The Components of Direct Instruction

Article: The Components of Direct Instruction

Author: Cathy L. Watkins, Timothy A. Slocum

Reading Time: 2 hours

The purpose of this article is to summarise the ideas behind Direct Instruction (DI), dispel some of the myths around it, and give an overview of the research base.

“The purpose of Direct Instruction is to teach subject matter efficiently so that all the students learn all the material in the minimum amount of time.”

I have produced a summary graphic covering the main ideas available as a PDF here.

It starts by reminding us that teaching requires a lot of thought in a vast array of areas. Having each individual teacher think about all of these aspects is a waste of time, as many can be done centrally, allowing the teacher to focus more on the more nuanced decisions that need to be made for a particular class. The main components of DI are split into three sections: Program Design; Organisation of Instruction; Teacher-Student Interactions. These three aspects are what I have summarised in the visual above.

Program Design

The main purpose of Program Design is to identify the concepts, strategies and big ideas we want students to learn, and plan how we will teach these ideas.

Content Analysis

The first step is to analyse the content, and in particular, identify the big ideas and generalisable strategies. The aim of the program is not to teach many strategies that are useful in a limited number of cases, but rather strategies that can be generalised to examples that have not been seen before. The example of teaching students to read by whole word recognition is given as one that is not generalisable, whereas using phonics is a system students can apply to new words when they are encountered.

"Direct Instruction is about teaching strategies that enable students to go beyond the particular items that are taught and to apply their learning to new items or situations."

The misconception that DI is all about rote learning is addressed, saying that actually DI is all about connecting new learning to old, and learning strategies that can be applied in a wide range of contexts. This is an interesting point to appear so early on, as this is the most common criticism of explicit methods of teaching. It is recognised that the reason this myth has appeared is because DI does insist on mastery of basic skills before moving on to these bigger ideas, but that is not the purpose.

Clear Communication

Once the ideas that are to be taught have been identified, the next step is to focus on clear communication of these ideas to the students. It is very important to give both examples and nonexamples of ideas so that students can construct their schema aware of the limitations of the rules they are developing. They refer to the work of Engelmann and Carnine who produced five principles of sequencing examples. These examples are given at initial teaching of new ideas.

The wording principle

Keep the wording the same in all examples as much as possible. This removes the possible confusion of a change in wording when initially learning new material. Later on, new wording can be introduced.

The setup principle

Keep the setup, or context, of the examples the same. Any irrelevant features should remain the same throughout all examples. If you are teaching the concept of "above", then use a ball and a table for all examples, but having the ball in different positions. By changing to a shoe, for example, students have to decide whether the object itself is an important change, and we want them to only consider the idea of above at first. Again, setup and context can change later to develop deeper understanding.

The difference principle

To show the limit of where examples become nonexamples, have minimally different examples appear next to each other. This makes it clear where the boundary of acceptability is. It allows students to identify the differences which lead to nonexamples.

The sameness principle

To show the range of variability allowed within examples of a concept, place two vastly different examples next to each other. For teaching the concept of dog, give both big and small examples, different colours, etc. This allows students to identify what is the same about them that makes them examples of the word dog.

The testing principle

Provide a test of examples and nonexamples after teaching to ensure students can generalise the ideas. Include some seen examples and some new examples in the test.

Instructional Formats

As students gain experience with a new skill, it is important to remove the scaffolding so they can learn to do it themselves. This process occurs over time, and scaffolding should be slowly deconstructed rather than removed quickly.

There are some common shifts that occur:

1. The teacher shifts from making their thinking very clear and overt to covert

2. The contexts used in questions shift from simple (or non-existent) to more complex

3. The teacher shifts from providing prompts for students to use the skill to unprompted

4. The method of practice shifts from massed to distributed over time

5. The feedback received shifts from being immediate to being delayed

6. The teacher's role as provider of knowledge shifts to the students

Sequencing of Skills

The ease at which students can learn new skills depends on the order that related skills are taught. We should aim to teach skills that will lead to a high rate of success, so teaching prerequisite skills first is essential. We should also start with the instances that work before introducing exceptions to rules. And if there are two or more strategies or concepts that are likely to be confused, teaching them separately will make it easier for students.

Track Organisation

Possibly one of the biggest difference with the structure of DI programmes is the use of tracks. Each skill is put in a track. Rather than teaching skills in units, where all the related skills are taught in a brief period of time, in one chunk, tracks run parallel to each other. So in any particular lesson students might be working on several different tracks at different points in the lesson.

Perhaps they have some input from the teacher on algebra. But then they do some independent practice on geometry. And later some problem solving to do with number. All tracks are running simultaneously, but students are at different points along each track.

This allows students to be constantly reviewing many skills, and allows them to be slowly introduced over time.

Organisation of Instruction

Once the design of the actual programme has taken place, teachers need to arrange the actual instruction that will take place.

Instructional Grouping

Students should always receive instruction that is appropriate for their prior knowledge. This means groups students with others who have a similar prior knowledge so the teacher can adjust teaching to their individual needs as closely as possible. But these groups should be fluid so that students can move to the group that is most appropriate for them at any time. Decisions on what groups students should be in should be based on placement tests to check prior learning.

Instructional Time

Time is one of the most important resources we have in the classroom and "academic learning time" is a strong predictor of achievement. Teachers should ensure enough time is assigned to each track, but also that the time assigned is being used efficiently.

