FAQs

Direct Instruction is a system of teaching, a researched, evidence-based tool that supports the development of teachers that make a dramatic difference in the performance of students. The curriculum is arranged so that students are taught ahead of time what they need to know in order to understand what the teacher is talking about or demonstrating, and so they can figure out how to do the next task or solve the next problem. Whatever students are taught now, they use now and later.

Direct Instruction:

• Is developmentally appropriate
• Provides effective practice that brings students to mastery
• Guides students from basic skills to mastery
• Focuses on higher-order cognitive learning
• Promotes meaningful student engagement
• Provides individual attention to students
• Increases positive student behavior
• Makes knowledge acquisition explicit and overt

Teaching DI is about…

• Being Efficient
• Being Effective
• Building Confidence
• Bringing Students to Mastery

Direct Instruction (DI) has its origins in the highly successful Bereiter-Engelmann Preschool at the University of Illinois in the 1960’s. DI became more fully developed as a teaching system under the auspices of the USOE’s Follow-Through Program. In 1967, the Office of Education invited Siegfried Engelmann (by then, at the University of Oregon) and others to develop model programs that could be applied in kindergarten through 3rd grade as a follow-up to Head Start. Eventually, the Follow-Through Project became a billion dollar planned variation experiment to empirically determine effective instructional practices in kindergarten through third grade. Literally hundreds of schools and thousands of students from every geographic area and demographic strata of the country took part in this unprecedented study.

Follow-Through rigorously assessed outcomes in three areas: basic skills such as word recognition and math computation, higher-order cognitive skills such as reading comprehension and math problem solving, and affective competencies such as self esteem. The overwhelming empirical evidence confirmed that the Direct Instruction model was the most successful of the many approaches studied. Across all models, and by a large margin, Direct Instruction ranked first in all three areas assessed. Continued program development and rigorous, empirical field testing over the past 57 years have expanded the number, range, and sophistication of DI programs, and established Direct Instruction as an effective instructional tool that accelerates learning for all children.

Direct Instruction provides a field-proven script that establishes a common language of instruction and enables teachers to deliver sequenced strand of information in a clear and unambiguous format:

• Statement: Objective, expectation, or task at hand (Learning Targets, Learning Outcomes, Learning Objectives)
• Model: Teacher demonstrates the desired student behavior or response
• Lead: Teacher does the task with the students. Teachers provide guided practice.
• Test: Students do the task without help. The whole group responds until firm. Then the teacher calls on individual students.
• Re-test: Earlier material is reviewed later through distributive practice over time. This gives more practice and aids retention.
• Lessons & Training: (How sessions work, duration, format)
• Licensing & Certification: (What clients need to know)
• Booking & Payments: (Refund policy, rescheduling, pricing)
• Support & Contact: Janie Feinberg, Donna Gallant