Direct Instruction Model

Direct Instruction
Model
What is direct instruction?
The term direct instruction refers to instructional
approaches that are structured, sequenced, and led
by teachers, and/or the presentation of academic
content to students by teachers, such as in a lecture
or demonstration. In other words, teachers are
“directing” the instructional process or instruction is
being “directed” at students.
“I do-We do-You do”
The origins of Direct Instruction Siegfried Engelmann who chose to study the
process of learning and instruction from a new vantage point. In the early 1960s,
Engelmann worked in advertising, where he began analyzing what type of input
was necessary to induce retention. His work on these marketing strategies led
him to develop techniques for teaching children, initially his own two sons.
These early experiments led to the first Direct Instruction programs and
techniques. Engelmann realized the relation between what his sons learned and
how he instructed them and applied this knowledge to his work with education
researcher Carl Bereiter at the Institute for Research on Exceptional Children in
Champaign, Illinois (1964-1966). In 1964, they formed the Bereiter-Engelmann
preschool, where they would begin using and testing direct instruction
techniques with disadvantaged children. While conducting this research,
Engelmann developed the central philosophy of Direct Instruction, which is if a
student fails to learn it is not the fault of the student, but rather the instruction.
The direct instruction method is based on
two core principles:
• All students can learn when taught correctly, regardless of history
and background.
“ If the child hasn’t learned, the teacher hasn’t taught.”
Thus the responsibility of student learning rests squarely with teacher
design and delivery of instruction.
• All teachers can be successful, given effective materials and

presentation techniques.
The 6 functions (or steps) of direct
instruction
Direct instruction doesn’t stop at the teacher explaining a concept. There are 6
steps that are very important in the process for the children to learn.
1. Introduction / review
First, you set the stage for learning. This is the opening of the lesson, and it’s
intended to engage students, get their attention, and activate their prior
knowledge.
Build upon a previous lesson, or get an understanding of their background
knowledge of the subject you are about to teach them. To show your students
what exactly they have to learn and what is expected from them, you can give
them lesson objectives.
2. Present the new material
Use clear and guided instructions, so students can
begin absorbing the new material. The lesson content
should be carefully organized step-by-step, with the
steps building on each other.
In the direct instruction method, you can present
new material through a lecture or through a
demonstration.
3. Guided practice
Here, the teacher and students practice the concept together. The
student attempts the skill with the assistance of the teacher and
other students.
The guided practice is conducted by the teacher. The purpose of this
step is to guide initial practice, correct mistakes, reteach (if
necessary) and provide sufficient practice so that students can work
independently.
It’s very important to ask good questions to verify your students’
understanding.
4. Feedback and correctives
If students don’t understand the lesson material, the teacher has to correct them and give
feedback. This is also very important in the guided practice, as students have to understand
everything in that phase.
There are 4 types of student responses to questions and actions a teacher should take
depending on the answer.
Student answer Teacher action
Correct, quick, and firm Ask a new question to keep up the pace of the lesson.
Correct, but hesitant Provide encouragement.
Incorrect, but careless Simply correct and move on.
Incorrect and lacking knowledge Provide hints, ask a simpler question, or reteach.
5. Independent practice
After guided practice and receiving the right feedback, students are ready to
apply the new learning material on their own. Independent practice gives the
students the repetitions they need to integrate the new information or skills
with previous knowledge or skills. Independent practice also helps students to
become automatic in their use of the skills.
During this phase, students usually go through two stages: unitization and
automaticity. During unitization, the students are putting the skills they’ve
learned together and use them in new situations. As they keep on practicing,
students reach the “automatic” stage where they are successful and rapid, and
no longer have to “think through” each step.
6. Evaluation/ review
Check whether your students know everything before moving on to
a new concept that builds upon what they’ve just learned. Collect
student data you can review and decide whether or not the lesson
needs to be retaught.
There are much evaluation and reviewing methods, so make sure to
pick the right one to find out data that really means something.
Make sure your evaluation says something about your students’
learning process. Formative assessments are better suited for this.
Teacher’s Role
Teachers make content, skills, and concepts explicit by showing and
telling students what to do or think while solving problems, enacting
strategies, completing tasks, and classifying concepts. Teachers use
explicit instruction when students are learning new material and
complex concepts and skills. They strategically choose examples and
non-examples and language to facilitate student understanding,
anticipate common misconceptions, highlight essential content, and
remove distracting information. They model and scaffold steps or
processes needed to understand content and concepts, apply skills,
and complete tasks successfully and independently.
DI relies on a systematic and scripted
curriculum
Scripted Lessons indicate what the teacher should do and say for each item or
task in the lesson. Scripted lessons ensure consistent, quality instruction across
teachers. Scripting also helps reduce the amount of unnecessary teacher talk.
The developers of DI found that children learn best by working through a
sequence of tasks with carefully timed comments from the teacher. Children
learn little from listening to teacher talk. Too much teacher talk often causes
confusion by changing the focus of the tasks, thereby hampering students'
acquisition of the larger generalization. It also draws out the length of the lesson
unnecessarily, and reduces the number of practice trials experienced by
students—when the teacher is talking, students are not responding, and
students learn the most when they are actively responding
The following unique features of direct
instruction:
Scripted Lesson Plans. Such lesson plans relieve the teacher from time-consuming
preparation tasks. These are explicitly tested examples and sequences made by professional
instructional designers.
Signal-based teachers. Teachers send frequently signals to learners to which they should
respond .
Skill focused: Skills are taught in sequence until students have them automated.
Appropriate pacing: teacher-directed instruction followed by small collective or individual
learning/repeating activities. Pacing of different teaching methods is rather fast, but children
must have space to respond.
Frequent probing/testing and assessments with a appropriate corrective feedback /
differential praise.
Direct instruction is not just drill & practise. Learners can engage in more complex tasks
during certain activities.

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Direct Instruction

• All teachers can be successful, given effective materials and

Correct, but hesitant Provide encouragement.

Incorrect, but careless Simply correct and move on.

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