Scripted Presentation

Probably the most controversial aspect of DI is the fact that lessons are scripted. That is, the teacher writes down (or is told) what they are going to say at certain points in the learning. The reasons given for this are that using precise and concise language when explaining new concepts is important so as not to introduce misconceptions. Scripting allows teachers to develop the script over time, and adjust it to work better each time it is used.

If scripts are designed by somebody else, then teachers are freed up the time of thinking about how to word specific explanations, and can rather focus their energy on making sure the teaching is appropriate for their class.

Continuous Assessment

This is really formative assessment, or assessment for learning. It is vital that teachers assess understanding of new content taught regularly and address any issues. It is the core idea of responsive teaching.

Teacher-Student Interactions

It is so important to know the students in our classes on an individual level, but also their current skill levels and what we need to adjust going forward.

Active Student Participation

Another myth around DI is that it is passive for the students, and they are just listening to the teacher talk. This is not true, and DI teachers ask students LOTS of questions, keeping them involved in the process of the lesson every minute. The reasons for keeping students actively involved in lessons are: creates more learning if they give answers and get feedback; limits distractions and behaviour problems; gives the teacher more data to judge current proficiency.

Group Unison Responses

One way to ensure all students are actively participating is to use choral responses, where all students say the answer at the same time. This gives all students a chance to practice the skill, and gives the teacher information about the whole class. Getting all students to write the answer down and circulating to check these responses gives similar results (but takes longer).

This is only really useful if the answers are fairly short, and all students are expected to provide the same answer.

A group unison response should be followed up with individual questions to probe understanding, but these questions should be given so all students prepare an answer, and then the student is chosen.

Signals

It is vital that all students respond in unison, so we must give students a signal of when to respond. This allows us to easily hear any errors. An effective signal follows the following structure:

Question is asked

Think time is given

Verbal cue is given ("Get ready")

Short interval

Signal is given (snap, hand drop, etc)

Pacing

Maintaining a brisk pace keeps students engaged. One study cited suggests that 12 responses per minute led to only 10% off task time, but 4 responses per minute led to 70% off task time.

Teaching to Mastery

Students need to be completely successful in one skill before moving on to the next in the track. If students have mastered all previous steps, they should be well prepared for the next lesson. You should aim for 70% correct on newly taught material, and 90% correct on skills taught earlier in programme.

Correction Procedures

All errors must be corrected immediately in the initial teaching phase. Corrections should also be given directly, making it clear what the error is, and what the correct response should be. Then the teacher should get the student who made the error to repeat the correct response, and test on similar objects.

Motivation

Success leads to motivation, which leads to further success. It is a good cycle to get into. Teaching material that is not too difficult (but also not too easy) is the best way to generate motivation, but there are other factors.

Teacher recognition is a good way to generate motivation, and sincere praise should be used when appropriate. Minimising comments on negative behaviour and trying to focus on the positive will lead to good behaviour.

Another way is to make it obvious to students how much progress they have made. Challenging them to beat their personal best, or showing them just how much they have learned are great ways to motivate students to do more.

Students for Whom Direct Instruction is Appropriate

The greatest gains seem to be for those with the lowest levels of prior attainment. DI seems to be a very good way at closing the achievement gap. However, it is still beneficial for those achieving at higher levels, but scaffolds will be removed more quickly, as teachers assess the progress of students.

There is also evidence that DI is very effective with students being taught in languages other than their native language, and with students of all ages, from Early Years to adult learners.

Research on DI

The biggest piece of research in favour of DI is Project Follow Through, which is the largest educational experiment in history, involving 100,000 children and running for nearly 10 years.

It was a comparison of several educational programs, broadly split into 3 categories: those that emphasized academic skills (such as DI); those that emphasized cognitive growth (such as developing higher order thinking); and those that emphasized self-esteem (such as those focusing on developing the child's self-concept).

Each program was tested against those three aspects as well.

The only programme that scored positivley in all three apsects was DI. All others actually led to negative results when compared to the control group for at least one of the measures.

In fact, DI outperformed all other programmes on all three measures. Students in the DI programme outperformed those in the cognitive growth programmes in developing cognitive growth. DI was the ONLY programme to have a positive impact on cognitive growth (that is higher order thinking). It even outperformed the programmes which were designed to improve student self-concept in developing their self-concept.

The graph below summarises these results.

Conclusions

There is a lot to take in when thinking about Direct Instruction. It is important to separate this from direct (or explicit) instruction (for an excellent summary of the different meaning see this poster by Oliver Caviglioli produced in collaboration with Ben Gordon, available from www.olicav.com). But some of the underlying ideas are huge.

The things that jump out to me are the care and time taken in designing the curriculum, and the careful thought put in place when considering the big ideas and generalizable skills. The importance of examples has always been something key to Maths teaching, but using nonexamples to highlight the boundary of ideas is something I had not considered earlier in my career. And the use of tracks instead of units is interesting. This would be a huge job to implement, but could the benefits be worth it? More spaced practice and retrieval. More time to develop a better understanding. The benefits of interleaving to help create connections between areas as well. All worth thinking about.

There are obviously aspects of DI that are a little unsavoury to many teachers (scripted lessons?!), but there does appear to be a significant amount of research to suggest it has positive impacts on student learning. So, in my opinion, it is worth considering what we can take from it.