Saturday, December 04, 2004
Direct Instruction not all its touted to be
Recent articles discussed at Joanne Jacobs touted the wonders of a phonics based reading program called Direct Instruction. Direct Instruction, or DI, is a phonics based program similar to Open Court. Teachers visiting its website will recognize many similar characteristics, mainly that it strives to remove creativity from the classroom (I wonder if some school districts have Direct Instruction police?). The company website is filled with stories about wonderful successes while not actually providing any hard data to examine. I have found a longitudinal study demonstrating DI is no better than and possible less better than traditional teaching methods. The full article can be found here.
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I briefly worked for a Sylvan Learning Center. "Direct Instruction" was the ONLY method we could use. It was very frustrating to see the students [continue to] struggle, and not have the flexibility to present the material in a different manner. DI is NOT a good method and further perpetuates the idea that "anyone can teach."
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