Direct Instruction

A Behavioral Approach

Description:

 Involves implementing conditions best suited to bring about certain

responses to particular stimuli.
 Student learning is the Teacher’s responsibility. “If the student has not
learned, the teacher has not taught.”
 Most frequently used for basic skills and subject matter in primary and
elementary school levels.
 Also used for remedial classes at middle and high school level.
 Felt to be best suited for young learners, slow learners, and all learners when
the material is new or difficult.
 There are several variations.

Main Characteristics:

1. Almost all classroom activity is focused on learning academic knowledge.

2. Teacher makes all instructional decisions. Highly structured “teacher-
directed”, or “Teacher-lead” instruction.
3. Keeps student “on-task” as much as possible.
4. Maintains positive classroom by positive reinforcement.

Adams, G. L., & Engelmann, S. (1996). Research on direct instruction: 25 years beyond
DISTAR. Seattle, WA: Educational Achievement Systems.

Joyce, B., & Weil, M. (2004). Models of teaching (7th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Rosenshine, B. V., & Meister, C. (1994b). Direct Instruction. In T. Husen & T. N.

Postlewhaite (Edc.), International encyclopedia of education (2nd ed., Vol. 3, pp. 1524-
1530). New York: Pergamon.

Rosenshine, B. V. (1987). Explicit teacher. In D. C. Berliner & B. V. Rosenshine (Eds.),

Talks to teachers (pp. 75-92.) New York: Random House.

Components:

1. Orientation – which involves: Overview, Importance, and relation to

previous knowledge or life experience, learning expectations.
2. Presentation – which involves: Explaining, Illustrating, Demonstrating,
Broken down into small steps, Examples, and Evaluation.
 3. Structured Practice – which emphasizes accurate execution of the
particular skill.
4. Guided Practice – Where teacher monitors and corrects work.
5. Independent Practice – Where students are able to self correct their own
performance.

* Last 3 components, all dealing with practice are known as “Shaping” in Behavioral
theory, and can be recognized as “Scaffolding” in Constructivism.

Suggestions for Effective Practice:

 Systematically move from Structured  Guided  Independent Practice.
 Frequent, short, intense practice sessions are more effective than longer and
less frequent practice sessions (especially for younger learners).
 Carefully monitor responses in Structured Practice sessions. Emphasize and
Reinforce correct response. Correct unacceptable responses immediately.
Operant conditioning says it’s easier to Do It Right The First Time (DIRT-FT).
Uncorrected practice impedes future learning.
 To ensure high success in skill mastery, student should not be allowed to
move from Guided practice  Independent practice until they are achieving
accuracy 85% of the time.
 Spread practice over several months.
 Space practice close together at first, then spread further apart as you move
from Structured  Independent practice.

Points/Steps to consider when planning and implementing Direct Instruction:

1. Write lesson outcomes

2. Select lesson content
3. Organize lesson content
4. Prepare lesson notes
5. Help students to master the language of your subject
6. Help students to take notes
7. Check learners’ understanding

Effectiveness and Limitations:

(from: Killen, Roy (2006). Effective Teaching Strategies: Lessons from Research and
Practice. Cengage Learning Australia)

Effectiveness
1. Direct instruction can be used to help
students achieve many types of learning
outcomes Direct instruction can also be
used to demonstrate skills to students
Limitations
1. If the teacher does not appear to be
well prepared, knowledgeable,
confident, enthusiastic and well
organized, the students will become

2. Direct instruction can be an efficient
way to introduce students to a new area
of study by giving them a broad
overview that defines key concepts and
shows how they are interrelated. This
helps students to develop the foundation
knowledge that they need for later
learning
3. Direct instruction allows you to
highlight important points
4. Direct instruction can be equally
effective with large and small classes and the high level of structure and teacher
with students from most cultures.
5. Direct instruction is one of the most
effective approaches for teaching explicit some students’ participation (such as
concepts and skills to low-achieving
students (Berliner, 1982; Ross & Kyle,
1987)
6. Lectures can be a useful way to
provide information for students who
are poor readers or who are not very
skilled at locating, organizing and
interpreting information.
7. Generally, direct instruction allows
you to create a non-threatening learning lot of one-way communication, they may
environment for students. Those who
are shy, not confident or not
knowledgeable are not forced to
participate and become embarrassed.
bored or distracted and their learning
will be hindered. Because of teacher’s
central role in direct instruction, success
of this strategy depends heavily on what
I have referred to as the ‘image’ that the
teacher projects (Killen, 1990)
2. Direct instruction relies heavily on
students being able to assimilate
information through listening, observing
and note taking. Students who are not
very good at these skills will find it
difficult to learn from direct instruction.
3. t is very difficult to cater for the
individual differences between students’
abilities, prior knowledge, interest in the
subject, rates of learning, levels of
understanding or learning styles during
direct instruction.
4. There is some research evidence that
control that is characteristic of direct
instruction may have negative impact on
students’ problem solving abilities,
independence and curiosity (Ross &
Kyle, 1987)
5. If direct instruction does not involve
asking and answering questions), their
interest will be lost after 10-15 minutes,
and they will remember little of the
content.
6. If used too frequently, direct
instruction can lead students to believe
that it is the teacher’s job to tell them all
they need to know.
7. Because direct instruction involves a
be limited opportunities to gain feedback
about student understanding. The
teacher may not be aware that some
students have developed
misconceptions.
Computers can be used to:

1. Emphasize specific performance objectives

2. Break down learning into small steps
3. Immediate feedback
4. Consistent Rewards
5. Predefine assessment techniques.

Mazyck, M. (2002). Integrated learning systems and students of color: Two decades
of use in K – 12 education. TechTrends, 46(2), 33-39.

Ysseldyke, J., Kosciolek, S., Spicuzza, R., & Boys, C. (2003). Effects of a learning
information system on mathematics achievement and classroom structure. Journal
of Educational Research, 96(3), 163-173.

Example of Direct Instruction Lesson Plan:

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/24079115/direct-instruction-
lesson-plan-example

References:

Killen, R. (2006). Effective Teaching Strategies: Lessons from Research and Practice.
Cengage Learning Australia

Ross, D. D., and Kyle, D. W. (1987).Helping pre-service teachers learn to use teacher
effectiveness research. Journal of Teacher Education, 38 (2), 40-44.

Snowman, J., McCown, R., & Biehler, R. (2009). Psychology Applied to Teaching. (12th
ed.). Boston Massachusetts: Houghton, Mifflin.