Direct Instruction (DI) is one of the most common teaching methods and has been recognized in education for decades. As defined by the Education Hub (2019), DI is a “systematic approach to teaching in which the teacher is very explicit about what students are to learn, the language of instruction clear, and allows teachers the opportunity to monitor their students while teaching, and to provide constructive feedback.” This is most often recognized by the following characteristics highlighted by Adams & Carnine (2003):
Meeting students at their skill level, and emphasizing mastery of the basics
Teachers make all decisions regarding lesson plans, resources, etc.
Consistent and active questions with learners (Tell – Ask [Merrell, 2018])
Positive reinforcement
From a layperson’s perspective, DI may look like a boring lecture or maybe watching a movie, followed by panic when the educator calls on them to answer a question. However, DI can be incredibly beneficial with certain subjects such as spelling and reading (Renard, 2023).
Based on my general research and discussions with my Pod, I believe DI does not really align with our topic. Although we aim to meet learners at their skill level, our topic and blueprint encourages a lot of Doing (Merrell, 2018) with a lot of room for mistakes, group conversations, and teamwork. Ideally for our topic learners will pursue external resources and real-life experiences on their own, or get creative (see Learning Activities) during lesson plans. However, a majority of resources made available for students comes from the educators, which is aligned with DI. Overall, I believe Direct Instruction aligns at a base level, but our blueprint has further implemented several methods to best cater to the learners’ skills and needs.
References
Adams, G., & Carnine, D. (2003). Direct instruction. Handbook of learning disabilities, 403-416.
The Education Hub. (2019). A brief introduction to direct instruction. https://www.theeducationhub.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Direct-Instruction.pdf
Renard, L. (2023, March 24). Direct instruction – A practical guide to effective teaching. BookWidgets. https://www.bookwidgets.com/blog/2019/03/direct-instruction-a-practical-guide-to-effective-teaching
Hey Frankie,
Thank you for explaining Direct Instruction so effectively! It sounds very similar to the teacher-centered instruction style of Authoritative/Lecturer Style outlined well in the article An Educator’s Guide to Teaching Styles & Learning Styles by Joseph Lathan (link to the article below if interested), that explores the differing styles of teaching and the learning styles as well with connections between the two. I find it really interesting because I have heard several times from educators that the learning styles don’t actually exist! That has not been my experience but I’m curious as to what you think?
Also your pod’s topic sounds really intriguing and I’m looking forward to seeing your project 🙂
Thank you for sharing!
https://onlinedegrees.sandiego.edu/teaching-to-every-students-unique-learning-style/