Explicit Instruction Greg Ashman www greg ashman wordpress

Explicit Instruction Greg Ashman www. greg. ashman. wordpress. com @greg_ashman greg. ashman@gmail. com This Power. Point will be available on my Blog site in the next few days

About me • Teacher • Blogger / Writer • Part-time Ph. D student

direct instruction DISTAR explicit instruction traditional teaching lecturing active learning Direct Instruction

direct instruction explicit instruction Direct Instruction my definition lecturing default teacher-led instruction

Principles of Instruction, Barak Rosenshine • • • Begin a lesson with a short review of previous learning. Present new material in small steps with student practice after each step. Ask a large number of questions and check the responses of all students. Provide models. Guide student practice. Check for student understanding. Obtain a high success rate. Provide scaffolds for difficult tasks. Require and monitor independent practice. Engage students in weekly and monthly review. Rosenshine, B. (2012). Principles of Instruction: Research-Based Strategies That All Teachers Should Know. American Educator, 36(1), 12

Process-Product research • Not without criticism • Evidence base biased towards early grades • Mostly correlational • Sources on this research: - Thorough review: Brophy, J. E. , & Good, T. L. (1984). Teacher behavior and student achievement (No. 73). Institute for Research on Teaching, Michigan State University. - More approachable: Chall, J. S. (2000). The Academic Achievement Challenge: What Really Works in the Classroom? . Guilford Publications

Project Follow Through • Part of the process-product body of research • Largest educational experiment ever undertaken • Direct Instruction (DISTAR) was the most effective model • Controversy over the results • High/Scope analysis Bereiter, C. , & Kurland, M. (1981). A constructive look at Follow Through results. Interchange, 12(1), 1 -22. Schweinhart, L. L. , Weikart, D. P. , & Larner, M. B. (1986). Consequences of three preschool curriculum models through age 15. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 1(1), 15 -45. Gersten, R. , & White, W. A. T. (1986). Castles in the sand: Response to Schweinhart and Weikart. Educational Leadership, 44(3), 19 -20.

Jeanne Chall “The methods with the highest positive effects on learning are those for which the teacher assumes direction, for example, letting students know what is to be learned and explaining how to learn it, concentrating on tasks, correcting errors, and rewarding of activities – characteristic found in traditional, teacher-centered education… Quite consistently, when results were analysed by socioeconomic status, it was the more traditional education that produced the better academic achievement among children from low-income families. ”

Thomas Good’s List (and a caution) • • • • Appropriate Expectations. Supportive Classrooms. Effective Use of Time. Opportunity to Learn. Coherent Curriculum in Sequence. Active Teaching. Balance Procedural and Conceptual Knowledge. Proactive Management. Teacher Clarity, Enthusiasm, and Warmth. Instructional Curriculum Pace. Teaching to Mastery. Review and Feedback. Adequate Subject Matter Knowledge. Good, T. , (2015, January). Research on Teaching: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. Paper presented at the International Congress for School Effectiveness and Improvement, Cincinnati, Ohio

Muijs and Reynolds • British process-product studies • ORACLE study • Teachers labelled ‘class enquirers’ showed greatest gains in maths and language • ‘Class enquirers’ spent four times as much time using whole-class interactive teaching than the least effective group • Junior School Project – similar findings to Good, Rosenshine • Weakly supported by other European research • “A crucial part of the direct instruction lesson is interactive questioning. ” Muijs, Daniel, and David Reynolds. Effective teaching: Evidence and practice. Sage, 2010.

Strategy Instruction • Ill-structured tasks / hard to break down into discrete steps ‒ Reading comprehension ‒ Writing ‒ Mathematical and scientific problem solving • Emphasis on providing guides and supports • Think-alouds by experts / questioning strategies – Who? How? What? • Researchers refer to providing ‘direct instruction’ in these techniques • Evidence of effectiveness Rosenshine, B. , (2009). The Empirical Support for Direct Instruction. In S. Tobias & T. Duffy (Eds. ), Constructivist Instruction: Success or Failure (pp. 201 -220). Routledge New York, NY

Other evidence • Randomised controlled trials ‒ Large scale maths teaching innovation in Costa Rica involving exploration and discovery ‒ Study from Netherlands on explicit maths intervention versus an alternative intervention • Correlational studies (that are not process-product) ‒ U. S. study linking TIMSS results to teaching style (lecture style) ‒ Principals views in Denmark: Teacher-led vs student centred • Worked example effect

Cognitive load theory Long-term memory Effectively limitless Working Memory constrained Sweller, J. (2016). Story of a Research Program. Education Review//Reseñas Educativas, 23.

Limitations of explicit instruction • Do students understand things better if they work them out for themselves? ‒ Klahr and Nigam study ‒ Productive failure / Preparation for future learning Klahr, D. , & Nigam, M. (2004). The equivalence of learning paths in early science instruction effects of direct instruction and discovery learning. Psychological Science, 15(10), 661 -667. Schwartz, D. L. , & Martin, T. (2004). Inventing to prepare for future learning: The hidden efficiency of encouraging original student production in statistics instruction. Cognition and Instruction, 22(2), 129 -184. Kapur, M. (2014). Productive failure in learning math. Cognitive Science, 38(5), 1008 -1022.

Limitations of explicit instruction • Do students gain non-cognitive skills from other methods of instruction? ‒ Chall, “A few research studies that compared the effects on nonacademic learning were favourable toward the student- centred programs, but those advantages were less pronounced than the discrepancy in academic achievement. ”

Limitations of explicit instruction • Variety / Motivation • Expertise reversal effect Kalyuga, S. , Ayres, P. , Chandler, P. , & Sweller, J. (2003). The expertise reversal effect. Educational psychologist, 38(1), 23 -31.

Expertise Long-term memory LOADS OF STUFF Working Memory constrained

The Guilt

My ebook, “Ouroboros, ” can be purchased from my blog site – gregashman. wordpress. com “Everyone should read this: an excellent little book” David Didau, @Learningspy “Fantastic observations, well written, and great value. ” Mike Beverley, @Dr. Mike. Beverley