Characteristics of Direct Instruction
Deductive and Inductive Strategies
Characteristics of Direct Instruction
Questioning
Guided Practice & Homework
Recitations
Demonstrations
Practice and Drills
Guided Practice & Homework
Presentations
Reviews
Questioning
The Gradual Release of Responsibility Model
A Continuum of Instructional Approaches
Direct and Indirect Instructional Approaches
Components of Direct and Explicit Instruction Lessons
Degrees of Direct Instruction
Deductive Strategies
Questioning is a critical instructional tool, but there are many facets to successful questioning
Questioning Techniques
Similar to a lecture in its direct communication of information from teacher to student
Guided Practice
Presentation:
Homework
Direct instruction is effective because it is based on behavioristic learning principles, such as obtaining students' attention, reinforcing correct responses, providing corrective feedback, and practicing correct responses
Recitation:
involves going over material just learned
Practice:
Direct Instructional Approaches
Direct instruction involves instructional approaches in which the teacher structures lessons in a straightforward, sequential manner focusing on mastery of knowledge and skills that can be taught in a step-by-step manner
Review:
Instructional Strategy:
- Ten general principles apply when developing an explicit instruction lesson:
- The components of explicit instruction lessons in the sequence they should be arranged in the lesson:
A demonstration involves a visual presentation to examine processes, information, and ideas
Kinds of Questions
First proposed by Pearson and Gallagher (1983), the gradual release of responsibility model of instruction suggests that the cognitive work should shift slowly and intentionally from teacher-as-model, to joint responsibility between teacher and student, to independent practice and application by the learner
an informative talk that a more knowledgeable person makes to less knowledgeable persons.
Seat work
Teachers need to give careful consideration to formulate questions, present questions, prompt student responses, assess and use questions, and encourage student question
a method of delivering instruction that is intended to help students achieve the learning objective
involves a teacher asking students a series of relatively short answer questions to determine if they remember or understand previously covered content
- Questions for the learning domains
It also tends to increase the academic learning time, or the amount of instructional time during which students are attending to the task and performing at a high success rate.
Can be used to disseminate information in a short time, explain difficult ideas, stimulate student desire to learn
Allows students to see the teacher as an active learner and a model. Allows for students to observe real things and how they work
Teacher-Centered to Student-Centered Approaches
involve deductive reasoning in which the teacher starts with a known principle or concept followed by examples of the concept
The model provides a structure for teachers to move from assuming "all the responsibility for performing a task...to a situation in which the students assume all of the responsibility."
Instructional Approaches for Direct Instruction
The teacher is clearly in control of the content or skill to be learned and the pace and rhythm of the lesson
There are three main purposes of a well-orchestrated recitation:
- Involves students working on in-class assignments, often independently
- Successful independent practice requires both adequate preparation of students and effective teacher management of the activity
- Ways to improve student engagement during seat work:
- a study that students do when they are not under the direct supervision of their teachers, such as study at home, in the library, or in study hall
- Homework does not include in-school guided study; home study courses delivered through the mail, television, or an audio- or videotape; or extracurricular activities such as sports teams and clubs.
- There are four types of homework assignments:
The Direct Instruction Model
Uses and Limitations
Presentations should be used when:
An opportunity for students to look at a topic another time. A review does not require drill techniques. It does involve reteaching and is intended to reinforce previously learned material and to sometimes give new meaning to the material
Some strategies that are most suited to help achieve the objectives of the lessons are teacher directed, such as lectures, recitations, questions, and practice
There may be pure demonstrations, demonstrations with commentary, or participative demonstrations with students
This gradual release may occur over one day, a week, a month, or a year. Over time students assume more responsibility for the task
- Questions can be developed for each level of the cognitive domain: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. The first three levels generally require low-level questions because they emphasize primarily the recall and moderate use of the information. The upper three require high-level questions that go beyond memory and partial recall; they deal with abstract and complex thinking
the initial activity of a lesson that is used to gain students' attention, inform students of the lesson objectives, and describe the lesson to students. It is intended to create a mental "set" in students so that they are in a receptive frame of mind for the lesson. Also referred to as anticipatory set.
- Teacher-centered instructional strategies are sometimes referred to as direct instruction. With direct-instruction, the teacher typically selects the instructional objectives, the corresponding content, and the instructional strategies that will be used in the lessons
- The teacher structures the learning environment and is primarily the conveyer of information in teacher-directed instructional activities (presentations, demonstrations, recitations, drill and practice)
- Students generally are not involved in the selection of objectives, content, or instructional strategies.
