Defining direct instructional learning and how can it be effective in today's classroom.

1. JaNuwa McGee
SOE 115 Psychology of Teaching and
Learning
Kendall College

2. The Chinese “chalk and talk” method is on the rise. The “ chalk and
talk” method is on the rise. The “ chalk and talk” method of teaching
is what is called direct instructional teaching. Direct instructional
teaching is an approach to teaching that emphasizes the use of small-
group, face-to-face instruction by teachers and aides using carefully
articulated lessons in which cognitive skills are broken down into
small units, sequenced deliberately, and taught explicitly.
Direct instructional teaching or whole class teaching is a method
coined by a teacher in China and it has been very beneficial to their
students. Schools are being urged to go back to ‘chalk and talk’
teaching that was once widespread in Britain, in order to reproduce
the success the traditional methods now have in China. Researchers
have found that children in China achieve marks in maths up to 30
per cent higher than English pupils of the same age.

3.  Instruction of this sort was
described variously by the people
who used it and discussed it. It was
sometimes called systematic
teaching, or explicit teaching, or
active teaching. In an influential
essay, Barak Rosenshine and Robert
Stevens (1986) called it direct
instruction, and this is the name by
which it is now most often
known (Carnine et al., 2013).
 In Direct Instruction derives in part
from its foundation in close
analyses of the comprehension and
reasoning skills needed for
successful performance in, say,
reading or mathematics. These
skills provide the intellectual
substance of Direct Instruction
programs.
 Direct instructional learning is
a learning theory that focuses
on how children generalize
from present understanding to
understanding of new,
untaught examples. This theory
informs the sequencing of
classroom tasks for children
and the means by which the
teachers lead children through
those tasks.

4.  Donnelly states that given China’s
success in international tests such
as PISA, TIMSS, and PIRLS, it seems
we have been misguided in
abandoning the traditional,
teacher-directed method of
learning where the teacher spends
more time standing at the front of
the class, direct learning and
controlling classroom
activities (Donnelly, 2014).
 There is increasing evidence that
these new-age education
techniques, where teachers
facilitate instead of teach and
praise students on the basis that all
must be winners, in open
classrooms where what children
learn is based on their immediate
interests, lead to under-
performance (Donnelly, 2014.

5.  There are five overlapping uses
of the term direct instruction:
 Academic instruction that is led by a
teacher regardless of the quality of
instruction.
 The instructional procedures that were
used by effective teachers in the
teacher effects research.
 Instructional procedures used by
teachers when they taught cognitive
strategies to students.
 Instructional procedures used in the
Distar (Direct Instruction Systems in
Arithmetic and Reading) programs.
 Instruction where direct instruction is
portrayed in negative terms such as
settings where the teacher lectures and
the students sit passively.
 Rosenshine believed that the
results in these studies fit a
specific pattern, and they called
this pattern “direct instruction.”
Rosenshine and Stevens concluded
that across a number of studies,
when effective teachers taught
well-structured topics (e.g.,
arithmetic computation, map
skills), the teachers used the
following pattern:
 Begin a lesson with a short review of
previous learning. Begin a lesson with a
short statement of goals.
 Present new material in small steps,
providing for student practice after each
step. Give clear and detailed
instructions and explanations.
 Provide a high level of active practice
for all students. Ask a large number of
questions, check for student
understanding, and obtain responses
from all students.

6.  Teachers patteren cont:
 Guide students during initial practice.
 Provide systematic feedback and corrections.
 Provide explicit instruction and practice for seatwork exercises
and monitor students during seatwork.
 Some researchers believe that direct instruction represents
undesirable teaching. Direct instruction has been
described as “authoritarian,” regimented “fact
accumulation at the expense of thinking skill
development” and focusing upon tests. Direct instruction
has also been portrayed as a “passive” mode of teaching.
Direct instruction has been described as the pouring of
information from one container, the teacher’s head, to
another container, the student’s head. All of these critics
are proposing that teachers use forms of “student
centered” or activity-based instruction in place of direct
instruction.

7. Although direct teaching is one of the most widely used teaching
strategies in China, it has been criticized as ineffective and
scorned as the teaching method chosen by teachers here in
America, who are not prepared. However, I consider direct
teaching a powerful teaching strategy that needs good
preparation.
When education is teacher-centered, the classroom remains
orderly. Students are quiet, and the teacher retains full
control of the classroom and its activities. Students learn on
their own, they learn to be independent and make their own
decisions. Since the teacher directs all classroom activities,
there is no worry about students missing an important topic.
Remember the main focus of this method of learning is The
teacher talks, while the students exclusively listen. During
activities, students work alone, and collaboration is
discouraged.

