W3D2

Teacher Directed Instruction 
 
Direct instruction is the most widely used strategy by practitioners in classrooms today. It consists of five elements that guide instruction from beginning to end. However, the direct instruction model also receives a great deal of criticism in the progressive classrooms of today’s school system. In chapter six the authors highlight two main components of the Direct Instruction Model.  

• Identify those two main components and describe the elements of each of them.
  
  
• After reading the advantages and disadvantages of lecturing, take a stance on lecturing and defend whether you feel it is an effective strategy.
  
  
• Questioning is complex, summarize what the author is stating about questioning as an instructional tool.
  
  
• Explain why educators need to ask questions that require students to use higher order thinking skills. 

Read from your text, Curriculum and Instruction for the 21st Century

• Chapter 6: Evidence-based Models of Teaching
• This chapter explores a variety of teacher-led and student-centered instructional models. 

6.3 Teacher-Directed Models of Teaching

If students are to become self-regulated learners, theclassroom should include both teacher-directed andstudent-centered structures (Slavin, 1997). Studentsalways will need some direct instruction, someindividual time, and some opportunities to practicemetacognitive skills in a social context. Teacher-directed instruction involves explicitly teaching rules,concepts, principles, and problem-solving strategies andguiding students during their review and practice.Within this larger category that constitutes teacher-directed models are many sub-models of instruction. Wewill discuss two of them: direct instruction and conceptlearning.

Direct Instruction

Direct instruction has been shown by research to be ahighly effective model (Hattie, 2009). The mostrecognized proponent of direct instruction was MadelineHunter, whose model dominated classrooms in the laterpart of the 20th century. According to Hunter (1983),direct instruction consists of five interrelated elements.

1. State learning objectives, and orient students to thelesson—Tell students what they will learn and whatwill be expected of them. State the goals and objectivesof the lesson. Establish a mental set or attitude ofreadiness to learn.

1. Present new material—Teach the lesson, presentinginformation by demonstrating or modeling theconcepts.

1. Provide guided practice, and conduct learning probes—Students practice new material under teacher’sguidance.

1. Demonstrate closure—Students formulate their ownstatement of the learning goal.

1. Perform independent practice—The teacher releasesstudents to practice new material on their own. (p. 319)

Unfortunately, many educators have criticized the directinstruction model, misperceiving this instructionalmethod as wholly teacher-dominated and simplycomprised of lectures from the front of the classroom.

Direct instruction usually has two main components:expository teaching and questioning. While there aremany forms of exposition (lecture, textbook, video,Internet), lecture is by far the most often used format ofexpository instruction (Bligh, 2000).

Lecturing

According to Moore (2015), “The lecture is an excellentway to set up an atmosphere for learning about a newtopic, create a frame of reference, introduce a unit, orprovide focus for student activities” (p. 320). There willalways be a place for lecture in classrooms becauseevery teacher employs some form of this method everyday. The lecture is also time efficient and, when based onthe textbook, requires virtually no advance preparationof materials. However, as we all know, lectures arepassive and rarely are engaging for learners. Teachersneed to understand both the advantages of the lecturemethod and also the limitations so that they may choosewhen and how to use it most effectively.

Advantages of lectures include:

• Lectures are an easy way to transfer knowledge tostudents quickly.

• Instructors, as the sole source of information, havemore control over what they are teaching.

• A lecture is fairly easy to prepare and is familiar tomost teachers since it was typically the way they weretaught.

Disadvantages of lectures include:

• Humans receive more information visually than withany other mode of learning, and lectures are auditory.

• Lectures may present difficult content or be deliveredtoo rapidly for students to follow.

• Because the instructor dominates the lecture, there issometimes a gap in knowing what students did or didnot understand.

Finally, since the lecture will always be a strategy thatteachers use, many experts advise combining lecturewith additional means of presentation of content (Meyer,Rose, & Gordon, 2013). Multimedia, technology, video,and questioning strategies offer options forunderstanding the content and make the directinstruction more interactive.