Direct Instruction is one of the most commonly used approaches to teaching. The teacher effectively guides the students in learning the new skills and providing the necessary knowledge to support them.
During the instruction process, the teacher will initially present the relevant background information to the students. After that, the teacher will explain what skills the students are expected to learn and motivate them. Then, the necessary information is explained either directly or through related materials such as videos or recordings (Slavin, 2015). It is also highly advisable to model the activity for the students. During that process, the teacher demonstrates how the skill is used and engages the students in the process by asking questions and prompting them to provide feedback or corrections. Finally, the guided practice takes place. During this step, the students try their hands at the newly learned skill with help from the teacher. After the students can demonstrate their understanding and perform the related tasks without support, they are ready for independent practice. All of the stages of the direct instruction process should be accompanied by the evaluation. It is important to closely communicate with the learners and make sure they understand the requirements, grasp the basics, and finally can use the new skill efficiently.
An example found online demonstrates the direct instruction lesson preparation and execution in the elementary school setting. For this lesson, the teacher planned to develop the ability to recognize the word “in” in their students. The current level of performance was identified as unsatisfactory since all students missed the word in the pre-test. Being able to select a stick with the word “in” and put it in the can was selected as an evaluation method for the lesson. Communicating objectives through the game of Simon Says which involves actions of putting something in something helps engage the students and then the significance of the word is explained. The guided practice is performed through a game of Mystery Box and a game of picking the right sticks. Both games involve quickly recognizing the word “in.” After that, another game of picking the sticks is used as an assessment method to ensure that the students are able to reliably recognize the word (McGraw-Hill Education, 2009).
The research comparing the Direct Instruction and Discovery approach shows that overall the DI is a superior way of learning. However, some of the results indicate that Discovery can be more efficient for some students based on their personality (Klahr & Nigam, 2004). Can you suggest some elements of the Discovery approach that can be used in the Direct Instruction setting to improve it for a diverse set of students?
Constructivist Theory of Learning is based on the ideas of the Constructivist movement of Philosophy. Making them central to your work as a teacher results in a vastly different approach compared to the Direct Instruction.
Constructivist classes emphasize discovery and independent work of the students. The learners explore the subjects themselves and pursue the goals of the class as they see fit. The teacher acts as a guide and stimulates the learning process with guiding questions and support. They clarify the information and help the students construct their own meanings based on their perceptions. That process is a central idea of constructivism as a philosophical movement.
One of the primary advantages of this strategy in the modern era is that it teaches the learners to search for the information on their own, evaluate it and form their own opinion. The Internet has provided people all over the world with an ability to access a vast body of knowledge. If the students learn to utilize this tool effectively and independently, they are more likely to be successful in their future learning. Another upside of the constructivist approach is that it develops critical thinking and reasoning which are valued highly in the modern society. The downside of this approach is that most teachers find it hard to implement. It requires a set of skills very different to those used in the Direct Instruction setting. Some of the critiques have also argued that it forces the students to “reinvent the wheel” instead of allowing them to utilize the information on the subject efficiently.
Many common classroom practices can be viewed as Constructivist. Group assignments, field trips, and self-study classes are some of such examples. However, the modern technology gives us an opportunity to experiment more with the Constructivist approach. Personally, I would use this method during some of my classes to teach the students to effectively utilize the modern technology, learn by themselves and critically evaluate the information they find. I would separate the class into groups and ask each group to find an article on a specific topic online. After they have found it, I would ask one part of the group to review the positive sides of the article and another to overview the negatives. That will allow the students achieve the goals of the lesson and avoid groupthink.
Some researchers argue that the constructivist teachers cannot access the student knowledge efficiently (Vrasidas, 2000). What ways of evaluating the students in such environment can you suggest?
References
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.
McGraw-Hill Education. (2009). Classroom Example: Direct Instruction Lesson for Teaching Sight Words. Web.
Slavin, R. E. (2015). Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice (11th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Vrasidas, C. (2000). Constructivism versus objectivism: Implications for interaction, course design, and evaluation in distance education. International Journal of Educational Telecommunications, 6(4), 339-362.