8. Direct Instruction Integrates Smaller Learnings Into Meaningful Wholes.
Direct Instruction does not teach basic or simpler skills (parts) in isolation
from meaningful contexts (e.g., activities, problems). In the beginning
(first 15 minutes) of early lessons in Reading Mastery, the students work
on sounds. However, this is done in the context of an activity that is
meaningful for students--namely, a quick-paced, small group activity in
which all of the students know they are working together to learn a new
task, and successfully meet a new challenge.
Direct Instruction Is Developmentally Appropriate. The features of DI are
consistent with what we know about developmental appropriateness.
This method of teaching is quick paced, and it helps students to be and
feel successful. Direct instructional learning contains interactions with
the teacher that is warm and supportive and students are never singled
out when making errorrs. The lessons ar arranged so that students are
slightly challenged with each new task, and it teaches morals and
principles relevant to students, and it fosters cooperation amongst the
entire class and teachers to help each other and not tease, and show
respect for the teacher and the process.

9. Direct Instruction Is Not Drill and Kill. At most, the teacher has students practice
an action a few times until they are "firm." "Try that again. One more time. Great!"
Additional practice--to assure fluency, generalization, retention, and independence
(mastery)--is given later, when the skill is integrated with other skills in larger
tasks.
Direct Instruction Is Not Rote Learning. All knowledge systems involve some rote
learning--sheer memorization, because there are basic (irreducible) concepts that
have nothing to do with reasoning; In English, "z" says "zzz." In math, 2 and "two"
mean //. However, Direct Instruction has less rote learning and more higher-order
cognitive learning than most other curricula. For example, in Direct Instruction
math, students do not learn "Two plus two equals four" (rote). Instead, they learn a
cognitive strategy for solving equations that have 2's and 4's in them.
2 + __ = 4 and 4 - __ = 2.
When students learn how to solve these problems, they automatically know that
2 + 2 = 4.

10. Direct Instruction Is Not Basic Skills Only. In fact, DI focuses much more
on higher-order cognitive learning. Half of the Corrective Reading
curriculum is on complex forms of comprehension. And in Reading
Mastery, students learn to write and analyze stories as soon as they can
read.
Direct Instruction Is Not Boring and Alienating. In fact, students love it
because there is so much individual attention (small groups); it moves
quickly (which is great for students with attention problems); they are
challenged continually; they are virtually always successful; and each
child's success contributes to the group. Direct Instruction is Not All
Teacher Directed. There is much teacher direction in early lessons,
especially the first part of lessons--when students are learning new
material. But after 20 or so minutes, students work independently (e.g.,
reading and writing stories). Then they may return to the group to read
and discuss each other's stories.

11. With this method, knowledge is made explicit and overt, and
students are taught to use this knowledge in their activities.
With practice, this knowledge becomes covert (internalized),
and iIt now belongs to the students. This is important for
students' cognitive to development. As I continued research
direct instructional learning I realized that as parents we do
this normally like second nature. Take little Susie for
instance, she has just turned 3 years old her mother decides
that this is perfect opportunity to teach little Susie her
alphabets and numbers. Her mother clears a spot either in
her room or in the kitchen or some place quiet with little to
no distractions and prepares a mini classroom for Susie. She
has gone out and brought an easel and whiteboard, paper,
pencils and stickers for little Susie's lessons. It's now day one
of Susie's lessons and her mother is standing at the white
board teaching a lesson on alphabets and Susie is learning to
sit still and listen. If this method has worked successfully in
so many homes,with so many families for so many years why
are we still trying to reinvent the wheel?

12. Our children are spoiled and our educational system has completely
failed them. Overcrowded classrooms often become too noisy, busy and
often very chaotic to not only teach a lesson but to learn one as well.
Teachers must attempt to manage all students’ activities at once, which
can be difficult when students are working on different stages of the
same project. Because the teacher doesn’t deliver instruction to all
students at once, some students may miss important facts. This hinders
them from being able to complete homework assignments effectively
and on-time and prevents them from obtaining the knowledge needed to
pass their tests. Thus the rise of homeschooled students.
Parents have gone back to the days when you stood in front of your child
in the kitchen and taught the lesson and they simply took notes and all
important information was being fed to them as it needed to be. If
parents have figured out how to get the most knowledge into their
children's brain then we as teachers need to take a page from their
book. I am not saying that this is the only wat to effectively teach your
students, but it just might be the best. Try it out, substitute it for one
method on let's say math subject and see if your students are not
stronger, smarter and faster by the end of the lessons.

13.  Carnine, D. W., Silbert, J., Kame'enui, E. J., Tarve, S. G.,
Bacon, P. A., & Hall, P. (2013, July 29). What is Direct
Instruction? | Education.com. Retrieved from
http://www.education.com/reference/article/what-
direct-instruction/
 Donnelly, K. (2014, November 25). The Chinese have some
important things to teach us about educating our kids -
The Washington Post. Retrieved from
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/201
4/11/25/the-chinese-have-some-important-things-to-
teach-us-about-education/?utm_term=.a89f3e5283f4
 Rosenshine, B. (2008). Center on Innovation &
Improvement Twin paths to better schools. Retrieved from
http://www.centerii.org/search/Resources%5CFiveDirectIn
struct.pdf