Edu Everyday

The Direct instruction strategy is highly teacher-directed and is among the most commonly used. Direct instruction strategy is effective when the teacher is providing information. The teacher is the provider and his students are the receivers. Although the new theories are calling for other teaching methods that envolve students in their own learning process but the Direct teaching methods can still be very useful in specific classroom setup.

Below is a brief description of the main Direct Instruction strategies

1.Structured Overview

2. Lecture

3. Explicit teaching

4. Drill and Practice

5.Compare and Contrast

6.Didactic Practice

 

Structured Overview

Structured Overview is verbal, visual or written summary or outline of a topic. It can occur at the beginning of a unit, module or new concept, or it may be used to help relate a learned idea to the big picture. A Structured Overview distills difficult or complex idea into simple definitions or explanation, and then shows how all the information relates.

Lecture

Lecture is a valuable part of a teacher’s instructional repertoire if it is not used when other methods would be more effective. If the presenter is knowledgeable, perceptive, engaging, and motivating, then lecture can stimulate reflection, challenge the imagination, and develop curiosity and a sense of inquiry.

Direct lecturing is a teacher centered strategy. Students are passive learners in such a learning environment. They listen, follow, apply and respond. Teachers are in control of all the whole setup.

Explicit Teaching

Explicit teaching involves directing student attention toward specific learning in a highly structured environment. It is teaching that is focused on producing specific learning outcomes.

Drill and Practice

Drill and Practice focus on consolidating the knowledge of students by repeating, reinforcing and revisiting the same topic more than once. Mostly used in mathematics to strengthen the students abilities in basic arithmetic, algebra and calculus topics. The acquisition of knowledge and skills happens through repetitive practice. In literacy they use this strategy to strengthen the students vocabulary and in  physical education they use it to improve the performance of a specific motor skill.

Compare and Contrast

This strategy is widely used in scientific subjects were the characteristics of two items are discussed either to draw comparisons or to identify differences. This strategy enhance the critical thinking skills of students who are expected to analyze all the details related to each discussed item.

Compare and Contrast is used to highlight similarities and differences between to things. It is a process where the act of classification is practiced. It is effectively used in conjunction with indirect instructional methods, but can also be used directly to teach vocabulary signals, classification, nomenclature and key characteristics. It is often presented in either written text paragraphs or a chart. Its most common use is as a graphic organizer of content.

 

Didactic Practice

Didactic questioning offers the teacher a way to structure the learning process (McNeil & Wiles, 1990). Didactic questions tend to be convergent, factual, and often begin with “what,” “where,” “when,” and “how.”

This teaching approach engages students in their learning but doesn’t enable them to become independent learners