AEE 535

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AEE 535

• Direct Instruction--
• Another Teaching Model

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Background Information

• Direct Instruction
• Teacher-Centered Approach
• Emphasis is on mastery of subject matter
• Developed for teaching reading comprehension and
  math to elementary school students
• Leading proponent in early development was
  Madeline Hunter
• Has been adopted as the official model for
  teaching in North Carolina

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Direct Instruction

• Teacher-Centered Approach
• The teacher is the authority figure in the
  classroom
• Emphasis is on using the lecture technique and
  questioning
• Strong emphasis on drill-and-practice
• Students are essentially told what they need to
  learn, how they need to learn it.
• Emphasizes guided practice and independent
  practice of skills.

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Direct Instruction

• Emphasis is on Mastery of Subject Matter
• Questioning emphasizes many low level (cognitive)
  questions--with the emphasis on students
  providing primarily correct answers.
• Rapid pace is emphasized.
• Teacher checks for understanding frequently. If
  students do not give correct answers, the teacher
  re-teaches the material.

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Direct Instruction

• Philosophical Basis
• Students must know basic facts
• Memorization of information is emphasized
• Students learn information at the lower cognitive
  levels
• Once students know basic information, they will
  be able to make application to other situations
  on their own (move from low level to high level
  cognitive skills).

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Direct Instruction

• Best Suited For
• Information that must be memorized
  (multiplication tables, vocabulary words, etc.)
• Teaching basic facts (plant identification keys,
  terms associated with a lesson, parts of a plant
  and functions, etc.)
• Any low level cognitive skills

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Planning for Direct Instruction

• A six-point lesson plan provides the format for
  direct instruction
• This plan is a daily lesson plan format and does
  not lend itself well to unit planning.
• A unit plan could be developed by combining a
  series of daily plans.
• Drawback You have to finish what you plan to
  teach each day or it is difficult to do a good
  job of the first two steps in the plan.

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Steps in Direct Instruction

• Focus and Review (Step 1)
• teacher reviews any prerequisite information
  needed by students prior to the beginning of
  instruction on the topic for the day.
• Provides a basis for the lesson for the day and
  focuses the attention of the students on the task
  at hand.
• Research shows that effective teachers spend an
  average of 5 minutes reviewing information prior
  to starting a new lesson.

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Steps in Direct Instruction

• Statement of Objectives (Step 2)
• Teacher clearly states what will be learned
  during that lesson.
• Simple statement of what the teacher intends for
  the students to accomplish or be able to do.
• Research has shown that effective teachers
  clearly explain to students what is expected of
  them prior to beginning instruction.

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Steps in Direct Instruction

• Teacher Input or Teacher Presentation (Step 3)
• Teacher presents the information to be learned
• Proceeds in small steps, stopping at the end of
  each step to ask low-level cognitive questions
  (checking for understanding).
• Proceeds at a rapid pace--emphasis is on covering
  a lot of material in the time allocated.
• Research has shown that low level questions are
  most effective with at-risk students.

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Steps in Direct Instruction

• Guided Practice (Step 4)
• Teacher leads the students through an activity
  with students paying close attention to every
  step.
• Good example is students working math problems on
  the board.
• Each step is emphasized and the teacher makes
  sure the students understand each step involved
  before proceeding.

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Steps in Direct Instruction

• Independent Practice (Step 5)
• Occurs after students have mastered the guided
  practice step.
• Teacher assigns activity that allows students to
  practice the new material learned (or skills) in
  the classroom (often called seatwork)
• Teacher circulates throughout the room,
  monitoring student progress and providing
  feedback.

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Steps in Direct Instruction

• Closure (Step 6)
• Teacher reviews the lesson taught for the day,
  emphasizing major points learned.
• Could include teacher asking a series of
  questions about the lesson to check for
  understanding
• Research has shown that effective teachers spend
  an average of 5-10 minutes at the end of a lesson
  in a closure activity.

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Direct Instruction

• Important Points
• Activities must be well-planned in order to
  maximize student learning time.
• Transitions between activities (6 steps) must be
  rapid and waste little time.
• Skill of the teacher is critical in a
  teacher-centered approach to learning
• Some activities or topics may not lend themselves
  well to guided practice or independent practice.
  In those cases, the teacher may omit those steps.

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Final Thoughts

• While direct instruction lends itself to a
  lecture technique, lecture is not the exclusive
  technique that is used.
• Remember that this is an approach to teaching,
  not a teaching technique.
• There has been little research to show that
  students who learn low level skills are able to
  translate those skills to application, analysis,
  synthesis, or evaluation.
• May be best used in situations for which it was
  intended--teaching low level cognitive skills.