- Lends itself to the lower level of Bloom's Taxonomy, with emphasis on knowing and remembering the facts
- There are usually fewer objectives in the higher-higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy in direct instruction, partly because students are not expected to be very active in the learning process or in constructing their own learning.
- Plan key questions in advance to provide lesson structure and direction
- Ask questions at various levels of the cognitive domain
- Phrase questions clearly and specifically
- Adapt questions to student ability level
- ask questions that relate to students' own lives or similar situations
- Vary the types of questions being asked
The direct teaching format calls for teacher-led and teacher-assisted instruction involving presentations, demonstrations, questions and answers, review and practice, and feedback and correction of student errors
- Objectives rather than knowledge acquisition are sought
- This information is complex, abstract, or detailed
- Learner involvement is important; higher cognitive learning is sought
- Students are below average in ability
Others are more interactive, such as various group and discussion methods. Still other strategies are more student directed; these often emphasize inquiry and discovery
- To ensure that all students know whether a given answer is right or wrong
- To ensure that all students are aware of the most complete, appropriate, and correct response to each question
- To help students connect new knowledge to prior learning and experiences and help move it into long-term memory
Practice is intended to consolidate, clarify, and emphasize what the student has already learned. Practice sessions are more meaningful when spread out over time, when conducted in context, when whole issues are examined rather than the parts, and when used in different activities
Demonstrations can be used to illustrate points or procedures efficiently, stimulate interest in a particular topic, provide a model for teaching specific skills, and provide a change of pace
Teacher-Centered Instructional Strategies
- Prepare students for the knowledge base
- The strengths of the deductive strategy are the directness and specific focus of the teaching strategy and the tight linkage between the teachers' examples and the task required of students
- Deductive strategies are more direct and straightforward and lend themselves to direct instructional approaches
- Begin a lesson with a short statement of goals
- Begin a lesson with a short review of previous prerequisite learning
- Present new material in small steps, with student practice after each step
- Give clear and detailed instructions and explanations
- Provide a high level of active practice for all students
- Ask many questions, check for student understanding, and obtain responses from all students
- Guide students during initial practice
- Provide systematic feedback and corrections
- Provide explicit instruction and practice for seat work exercises, and when necessary, monitor students during seat work
- Continue practice until students are independent and confidence
- Convergent and divergent questions
- Direct instructional approaches
- Effectiveness of teaching depends partly on the teachers' presentation and partly on the students prior knowledge and active thought process during learning
Guidelines to carry out effective demonstrations:
- Direct instruction can be applied to any subject, but it is most appropriate for performance-oriented subjects such as reading, writing, math, grammar; music and physical education and the skill components of science and history
- Younger children and slower learners can benefit from direct instruction
- Direct instruction is not intended to achieve social learning outcomes or higher-order thinking. Opponents of direct instruction note that this instruction is too teacher centered and puts too much emphasis on teacher talk
- Critics also argue that the model is limited to teaching basic skills and low-level information, while not being as useful when teaching higher-level objectives
Presentations often do not actively engage students in learning or permit passive learning and do not give the teacher opportunities to check student understanding
- Presenting Questions and Prompting Student Responses
Generally, direct instruction allows a teacher to introduce new skills or concepts in a relatively short period of time
Teachers establish a lesson's purpose and then model their thinking to illustrate for students how to approach the new learning. Focus lessons include modeling and direct explanation of the skills, strategies, or tasks being taught. This is followed by teacher-led metacognitive awareness lessons that show students when and how to use new learning, as well as to evaluate the success of the approach they have selected. Then teachers use think-alouds in which they describe how they make decisions, implement skills, active problem-solving procedures, and evaluate whether success has been achieved
- Convergent questions tend to have one correct or best answer. These questions may be phrased to require either low- or high-level thinking
- Divergent questions are often open ended and usually have many appropriate but different answers
You might use recitations as a means to diagnose student progress
Reviews can be in the form of summaries at the ends of lessons, units, or terms; quiz games; outlines; discussions; questioning sessions; and other approaches
- Circulate around the classroom during seat work, actively explaining, observing, asking questions, and giving feedback
- Have brief contacts with individual students
- For difficult material in whole-class instruction, have a number of segments of instruction and seat work during a single class period
- Arrange seats to facilitate monitoring of students
- Establish a routine to use during seat work activity that prescribes what students will do, how they will get help, and what they will do when they have completed the exercise
- Practice, to help students to master specific skills and to reinforce material presented in class
- Preparation, to prepare students for upcoming lessons
- Extension, to go beyond the information obtained in the classroom and to transfer new skills and ideas to new situations
