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Have you ever had that experience where you’re sitting in a classroom or a lecture hall? The teacher is explaining something, but you’re lost. The terminology, the concepts, everything is flying over your head, and you really have no idea what the teacher is attempting to say? Well, this is possibly because you didn’t do your homework for the class, or because the teacher didn’t use explicit instruction.
The aim of explicit instruction is to take students step-by-step to the understanding of a new concept or skill. In this article, you will learn:
What Explicit Instruction is
Why Explicit Instruction is important
How to teach using an Explicit Instruction approach
Where to go to Dive Deeper into Explicit Instruction
What is Explicit Instruction?
Explicit instruction is a systematic, direct, engaging, and success-oriented teaching approach and has been shown to promote achievement for all students. (Archer & Hughes, 2010)
In this approach, a teacher would give students a bite-size piece of information. Let’s say perhaps that the teacher is explaining the Water Cycle to students. She might first say, “Do you know that water travels in a cycle? Before I talk about the water cycle, let’s first review what a cycle is.” While drawing on the board, the teacher continues “In a cycle, there are steps, let’s say Step 1, Step 2, Step 3, Step 4, and then you come back to step 1 again and the cycle is repeated. Students, what is a cycle?”
Notice that after the teacher reviewed the meaning of a cycle, she then asks the students a question. This question allows the students to practice explaining what a cycle is. If students made mistakes in their explanation, the teacher would provide feedback immediately until the student is able to explain it correctly. After this, the teacher would go on to name the four steps of the water cycle, and then explain each of the four steps, in turn, one at a time. At each step, she would show examples, ask questions, give opportunities to practice, and provide feedback before explaining the next piece of information.
Because of the opportunities for practice, and the step-by-step approach, explicit instruction is known to be engaging and successful for many students.
Why is explicit instruction important?
Why is explicit instruction important?
Explicit instruction ensures all students are equipped for success. It systematically takes students through the steps needed to achieve mastery. Key components of explicit instruction, such as modeling, scaffolding learning, and giving explicit feedback are considered best practices in education.
When instruction is delivered in small bite-size pieces, it minimizes the load on the working memory which is a common struggle with students who think and learn differently. It allows them to master one step at a time before the next step is taught. Explicit instruction is also beneficial for English language learners because it allows them to understand the English language and the conceptual information at the same time.
Explicit instruction is also beneficial to teachers. When teachers plan lessons using the explicit instruction approach, they need to analyze all the important content and incremental skills before teaching it to students in a systematic way.
I Do (Teacher Models) = Direct Instruction
The teacher explicitly models strategies, activities, and language, using a slow pace of instruction, visuals, and models.
Students observe only.
We Do (Teacher and students work together) = Guided Instruction
The teacher works with some student participation, providing examples until it is apparent that students understand and can practice the content/skill.
Students can work in groups or pairs. The teacher provides ongoing feedback.
You Do (Collaboratively) = Collaborative Practice
Students work in groups or pairs.
The teacher steps in when he/she feels that the student requires additional support. The students are monitored as they work through their tasks.
You Do (Individually) = Individual Practice
Students work independently
This can be a time for formative assessment, such as worksheets, or tech assessment tools such as Kahoot or Quizizz.
In this video, the teacher uses a video from Youtube as a multimedia tool to support her teaching. After the students watch the video, the teacher proceeds to the “We do” stage, where the teacher and students practice a sequencing activity together. Later on, the students do this sequencing activity individually (I Do).
Where can I go to learn more about Explicit Instruction?
Here are some websites that will increase your knowledge about explicit instruction.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Although explicit instruction is a research-based approach to teaching students with learning differences, it is a useful approach for teaching all students, especially when teaching a new concept or skill. In this approach, the teacher teaches students exactly what they need to learn in a systematic way. Explicit instruction requires that teachers break concepts or tasks down into smaller units, teach explicitly, move at a quick pace, and keep students engaged through their participation and practice.
Bibliography
Archer, A. L., & Hughes, C. A. (2010). Explicit instruction: Effective and efficient teaching. Guilford Publications.
Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2008). Better Learning Through Structured Teaching: A Framework for the Gradual Release of Responsibility. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Resources
Assessment Printables
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