Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jun 2;44(2-3):225-244.
doi: 10.1007/s40614-021-00295-x. eCollection 2021 Sep.

Just How Effective is Direct Instruction?

Lee Mason  1   2 , Maria Otero  1   3
Affiliations

Just How Effective is Direct Instruction?

Lee Mason et al. Perspect Behav Sci. .

Abstract

Despite overwhelming evidence in support of Direct Instruction, this research-validated curriculum has not been widely embraced by teachers or school administrators. The Direct Instruction model, developed and refined by Engelmann and colleagues over the past 50 years, has been the focus of numerous research studies, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses. Although its efficacy cannot be doubted, the significance of Direct Instruction's impact may be misunderstood. We attempt to clarify the importance of Direct Instruction with help from the binomial effect-size display. Binomial effect-size displays allow for intuitive and informative data-based decision making by clearly conveying the real-world importance of treatment outcomes through a juxtaposition of the relative proportions of success. The limitations of analyzing effect sizes in absolute terms are discussed. Using the binomial effect-size display as a framework, we present a series of dichotomies in an attempt to answer the question: Just how effective is Direct Instruction?

Keywords: Binomial effect size display; Direct instruction; Effect size; Effective schools.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interestWe have no explicit conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
A normal distribution showing the dichotomous categorization of effective (right) and ineffective (left) practices
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Would you rather your child were in a classroom with a good teacher using a bad curriculum, or a bad teacher using a good curriculum?
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
A normal distribution showing the interaction of curriculum and instruction. Note. Constructed from data provided by Marzano et al. (2003). (1) A student who begins at the 50th percentile and receives poor instruction from a poor curriculum will rank at the 3rd percentile after 2 years. (2) A student who begins at the 50th percentile and receives poor instruction from a good curriculum will rank at the 37th percentile after 2 years. (3) A student who begins at the 50th percentile and receives average instruction from an average curriculum will remain at the 50th percentile after 2 years. (4) A student who begins at the 50th percentile and receives good instruction from a poor curriculum will rank at the 63rd percentile after 2 years. (5) A student who begins at the 50th percentile and receives good instruction from a good curriculum will rank at the 96th percentile after 2 years.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Adams, G. L., & Engelmann, S. (1996). Research on direct instruction: 25 years beyond DISTAR. Educational Achievement Systems.
    1. Barbash, S. (2012). Clear teaching: With direct instruction, Siegfried Engelmann discovered a better way of teaching. Education Consumers Foundation.
    1. Baum, W. M. (2017). Understanding behaviorism: Behavior, culture, and evolution (3rd ed.). John Wiley & Sons.
    1. Becker WC, Gersten R. A follow-up of Follow Through: The later effects of the direct instruction model on children in fifth and sixth grades. American Educational Research Journal. 1982;19(1):75–92. doi: 10.3102/00028312019001075. - DOI
    1. Bereiter, C., & Engelmann, S. (1966). Teaching disadvantaged children in the preschool. Prentice-Hall.

LinkOut - more resources