This article provides a theoretical and empirical argument in support of explicit language instruction. It proposes on theoretical grounds that certain features of a language are sufficiently complex and subtle that learners are unlikely to be able to decipher their full conceptual meaning on the basis of exposure alone. It further proposes that…

Direct instruction and explicit teaching can offer you a shorter, straighter route to developing effective learning in your classroom. In this smart and accessible book, Greg Ashman explores how you can harness the potential of these often misunderstood and misapplied teaching methods to achieve positive learning outcomes for the students you…

Educating students for democratic life requires teachers to make difficult judgment calls about whether controversial issues are appropriate for "directive teaching" (i.e., teaching that attempts to persuade students to adopt a particular view about the thing being taught). To help educators make these decisions, theorists have proposed…

This article argues that the best way to increase inquiry-based instruction is paradoxically to pay more attention to direct instruction because excessive attention to practices like close reading of texts and facilitating text-based discussions has led to neglect of content knowledge explanation as a core instructional practice. This article…

The article begins with a review of the shared metacognition construct and its function within the Community of Inquiry theoretical framework. The primary focus of the shared metacognition construct is the role of learners to take responsibility and control for monitoring and managing learning in a community of inquiry. Pragmatic challenges are…

Musical expression is often not explicitly addressed in secondary instrumental rehearsals due to the perception of expression as an obscure concept and the instructional time constraints on music educators. Secondary music educators, however, are encouraged to discuss expressive performance goals with instrumental students from the beginning of…

Scholars have demonstrated that a range of institutions, organizations, and "social movement schools" aimed to advance the civil rights movement through education. What remains unclear is how those institutions balanced conversation, direct instruction, role-play, and other pedagogical methods. This article focuses on the Highlander Folk…

Problem solving followed by explicit instruction, as suggested by productive failure and several other instructional theories, indicates long-term learning benefits, whereas explicit instruction followed by problem solving has been consistently demonstrated as superior within the framework of cognitive load theory. However, the effectiveness of…

This article explores the 'reading wars' from the perspective of instructional psychology, which focuses on the environmental and instructional factors that facilitate students' progress in learning to read. It draws on research (computational analysis and classroom-based experimental studies) to inform a novel intervention that teaches reading…

Mathematics is typically perceived as an objective subject due to its clarity and linearity. If this is accepted as true, then students of any race, ethnicity, gender, or class should have access to high-quality culturally responsive instruction in mathematics. Because this is not always the case, we explore strategies that special education…

A crude outline of 'direct instruction' might run as follows: the teacher works directly with a group of pupils, rather than the pupils being given tasks on which they work without the teacher. Direct instruction is likely to include episodes in which the teacher imparts knowledge by 'telling' pupils. The teacher has knowledge, and uses 'direct'…

The SEL Innovations series aims to help the field imagine new, more expansive and equitable approaches to social and emotional learning (SEL) and wellness to ensure that all children, adolescents, and adults feel safe, supported, and seen so that they can thrive. This is the second report in a series exploring innovations in SEL. The purpose of…

Teachers who seek to amplify student voice in the English Language Arts classroom must balance students' need for selfexpression with the TEKS requirement that students demonstrate command of standard English. Teachers also face a curricular landscape in which they are discouraged from teaching grammar in isolation but are held accountable for…

A decade after the publication of Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement, the influence of John Hattie's statistical work continues to grow. This paper critically examines one aspect of Hattie's 'synthesis' of education meta-analyses, his summation of research data for whole language literacy teaching. Of…

This paper argues that the terms through which we interpret and work to develop expansive pedagogical practices are overly constrained by the binary of adult-centered versus child-centered education. Analyzing ethnographic data developed over three years in a making/tinkering afterschool program serving Black, Latinx, and Asian American students…