[net-gold] What's the Meaning of "Direct Instruction"?
- From: "David P. Dillard" <jwne@xxxxxxxxxx>
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- Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2012 18:03:22 -0400 (EDT)
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Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:59:51 -0700
From: Richard Hake <rrhake@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: Net-Gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: AERA-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: Net-Gold@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Net-Gold] What's the Meaning of "Direct Instruction"?
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ABSTRACT: In my post "Re: Khan's Video Lectures on Acceleration and
Newton's Second Law" [Hake (2012) at <http://bit.ly/AiO4oY>] I quoted
Domenico Rosa's statement: "All the hits that Khan's videos are
getting are indicative of the hunger for direct instruction."
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In response, Physoc's Jim Huddle asked "What is 'direct instruction?' "
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In "Language Ambiguities in Education Research" [Hake (2008) at
<http://bit.ly/bHTebD>] I listed four different meanings for "direct
instruction" commonly found in the educational literature," that of:
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1. the "Mathematically Correct Science Corner" at
<http://bit.ly/bfzdZS>: drill and practice, non-hands-on, teach 'em
the facts;
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2. Physics Education Researchers: traditional *passive-student*
lectures, recipe labs, and algorithmic problem sets;
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3. Klahr & Nigam (2004): "the goals, materials, examples,
explanations, and pace of instruction are all teacher controlled, but
in which *hands-on activities are featured* (K & N call this
*extreme* direct instruction);
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4. Association Of Direct Instruction [ADI (2004)]: (a) teaching by
telling (as contrasted by teaching by implying), or (b) instructional
techniques based on choral responses, homogeneous grouping, signals,
and other proven instructional techniques, or (c) specific programs
designed by Siegfried Engelmann and his staff.
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Domenico Rosa was probably using "direct instruction as defined in
"1" above (please correct me if I'm wrong).
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In my post "Re: Khan's Video Lectures on Acceleration and Newton's
Second Law" [Hake (2012)], I quoted Domenico Rosa's (2012) statement:
"All the hits that Khan's videos are getting are indicative of the
hunger for direct instruction."
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In response Jim Huddle (2012) of the Physoc list wrote:
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"With respect to Domenico Rosa's statement. . . . . What is 'direct
instruction?' Does it mean one teacher instructing one student at a
time?"
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"Direct Instruction" means different things to different people. For
various meanings of the term found in the educational literature
("one on one" is not among them) see e.g., "Language Ambiguities in
Education Research" [Hake (2008)]. Therein I wrote [bracketed by
lines "HHHHH. . . ." so as to avoid awkward quotes within quotes "
'.....' "; see that article for references other than Klahr & Nigam
(2004) and ADI (2004)]:
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HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
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Although operational definitions are uncommon in the educational
literature, in Hake (2004) I indicated my own guesses as to what
various groups have meant by "direct instruction":
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1. MATHEMATICALLY CORRECT SCIENCE CORNER <http://bit.ly/bfzdZS> :
"drill and practice," "non-hands-on," "teach 'em the facts"
[Metzenberg (1998)], and "non-discovery-learning," where "discovery
learning" means setting students adrift either in aimless play or
ostensibly to discover on their own, say, Archimedes' principle or
Newton's Second Law.
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2. PHYSICS EDUCATION RESEARCHERS: traditional *passive-student*
lectures, recipe labs, and algorithmic problem sets.
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3. KLAHR & NIGAM (2004): . . .instruction in which "the goals, the
materials, the examples, the explanations, and the pace or
instruction are all teacher controlled," but in which *hands-on
activities are featured*. At least this is Klahr & Nigam's (KN's)
definition of what they call "*extreme* direct instruction" (extreme
DI), possibly having in mind the reasonable idea of a continuum of
methods from extreme DI to extreme "discovery learning" (DL). In
extreme DL, according to Klahr & Nigam, there is "no teacher
intervention beyond the suggestion of a learning objective: no
guiding questions, and no feedback about the quality of the child's
selection of materials, explorations, or self assessments." I suspect
that Klahr & Nigam might classify "interactive engagement" methods
[Hake (1998a,b; 2002b)] and "inquiry methods" [NRC (1996, 1997, 1999,
2000), Donovan et al. (1999), Bransford et al. (2000), Donovan &
Bransford (2005), Duschl et al. (2007)] as somewhere along a
continuum ranging from extreme DI to extreme DL, since "interactive
engagement" and "inquiry" methods both involve various degrees of
judicious teacher intervention so as to guide students' conceptual
understanding, problem solving abilities, and process skills towards
those of professionals in the field.
