Research: The Components of Direct Instruction

• Title: The Components of Direct Instruction
• Authors: Watkins and Slocum
• Access the original paper here
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Paper summary

This excerpt from Introduction to Direct Instruction details the program’s core components: program design (emphasizing generalized skills and clear communication), instructional organization (focused on grouping, time allocation, scripted presentations, and ongoing assessment), and effective teacher-student interactions (highlighting active participation, unison responding, signaling, pacing, mastery learning, correction procedures, and motivation). The text extensively examines the research supporting Direct Instruction’s effectiveness across diverse learners and age groups, citing Project Follow Through as a major validating study. It also addresses misconceptions about the approach, particularly regarding rote learning and its suitability for various student populations. Finally, the text differentiates Direct Instruction from broader “direct instruction” methodologies.

What are the key implications for teachers in the classroom?

• Direct Instruction (DI) aims to teach subject matter efficiently so that students learn all the material in minimal time. Every aspect of DI is designed to serve this purpose, requiring attention to a variety of details in instructional design, organization, and delivery.
• High-quality teaching in one area cannot compensate for poor quality in another. Well-designed programs are ineffective without good organization or delivery, and superior delivery cannot make up for poorly designed materials.
• DI enables all children to learn effectively and efficiently through three main components:
  • Program design: identifies important concepts and strategies, and communicates them clearly through well-constructed programs.
  • Organization of instruction: including scheduling, grouping, and progress monitoring to ensure appropriate instruction for every student.
  • Student-teacher interaction techniques: ensure each student actively participates and receives feedback.
• DI has been shown to be effective for a wide range of content, learners, and skill areas, from basic skills to complex cognitive tasks and even affective areas like self-concept.
• A key element of DI is the teaching of generalizable strategies that students can use to solve various problems. This is called “general case programming” and it focuses on teaching broad applications rather than a set of specific cases. It is based on principles for designing teaching sequences to ensure clear communication and generalized responding.
• Five principles are used for sequencing and ordering examples for clear communication:
  • Wording principle: Use similar wording for all items to focus students’ attention on the details.
  • Setup principle: Initial teaching examples should share as many irrelevant features as possible, differing only in the critical aspect being taught.
  • Difference principle: Juxtapose examples and nonexamples that are similar except for the critical feature to illustrate the concept’s boundaries.
  • Sameness principle: Juxtapose examples that differ greatly but still illustrate the concept to foster generalization.
  • Testing principle: Juxtapose new examples and nonexamples in random order to test acquisition.
• Instructional formats specify how teachers present examples, give explanations, ask questions, and provide corrections. They are designed for clarity, focus, support, and clear communication. Format consistency helps students focus on the content and allows teachers to use precise language for communication.
• Formats change as students become more proficient, starting with high support and gradually fading to independence. This ensures students learn to apply skills independently without relying on teacher prompts.
• Six shifts occur in well-designed programs to facilitate the transition to independence:
  • Shift from overt to covert problem-solving strategies.
  • Shift from simplified to complex contexts.
  • Shift from prompted to unprompted formats.
  • Shift from massed practice to distributed practice.
  • Shift from immediate feedback to delayed feedback.
  • Shift in emphasis from the teacher to the learner as the source of information.
• Careful sequencing of skills is critical to student success in a DI program. The key principle is to prepare students for each step, ensuring a high rate of success. The sequence should follow these guidelines:
  • Teach prerequisite skills before the strategy itself.
  • Teach instances consistent with a strategy before exceptions.
  • Teach easy skills before difficult ones.
  • Separate strategies and information that might be confused.
• DI programs are organized into tracks, which are sequences of activities that teach a skill across multiple lessons, as opposed to traditional units. Each lesson contains activities from several tracks, allowing for extended practice and integration of skills. This organization:
  • Maintains student attention through short exercises and variety.
  • Allows skills to be introduced and developed gradually.
  • Provides massed practice within lessons and distributed practice across lessons.
  • Facilitates the integration of information and avoids dropping skills.
• DI teachers organize instruction with four key elements:
  • Grouping students based on individual needs and zones of proximal development.
  • Allocating sufficient time for teaching and using it efficiently.
  • Implementing precise instructional plans through scripted presentations.
  • Continuously assessing student performance.
• Instructional grouping in DI is flexible and based on student needs, allowing for movement between groups as needs change. This contrasts with tracking, which assigns students to fixed groups based on general characteristics.
• DI teachers use scripted presentations to ensure students receive well-designed instruction and to relieve teachers of the burden of designing and refining instruction for every subject. The scripts are tools that provide detailed, field-tested plans, allowing teachers to focus on delivering instruction effectively and adapting it to student needs.
• Continuous assessment is crucial in DI to monitor progress, make instructional decisions, and adjust grouping and pacing as needed. Decisions are based on assessment data, not assumptions.
• The teacher’s role in DI is clearly defined. They are responsible for delivering instruction effectively, motivating students, adjusting pacing and practice based on student needs, and solving problems. This requires creativity within the context of well-designed lessons.
• Effective teacher-student interactions involve:
  • Active student participation: Students learn best through interaction and feedback, and engagement minimizes distractions.
  • Group unison responding: Allows all students to practice simultaneously, keeps them attentive, and provides immediate feedback to the teacher. It’s most effective for short answers and when all students are expected to have the same answer. Individual turns can be used for tasks requiring varied responses or to assess individual mastery.
  • Signals: Coordinate student responses for clear assessment, ensuring all students participate and answer at the same time.
  • Pacing: A brisk pace covers more material, holds attention, enhances learning, and reduces behavior problems.
  • Teaching to mastery: Ensures students are well prepared for each new skill, maximizing success and motivation. Mastery is particularly crucial for students who struggle. It is gauged by the performance of the lowest-performing student in the group. Specific criteria are used to interpret student responses and determine mastery.
  • Correction procedures: Immediate and direct correction of errors is essential. The basic procedure involves modeling, testing, and retesting, with additional steps as needed. Specific guidance is provided in each program’s materials.
  • Motivation: Success is a key motivator, and DI is designed to promote student success through appropriate placement, clear instruction, and effective feedback. Teachers amplify success through praise and focus on positive behavior. Additional strategies can be used when needed.
• DI aligns with and extends the principles of effective teaching. It incorporates elements like maximizing engaged time and small group instruction, and adds specific practices like unison responding, signals, and explicit correction procedures. The key extension is in program design, which emphasizes efficient strategies and carefully crafted explanations.
• DI is often confused with more general direct instruction approaches that simply involve direct teacher-student interactions. It’s crucial to distinguish between these two, as DI is a comprehensive system of curriculum and instruction.
• Research consistently supports the effectiveness of DI across diverse learners, including students with special needs, language differences, and varying ages.
• Project Follow Through, the largest educational experiment in history, demonstrated the superiority of DI over other models in basic skills, cognitive-conceptual skills, and affective measures. DI was the only model to show positive outcomes in all areas. Students in DI programs performed at or near national norms, a significant improvement for disadvantaged students.
• Independent reviews by organizations like the American Federation of Teachers and the Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed At Risk confirm the effectiveness of DI and its strong research base.
• Long-term studies show that the positive effects of DI can endure over time, contradicting earlier findings that suggested negative long-term effects.

These implications suggest that Direct Instruction is a well-researched and comprehensive approach with significant implications for classroom teaching. Its emphasis on efficiency, clear communication, mastery learning, and student engagement holds promise for achieving positive learning outcomes for a diverse range of students.

Quote

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. Every strategy, tactic, and specific technique employed in Direct Instruction is designed to serve this purpose.