on Student Mathematics
Performance by Nancy A. Madden and Robert E. Slavin
http://www.successforall.net/resource/research/effectsofmath.htm
This article describes and evaluates MathWings, a systematic approach to using constructivist approaches for mathematics instruction based on the standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). {Information about the NCTM standards can be found at http://www.nctm.org/standards/.} The MathWings curriculum focuses heavily on generative teaching and learning.
Visual Tools for Constructing Knowledge by
David Hyerle.
http://www.ascd.org/framebooks.html
You can't get the whole book online, but you can get some sample chapters with some excellent content. The online chapter discusses and gives examples of the dynamic use of visual tools to construct and explicitly show knowledge. This link won't take you directly there. But if you select The Brain and Learning from the main menu, you can select this title from the submenu.
Thinking Maps
http://www.thinkingmaps.com./thinking.htm
I really don't want to get into the habit of plugging commercial materials, and the people at this web site really do want to sell you something. But just perusing their web page will give you a better understanding of some of the visual strategies that students can use to stimulate generative learning. Materials of this kind are the focus of Visual Tools for Constructing Knowledge by David Hyerle (cited above).
Explicit Instruction in Reading
Strategies
http://www.mdk12.org/practices/good_instruction/projectbetter/elangarts/ela-36-37.html
This very brief page shows that direct instruction is often far from rote learning. It recommends guidelines for using scaffolded instruction to promote thinking while reading.
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