Direct Instruction (DI) is a term for the explicit teaching of a skill-set using
lectures or demonstrations of the material to students. A particular subset of direct instruction, denoted by capitalization as Direct Instruction, refers to a specific example of the approach developed by
Siegfried Engelmann
Siegfried "Zig" Engelmann (November 26, 1931 – February 15, 2019) was an American educationalist who co-developed the approach to instruction termed "Direct Instruction" (DI). Engelmann was Professor Emeritus of Education at the University of Ore ...
and Wesley C. Becker. DI teaches by explicit instruction,
Explicit Instruction. LearnLab. Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center. Retrieved 2017-06-12. in contrast to exploratory models such as
inquiry-based learning. DI includes
tutorials, participatory laboratory classes,
discussion,
recitation,
seminar
A seminar is a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some parti ...
s,
workshop
Beginning with the Industrial Revolution era, a workshop may be a room, rooms or building which provides both the area and tools (or machinery) that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods. Workshops were the ...
s,
observation,
active learning,
practica, or
internships. Model includes "I do" (instructor), "We do" (instructor and student/s), "You do" (student practices on their own with instructor monitoring).
DI relies on a systematic and scripted curriculum, delivered by highly trained instructors. On the premise that all students can learn and all teachers successfully teach if given effective training in specific techniques, teachers may be evaluated based on measurable student learning.
In some special education programs, direct instruction is used in
resource rooms, when teachers assist with
homework completion and academic remediation.
[Effective direct instruction practices in special education settings]
Englert, Carol S. ''Remedial & Special Education'', Vol 5(2), Mar-Apr 1984, 38-47
History
DISTAR was a specific direct instruction model developed by Siegfried Engelmann and Wesley C. Becker. Engelmann and Becker sought to identify teaching methods that would accelerate the progress of historically disadvantaged elementary school students.
[Kim, T. & Axelrod, S. (2005)]
Direct Instruction: An Educators’ Guide and a Plea for Action
''The Behavior Analyst Today, 6.(2),'' Page 111-123
Direct Instruction was first formally implemented at a preschool program for children from impoverished backgrounds at the University of Illinois (mid-1960s). The team implementing DI consisted of Siegfried Engelmann, Carl Bereiter, and Jean Osborn. The program incorporated short instructional periods, usually 20 to 30 minutes a day. The instructional periods focused on language, reading, and math. The children showed vast improvement which led to further development of the approach used.
When further developing DI, they applied the same principles to create a formal instructional program that included language, reading, and math. The formal program was termed DISTAR, for Direct Instruction System for Teaching Arithmetic and Reading.
In the late 1960s, Project Follow Through included DI as one of the programs to compare the outcomes of over 20 different educational interventions in high-poverty communities. The study was a large government-funded study that was implemented over a multiyear period. DI was implemented in 19 different sites which ranged in demographic and geographic characteristics. The results indicated that DI was the only intervention that had significantly positive impacts on all outcomes that were measured.
Direct Instruction has been effectively delivered through peers to students with
learning disabilities.
[Marchand-Martella, & Martella (2002]
An Overview and Research Summary of Peer-Delivered Corrective Reading
''The Behavior Analyst Today, 3 (2),'' 214 -235
Peer delivery offers teachers new ways to use the curriculum.
The approach has also been examined as a model to assist students in a
resource room with homework completion, bolster executive functioning skills and improve teacher efficiency.
Success for All
Another popular direct instruction approach is the
Success for All program, which uses
scripted teaching to instruct elementary children in
phonics
Phonics is a method for teaching people how to Reading, read and write an alphabetic language (such as English alphabet, English, Arabic alphabet, Arabic or Russian alphabet, Russian). It is done by demonstrating the relationship between the so ...
intensive reading instruction program. What the teacher says is carefully scripted in the program. The program was designed by
Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...
professor
Robert Slavin in the mid-1980s for failing schools in
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...
. 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.
Jonathan Kozol criticized the program in his book, ''
The Shame of the Nation'', for being excessively dogmatic, utilitarian, and authoritarian.
English language learners (ELL) students could also benefit from Direct Instruction. The program for teaching English to Spanish speaking students begins with teachers giving instruction in Spanish and then gradually incorporating more and more English in the directions. As with all Direct Instruction programs, the Direct Instruction groups are also kept small and with others of similar skill levels.
Effectiveness
Features that make Direct Instruction effective:
*Only 10% of material is new while the remaining 90% of material is a review of previously taught content.
*Students are grouped based on their skill levels that is determined by assessments administered before commencing the Direct Instruction program.
*Emphasis on student's pace by either slowing down, reteaching or accelerating through easily understood material.
*External validity of Direct Instruction has been tested and the program is research-based.
Debates about the efficacy of DI have raged since before the final results of
Project Follow Through were published; however, there is substantial empirical research supporting its effectiveness. A meta-analysis published by Adams & Engelmann (1996), a chief architect of the DI program, finds a "mean effect size average per study...(as) more than .75, which confirms that the overall effect is substantial."
In some special education programs, it is used in a
resource room with small groups of students. Some research has shown benefit with this model.
