The Evidence is in the Design

Abstract

To better understand the effectiveness of Direct Instruction (DI), the empirical base related to DI's instructional design components (explicit teaching, judicious selection and sequencing of examples) and principles (identifying big ideas, teaching generalizable strategies, providing mediated instruction, integrating skills and concepts, priming background knowledge, and providing ample review) are analyzed. Attention is given to the converging evidence supporting the design characteristics of DI, which has broad applicability across different disciplines, teaching methodologies, and perspectives.Keywords Direct instruction . Instructional design . Empirical evidence Direct Instruction (DI) teaches so efficiently that all students learn the material in a minimal amount of time. Such highly effective teaching requires a laser-like focus on the design, organization, and delivery of instruction. Each and every DI program identifies concepts, rules, strategies, and "big ideas" to be taught, clearly communicates these through carefully crafted instructional sequences, organizes instruction to provide each student with appropriate and sufficient practice (through scheduling, grouping, and ongoing progress monitoring), and ensures active student engagement and lesson mastery via specific forms of studentteacher interactions. Every DI strategy, tactic, technique, or procedure involves careful design and testing. In Theory of Instruction: Principles and Applications (hereafter, Theory of Instruction), Engelmann and Carnine (1982, 1991) lay out how DI, and perhaps all instructional programs, should be designed. What is Instructional Design?Simply put, instructional design (ID) is the creation of materials and experiences that result in a learner's acquisition of new knowledge and skills. A more formal

You Have the Big Idea, Concept, and Some Examples ... Now What?

“…We will describe evidence-based best practices for arranging the presentation of examples. Our recommendations are based on Carnine's (1982, 1991) Theory of Instruction: Principles and Applications (ToI), 1 and both informed by a logical analysis of concepts (Klausmeier & Feldman, 1975;Markle, 1975;Tennyson & Park, 1980) and supported in the behavior analysis literature (see Kinder & Carnine, 1991;Twyman, 2021a). In ToI, Engelmann and Carnine describe, with exacting detail and thoroughness, the underlying theory that guides the design and development of Direct Instruction (DI) curricula.…”