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4. ASSOCIATION OF DIRECT INSTRUCTION [ADI (2004). . . . [[Now ADI
(2012)]]. . . : (a) teaching by telling (as contrasted by teaching by
implying), or (b) instructional techniques based on choral responses,
homogeneous grouping, signals, and other proven instructional
techniques, or (c) specific programs designed by Siegfried Engelmann
and his staff. Direct Instruction programs incorporate the above "b"
coupled with carefully designed sequences, lesson scripting, as well
as responses to anticipated children's questions as expounded in
Englemann & Carnine (1982).
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HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
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To traditionalist math warrior Domenico Rosa the term "Direct
Instruction" probably means the same as in "1" above (please correct
me if I'm wrong): "drill and practice," "non-hands-on," "teach 'em
the facts" [Metzenberg (1998)], and "non-discovery-learning," where
"discovery learning" means setting students adrift either in aimless
play or ostensibly to discover on their own, say, Archimedes'
principle or Newton's Second Law.
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Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
Honorary Member, Curmudgeon Lodge of Deventer, The Netherlands
President, PEdants for Definitive Academic References
which Recognize the Invention of the Internet (PEDARRII)
<rrhake@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Links to Articles: <http://bit.ly/a6M5y0>
Links to SDI Labs: <http://bit.ly/9nGd3M>
Blog: <http://bit.ly/9yGsXh>
Academia: <http://iub.academia.edu/RichardHake>
Twitter <https://twitter.com/#!/rrhake>
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REFERENCES [All URL's accessed on 16 March 2012; most shortened by
<http://bit.ly/>.]
ADI. 2012. Association of Direct Instruction; online at
<http://www.adihome.org/>.
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Hake, R.R. 2004. "Direct Science Instruction Suffers a Setback in
California - Or Does It?" AAPT Announcer 34(2): 177; online as a 420
kB pdf at <http://bit.ly/aWsazm> A 132 kB pdf version of the slides
shown at the meeting is also available at <http://bit.ly/d40ksO>.
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Hake, R.R. 2008. "Language Ambiguities in Education Research,"
submitted to the "Journal of Learning Sciences" on 21 August but
*mindlessly rejected*; online as a 1.2 MB pdf at
<http://bit.ly/bHTebD> and as ref. 54 at <http://bit.ly/a6M5y0>.
David Klahr <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Klahr> wrote to me
privately (quoted by permission): "I liked the paper. I think it's
very thoughtful and nuanced. However it is tough going, even for
someone as familiar with the issues (and as favorably cited by you)
as I am. It's a shame that it was rejected, but I wonder if the
reviewer just wasn't up to the very careful reading necessary to
really follow your arguments all the way through. Even though I know
this area quite well, obviously, I did have to really focus to fully
understand the distinctions you were making."
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Hake, R.R. 2012. "Re: Khan's Video Lectures on Acceleration and
Newton's Second Law," online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at
<http://bit.ly/AiO4oY>. Post of 16 Mar 2012 09:11:07-0700 to AERA-L
and Net-Gold. I apologize for the several misspellings of "Khan" as
"Kahn." It was all the fault of my spiel chequer - see e.g., Zar
(1994, 2000). The abstract and link to the complete post were
transmitted to several discussion lists and are also on my blog
"Hake'sEdStuff" at <http://bit.ly/wEdup7> with a provision for
comments.
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Huddle, J. 2012. "Re: Khan's Video Lectures on Acceleration and
Newton's Second Law," online on the CLOSED! Physoc archives at <????>
[The archives are at <http://listserv.uark.edu/archives/physoc.html>
but I've been unable or access them :-( .] Post of 15 Mar 2012
23:40:07-0400 to Physoc.
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Klahr, D. & M. Nigam. 2004. "The equivalence of learning paths in
early science instruction: effects of direct instruction and
discovery learning," Psychological Science 15(10): 661-667; online as
a 388 kB pdf at <http://bit.ly/9jzh39>.
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Rosa, D. 2011. "Re: Khan Academy: Math instruction goes viral," on
the OPEN! MathEdCC archives at <http://bit.ly/z2qEml>. Post of 12
Sep 1:59 PM to MathEdCC.
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Zar, J. 1994. "Candidate for a Pullet Surprise," Journal of
Irreproducible Results, January/February, p. 13. Reprinted "by
popular demand" in the Journal of Irreproducible Results 45(5/6),
2000, p. 20; online at http://bit.ly/uW8mM7.
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