Learners With Special Needs, Teaching Strategies for

Teacher-Directed Strategies

Within the broad concept of effective instructional practices, a differentiation can be made between practices that are described as teacher-directed and those that are student-directed. Teacher-directed strategies often reflect the basic tenets of direct instruction and are associated with systematic and explicit instruction to develop skills and knowledge. Student-directed strategies focus on teaching students to take responsibility for their own learning. The remainder of this entry focuses on these two areas. Teacher-directed and student-directed strategies are complementary and effective educational programs for students with disabilities.

Teacher-directed strategies are often associated with the concept of direct instruction. Direct instruction can be defined as the explicit teaching of a skill-set using presentations and demonstrations of the material to be learned. By definition, such instruction is both systematic and explicit. Systematic instruction refers to instruction that clearly identifies useful and carefully selected skills to be taught and provides a logical sequence of skills instruction. Explicit instruction refers to instruction that makes clear the purpose of learning the directions and explanations for learning and incorporates appropriate demonstration, guided practice, and independent practice for learners. These two concepts clearly are complementary. For students for whom learning is difficult, nonsystematic or implicit instruction is far less likely to produce desired gains in school achievement.

A number of specific practices can be identified as teacher-directed. Following are several representative examples. First, instruction should be focused on the relevant stages of learning, with appropriate matches between these stages and the instructional practices used. Acquisition learning requires modeling and demonstration along with verification of student learning through guided practice. Proficiency learning requires independent practice to achieve mastery and fluency. Maintenance learning requires periodic review to ensure continued proficiency. Generalization requires learning opportunities that enable students to apply what they have learned and transfer it to new situations.

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