- Creative, to offer students the opportunity to think critically and engage in problem-solving activities
those in which teachers tell the students the concept or skill to be learned and then lead students through most of the instructional activities designed to bring about student learning. Direct instructional approaches include direct instruction, presentations, demonstrations, questions, recitations, practice and drills
- Activate students' prior knowledge
- Provide daily reviews of previously learned knowledge and skills
- Pre-teach new vocabulary
Typical interaction pattern - teacher question, student response, and teacher reaction
Indirect Instructional Approaches
Tips: know the content like an expert, limit the length of the presentation, present in a way that is interesting, provide structure and sequence, maintain flexibility, provide organizers, use media and materials, summarize and provide follow-up activities
Direct instructional strategies are academically focused, with the teacher clearly stating the goals for the lesson to the students
Inductive Strategies
- Provide instruction of new material
Questions posed in recitations are usually low-level questions, asking students to remember or recall facts, provide definitions, or demonstrate comprehension
Drills:
- Inductive instructional approaches
Guidelines for planning and conducting presentations:
- Ask questions logically and sequentially
- Ask the question before calling on a particular student
- use random selection when calling on students
- Encourage wide student participation by calling on many students
- use variety and unpredictability in asking questions and calling on students
- Wait at least three to five seconds after asking a question before calling on a student
- Do not consistently repeat student answers
- Have students respond to classmates' answers
Degrees of Direct Instruction
The teacher closely monitors student understanding and provides feedback to students on their performance
- Guidelines to make decisions about homework for your students:
Components of Direct and Explicit Instruction Lessons
those that involve some type of exploratory activity that helps lead students to discover a concept or generalization. Teachers employ several strategies to help students attain the concepts. Inductive approaches include concept attainment strategies, inquiry lessons, and projects, reports, and problems
Recitations questions rarely engage students in thinking deeply about an issue. It is highly structured, with the teacher clearly in control of directing the learning
- Carefully plan the demonstration
- Break down complex procedures into separate components that can be adequately demonstrated
- Practice the demonstration
- Develop an outline to guide the demonstration
- Make sure that everyone can see the demonstration
- Introduce the demonstration to focus attention
- Describe the procedure at the same time that you demonstrate it.
- Ask and encourage questions
- Permit students to practice the procedure if they are expected to use it
- Provide individual corrective feedback
- Plan a follow-up to the demonstration
Teacher-Led Practice
A daily review at the start of a class will help you to determine if your students have the necessary prerequisite knowledge or skills for the lesson
Teachers strategically use questions and assessment-informed prompts, cues, direct explanations, and modeling to guide students to increasingly complex thinking and facilitate students' increased responsibility for task completion. Students are typically grouped with other learners who are similarly performing, based on assessment data. The groupings change frequently due to ongoing formative assessments. The guided instruction phase facilitates differentiated instruction by content, process, and product because the small group sizes allow for much higher level of customization
- Six teaching functions that are part of lesson design:
involve inductive reasoning where the lesson begins with examples, and the students examine the examples in an effort to identify the main principle or concept
- Guided practice helps students transfer information from working memory into long-term memory
- After instruction of new material, teachers can arrange for guided practice with practice with peers, group problem solving or teacher-directed individual guided practice
- Guided practice is most effective after a presentation or cognitive modeling of an initial concept
- Linked to the learning objectives of the lesson, enables active participation, and promotes student self-direction.
A direct instruction lesson requires careful orchestration by the teacher and the creation of a learning environment that is businesslike and task oriented
- Focusing questions are used to focus students' attention on the day's lesson or on material being discussed. They may be used to determine what students have learned, to motivate and arouse students, to generate interest at the start of or during a lesson, or to check for understanding during or at the close of a lesson
- Prompting questions include hints and clues to aid students in answering questions or to assist them in correcting an initial response. A prompting question is usually a rewording of the original question with clues or hints included
- Probing questions may be needed when a student does not answer a question completely. Stay with the same student by asking one or more probing questions that are intended to seek clarification and to provide guidance to more complete answers.
Recitation questions might be posed for the following purposes:
- Social instructional approaches
- Assessing and Using Questions
- Often takes the form of repetition drills and question-and-answer sessions
- It is intended to establish associations that are available without "thinking through" each time that the associations are needed.
- Drill is useful for skill learning and intellectual skills
involves repeating information on a particular topic until it is firmly established in the students' minds. It is used for learning that needs to be habitualized or to be retained a long time (multiplication tables). Works best at the beginning of class.
