Direct Instruction

Description of the Strategy

Direct instruction (DI) was originally developed by Siegfried Engelmann in 1964, and refers to curricula that are based on the application of instructional design principles and instructional delivery techniques developed by Engelmann. The original DI curricula were developed under the title of the Direct Instruction System for Teaching Arithmetic and Reading (DIS-TAR). Later, when a language curriculum was created, the meaning of DISTAR changed to Direct Instruction System for Teaching and Remediation. Engelmann is the senior author of more than 70 DI curriculum programs. Each curriculum usually contains one half to a whole school year of lessons and is extensively field tested with students before publication. In particular, student errors are compiled and analyzed to improve wording, change sequences, or add more practice and prompting. DI programs often go through several rounds of tryouts before publication.

The term direct instruction often results in confusion among school and university teachers and administrators. Most commonly, DI is equated with any teacherdirected instructional sequence, in contrast to childcentered educational approaches, but this is not direct instruction. Rosenshine, in 1986, described common classroom-related variables that correlated with student achievement. Among these variables were high levels of student responses, clear corrections, and well-paced lessons. These variables are core features of the direct instruction approach and can be integrated into most curricula. While these variables are integrated into DI curricula, a classroom might be using direct instruction techniques without using a DI curriculum.

In addition, DI is not just a behavior modification program. Although DI programs incorporate behavior change techniques, DI programs are unique in the utilization of Engelmann's instructional design principles in lesson construction. DI is an approach to teaching that attempts to control all the variables that influence student performance. For example, students with IQs of 60 or more can be placed in DI programs to master the content at a reasonable rate. When the student is placed and taught properly, acceleration is possible, meaning that the student can be taught more than expected in a given time frame.