Direct Instruction is used with students from every population segment (with regard to poverty, culture, and race). In
Project Follow Through, the DI model was ranked first in achievement for poor students, students who were not poor, urban students, rural students,
African American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
students,
Hispanic
The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad.
The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties for ...
students, and
Native American students. Today, many of the Bureau of Indian Affair's highest-performing schools use Direct Instruction materials. The Baltimore Curriculum Project has many schools with Free and Reduced Lunch Rates above 75% serving student populations that are more than 90% African American. These schools have shown strong achievement gains using Direct Instruction.
[Rebar, M. (2007).]
Academic acceleration in first grade using the Direct Instruction model
(Report No. 2007-1). Cheney, WA: Eastern Washington University.
Meta-analysis of 85
single-subject design studies comparing direct instruction to other teaching strategies found the effects to be substantial for students with learning disabilities; however, when qualified by IQ and reading levels
strategy instruction (SI) had better effects for the high IQ group. For the low-IQ discrepancy groups, higher effect sizes were yielded for a Combined DI and SI Model when compared to all competing models. With the exception of handwriting, DI's effects were all above 0.8 (i.e., reading and mathematics).
John Hattie's Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement (2009) summarizes the results of four meta-analyses that examined Direct Instruction. These analyses incorporated 304 studies of over 42,000 students. Across all of these students, the average effect size was 0.59 and was significantly larger than those of any other curriculum Hattie studied.
Direct Instruction is recognized as one of two effective models of comprehensive school reform and, in many cases, can be integrated into a tiered model system to address students with developing problems.
[Stewart, R.M., Martella, R.C., Marchand-Martella, N.E. & Benner, G.J. (2005)]
Three-Tier Models of Reading and Behavior
''JEIBI'' 2 (3), 115-123 The findings from
Project Follow Through, conducted in a variety of selected communities throughout the United States, suggested that Direct Instruction is the most effective model for teaching academic skills and for affective outcomes (e.g.,
self-esteem
Self-esteem is confidence in one's own worth or abilities. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs about oneself (for example, "I am loved", "I am worthy") as well as emotional states, such as triumph, despair, pride, and shame. Smith and Mackie (2007) d ...
) of children. Recent large-scale studies (1997–2003), such as the Baltimore Curriculum Project, show that it is possible to help schools that are in the lowest twenty percent with respect to academic achievement steadily improve until they are performing well above average. In some cases, school achievement improved from the 16th percentile to above the 90th percentile.
[
]
Criticism
Common criticisms:
Teachers often express animosity towards the methods of Direct Instruction claiming that it limits both student creativity and teacher creativity in the classroom due to its strict, scripted procedures.
Another common concern of those who disagree with Direct Instruction programs is their expense. Many argue that the current expense of implementing Direct Instruction programs is too high and unreasonable for low SES schools or school districts. Some prices of student workbooks are about $20 each while teacher workbook pricing can range from $180-$232 as seen on the McGraw Hill website, who is the main distributor of Direct Instruction materials (NIFDI, 2005).
Other criticisms:
One three-year study of methods of teaching reading showed that highly scripted, teacher-directed methods of teaching reading were not as effective as traditional methods that allowed a more flexible approach.[Ryder RJ, Burton JL, Silberg A. 2006. Longitudinal study of direct instruction effects from first through third grade. Journal of Educational Research, 99, 3, 179-191] Urban teachers in particular expressed great concern over the DI's lack of sensitivity to issues of poverty
Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse , culture
Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups ...
, and race.[
The former president of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), Anne Tweed, questioned whether direct instruction was the most effective science teaching strategy. In the December 15, 2004 NSTA Reports she concluded that "direct instruction alone cannot replace the in-depth experience with science concepts that inquiry-based strategies provide."
Some critics also see DI as a betrayal of the ]humanistic
Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry.
The meaning of the term "human ...
, egalitarian foundations of adult public education, or as a "canned" or "teacher proof" curriculum deliverable via unskilled teachers.
In Australia, where DI has been used in schools among several remote Indigenous Australians communities in Queensland, DI has been criticised for its high cost in return for at best modest improvements in literacy and numeracy levels, as well as its US-centric theme which is alien to indigenous Australian cultures.[Misty Adoniou]
What went wrong at Aurukun School?
''The Conversation'', July 8, 2016. Retrieved September 21, 2016
See also
*Behaviorism (philosophy of education)
Behaviorism is a systematic approach to understanding the behavior of humans and animals. It assumes that behavior is either a reflex evoked by the pairing of certain antecedent stimuli in the environment, or a consequence of that individual' ...
* Instructional design
References
External links
National Institute for Direct Instruction
What the Data Really Show: Direct Instruction Really Works!
Educational Resources web site: A Professional Staff Development Company Specializing in Direct Instruction Implementations
Zig Engelmann
Success for All Foundation website
* ttp://www.zigsite.com/PDFs/rubric.pdf#search=%22direct%20instruction%20rubric%22 Rubric for Identifying Authentic Direct Instruction Programs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Direct instruction
Pedagogy
Educational psychology
Behaviorism