ABSTRACT
One inevitable feature of classroom life is the phenomenon we refer to as the recitation method. This is the type of teaching that is so highly familiar to anyone who has been to school. Alternatively known as the IRE cycle (initiation-response-evaluation), or the CDR method (conventional-directrecitation), the recitation has a long history of application. It represents traditional teaching methodology that has survived considerable criticism and attacks for over two centuries. Stanford University professor Larry Cuban (1984) noted that,
Drawn from a large number of varied sources in diverse settings, over nearly a century, the data show striking convergence in outlining a stable core of teacher-centred instructional activities in the elementary school and, in high school classrooms, a remarkably pure and durable version of the same set of activities.
