ABSTRACT
In direct instruction, a teacher, typically using a curriculum, decides what students work on and teaches them the information and skills they need to understand concepts and perform tasks. In contrast, in student-directed instruction students set their own goals or discover learning resources on their own. With few exceptions, direct instruction is one of the most reliable, scalable, and effective methods of instruction. Direct instruction is effective because teachers are able to use their expertise to design learning experiences that emphasize essential concepts and skills, and teachers are able to modulate the rate of new information to adjust performance loads. There are three circumstances when it’s preferable not to use direct instruction: when students have advanced knowledge or general ability, when the skills being learned have multiple correct approaches or complex conceptual elementsrelated elements and so are unlikely to be successfully taught in advance and remembered.