- Student-centered instructional strategies are sometimes referred to as indirect instruction. With indirect instruction, the teacher often takes the lead in identifying the instructional objectives and corresponding content, but students may be involved in this process to some degree
- Instructional strategies are used that actively involve students through cooperative and interactive approaches such as projects, cooperative learning, problem-based learning, and inquiry approaches
- Students interact with peers and are actively involved in the learning process
- The teacher serves as a guide and a resource
- Indirect instruction lends itself more to the middle and upper levels of the revised Bloom's taxonomy, with emphasis on doing something with the facts - applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating knowledge
- Indirect instruction lends itself to authentic and performance assessments
- Teachers sometimes like to start with teacher-centered approaches since they can control the classroom conditions and environment
- Once teachers have control and students are learning, they next try instructional approaches in which they give more responsibility to the students with peer-assisted and student-centered instructional approaches
have students working together in various ways to gather, process, and learn information or skills. The teacher acts as a facilitator; rather than the information giver. Social approaches include discussions, cooperative learning, panels and debates, role playing, simulations, and games
- Provide independent practice
- The teacher-directed approach is the most structured in which the teacher transmits information to students in the most direct way possible.
- The teacher-directed approach is typically fairly scripted and sequential
- Some forms of instruction may involve creating homogeneous learning groups to focus on specific knowledge and skills that must be mastered
- Explicit instruction calls for the teacher to gain student attention present new material, reinforce correct responses, provide feedback on student progress, and increase the amount of time that students spend actively engaged in learning
- Its objective is to teach skills and help students to master a body of knowledge
- It is teacher-led instruction, with some involvement by students
- Follow-up on student responses
- Provide appropriate feedback to students
- Expand and use correct responses
Direct instruction focuses mainly on academic learning tasks and aims at keeping students actively engaged
- This inductive approach is indirect, but it can be very effective because students interact with the content to make meaning
- Present the lesson objectives to the students
- Use an anticipatory set to capture the students' interest
- Present the information in an organized, step-by-step manner
- Give step-by-step directions
- Organize material so that one point can be mastered before the next point is introduced
- Focus on one thought at a time, completing one point and checking for understanding before proceeding to the next
- Expect student interaction in the form of questions and comments
- Move from general ideas to specific ideas
- Use a graphic organizer to other aids to promote learning
- Use good explanations and examples
- Encourage students to reflect on and apply what they have learned
- Check for student understanding
- Daily review
- Presenting new material
- Conducting guided practice
- Providing feedback and corrections
- Conducting independent practice
- Providing weekly and monthly reviews
- Recognize that homework serves different purposes at different grade levels
- Assign a mixture of mandatory and voluntary homework
- Use homework to address topics previously covered, those covered on the day of the assignment, and those yet to be covered
- Focus homework on simple skills and material or on the integration of skills already possessed by the student
- Select an appropriate amount of homework for the grade level
- Select a process for providing feedback and grading homework
- Show students ways to overcome distractions
- Teach homework skills to students
Teachers design and supervise tasks that enable students to be in productive groups to consolidate their thinking and understanding, and that require students to generate individual products that can provide formative assessment information. Groupings should be heterogeneous
Student Cooperative Practice
- To review before a test
- To see if students have read or understood a passage
- To check on completion and/or comprehension of homework
- To assess what students know about a topic, either before, during, or after instruction
- To cue students to important content
- To get students to talk
- To provide opportunities for drill and practice
- Independent instructional approaches
- Check students understanding after guided practice
- Self-directed; little or no teacher intervention
- Skill-based (promotes mastery or application based (real life settings)
- Encouraging Student Questions
Direct instruction has four key components:
Weekly and monthly reviews help to check student understanding, ensure that the necessary prior skills are adequately learned, and also check on the teacher's pace.
- Provide closure to the lesson
allow students to pursue content independently with less teacher direction than other lessons. Students sometimes are permitted to pursue their own interest. Independent approaches include learning centers, contracts, and independent work
- Students help each other during seat work
- Students in the groups prepare a common product, such as an answer to a drill sheet, and in other situations the students study cooperatively to prepare for competition that takes place after the seat work
- Teach students how to generate good questions
- Encourage student questions
- Encourage students to ask questions when they need help in understanding content
Teachers design and supervise tasks that require students to apply information they have been taught to create new and authentic products. Students demonstrate their expanding competence
- Clear determination and articulation of goals
- Teacher-directed instruction
- Careful monitoring of students' outcomes
- Consistent use of effective classroom organization and management methods
refers to actions that are designed to bring a lesson presentation to an appropriate and satisfying conclusion