Unit 5.1 DB: Direct Instruction or Constructivist Learning

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Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice

Twelfth Edition

Chapter 7

The Effective Lesson

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Organizing Questions

What Is Direct Instruction?

How Is a Direct Instruction Lesson Taught?

How Does Research on Direct Instruction Methods Inform Teaching?

How Do Students Learn and Transfer Concepts?

How are Discussions Used in Instruction?

What Is Direct Instruction?

At times, the most effective and efficient way to teach students is for you to present information, skills, or concepts in a direct fashion.

The term direct instruction is used to describe lessons in which you transmit information directly to students, structuring class time to reach a clearly defined set of objectives as efficiently as possible.

Direct instruction is particularly appropriate for teaching a well-defined body of information or skills that all students must master.

How Is a Direct Instruction Lesson Taught?

The general lesson structure is vastly different in different subject areas and different grade levels.

The sequence of activities in direct instruction flows along a logical path:

arousing student interest

presenting new information

allowing students to practice their new knowledge or skills

assessment

This orderly progression is essential to direct instruction at any grade level and in any subject, although various components look different for different subjects and grades.

State Learning Objectives

The first step in presenting a lesson is to state learning objectives and orient students to the lesson.

Tell students what they will be learning and what performance will be expected of them.

Whet students’ appetites for the lesson by informing them how interesting, important, or personally relevant it will be to them.

Give an astonishing or exciting opener that gets kids eager to learn the content.

Review Prerequisites

For the next major task in a lesson, you need to ensure that students have mastered prerequisite skills.

Go over any skills or concepts students need in order to understand the lesson.

Link information that is already in their minds to the information you are about to present.

Present New Material

Here begins the main body of the lesson, the point at which you present new information or skills.

In this step you teach the lesson by:

presenting information

giving examples

demonstrating concepts

Conduct Learning Probes

Effective teaching requires you to be constantly aware of the effects of your instruction.

In this stage you conduct learning probes.

The term learning probe refers to any of a variety of ways of asking for brief student responses to lesson content.

To conduct a learning probe you will pose questions to students to assess their level of understanding and correct misconceptions.

Provide Independent Practice

The term independent practice refers to work students do in class on their own to practice or express newly learned skills or knowledge.

In this step of the lesson you will give students an opportunity to practice new skills or use new information on their own.

Independent practice is most critical when students are learning skills, such as mathematics, reading, grammar, composition, map interpretation, or a foreign language.

Assess Performance and Provide Feedback

Every lesson should contain an assessment of the degree to which students have mastered the objectives set for the lesson.

You should assess the effectiveness of the lesson and give the results of the assessment to students as soon as possible.

Steps in this process:

review independent practice work or give a quiz

give feedback on correct answers

reteach skills if necessary

Provide Distributed Practice and Review

Practice or review spaced out over time increases retention of many kinds of knowledge.

Steps in this process:

assign homework to provide distributed practice on the new material

in later lessons, review material

provide practice opportunities to increase the chances that students will remember what they learned and also be able to apply it in different circumstances

How Does Research on Direct Instruction Methods Inform Teaching?

Most of the principles of direct instruction discussed in this chapter have been derived from process-product studies in which observers record the teaching practices of teachers whose students consistently achieve at a high level.

Although the research on direct instruction models has produced mixed conclusions, most researchers agree that the main elements of these models are essential minimum skills that all teachers should have.

How do Students Learn and Transfer Concepts?

A very large proportion of all lessons focus on teaching concepts.

A concept is an abstract idea that is generalized from specific examples.

Concepts are generally learned in one of two ways:

most concepts we learn outside of school we learn by observation

other concepts are typically learned by definition: for example it is very difficult to learn the concept Aunt or Uncle through observation

Teaching for Transfer of Learning (1 of 2)

Transfer of learning from one situation to another depends on two factors:

the degree to which the information or skills were learned in the original situation

the degree of similarity between the situation in which the skill or concept was learned and the situation to which it is to be applied

Teaching for Transfer of Learning (2 of 2)

Initial learning and understanding: One of the most important factors in transfer of a skill or concept from one situation to another is how well it was learned in the first place.

Learning in context: the ability to apply knowledge in new circumstances depends on the variety of circumstances in which we have learned or practiced the information or skill.

How are Discussions Used in Instruction? (1 of 2)

You can use discussions as part of instruction for many reasons. Discussions lend themselves to:

subjective and controversial topics

difficult and novel concepts

affective objectives

attitudinal objectives

How are Discussions Used in Instruction (2 of 2)

Whole-class discussion differs from a usual lesson because the teacher plays a less dominant role.

Small-group discussion students work in four-to-six member groups to discuss a particular topic, and the teacher moves from group to group, aiding the discussion.

Unit 5.1 DB: Direct Instruction or Constructivist Learning

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