CHAPTER 7: The Effective Lesson © (2015, 2012, 2009) by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice Edition 11 Robert E. Slavin

Slavin, Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice, 11th Ed. © (2015, 2012, 2009) by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved 7-2 Organizing Questions What Is Direct Instruction? How Is a Direct Instruction Lesson Taught? How Does Research on Direct Instruction Methods Inform Teaching? How Do Students Learn and Transfer Concepts? How are Discussions Used in Instruction?

Slavin, Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice, 11th Ed. © (2015, 2012, 2009) by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved 7-3 What Is Direct Instruction? At times, the most effective and efficient way to teach students is for you to present information, skills, or concepts in a direct fashion. The term direct instruction is used to describe lessons in which you transmit information directly to students, structuring class time to reach a clearly defined set of objectives as efficiently as possible. Direct instruction is particularly appropriate for teaching a well-defined body of information or skills that all students must master.

Slavin, Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice, 11th Ed. © (2015, 2012, 2009) by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved 7-4 How Is a Direct Instruction Lesson Taught? The general lesson structure takes vastly different forms in different subject areas and at different grade levels. The sequence of activities in direct instruction flows along a logical path: arousing student interest presenting new information allowing students to practice their new knowledge or skills assessment This orderly progression is essential to direct instruction lessons at any grade level and in any subject, although various components look different for different subjects and grades.

Slavin, Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice, 11th Ed. © (2015, 2012, 2009) by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved 7-5 State Learning Objectives o The first step in presenting a lesson is to state learning objectives and orient students to the lesson. Tell students what they will be learning and what performance will be expected of them. Whet students’ appetites for the lesson by informing them how interesting, important, or personally relevant it will be to them. Give an astonishing or exciting opener that gets kids eager to learn the content.

Slavin, Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice, 11th Ed. © (2015, 2012, 2009) by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved 7-6 Review Prerequisites For the next major task in a lesson, you need to ensure that students have mastered prerequisite skills. Go over any skills or concepts students need in order to understand the lesson. Link information that is already in their minds to the information you are about to present.

Slavin, Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice, 11th Ed. © (2015, 2012, 2009) by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved 7-7 Present New Material Here begins the main body of the lesson, the point at which you present new information or skills. In this step you teach the lesson by: presenting information giving examples demonstrating concepts

Slavin, Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice, 11th Ed. © (2015, 2012, 2009) by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved 7-8 Conduct Learning Probes Effective teaching requires you to be constantly aware of the effects of your instruction. In this stage you conduct learning probes. The term learning probe refers to any of a variety of ways of asking for brief student responses to lesson content. To conduct a learning probe you will pose questions to students to assess their level of understanding and correct misconceptions.

Slavin, Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice, 11th Ed. © (2015, 2012, 2009) by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved 7-9 Provide Independent Practice The term independent practice refers to work students do in class on their own to practice or express newly learned skills or knowledge. In this step of the lesson you will give students an opportunity to practice new skills or use new information on their own. Independent practice is most critical when students are learning skills, such as mathematics, reading, grammar, composition, map interpretation, or a foreign language.

Slavin, Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice, 11th Ed. © (2015, 2012, 2009) by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved 7-10 Assess Performance and Provide Feedback Every lesson should contain an assessment of the degree to which students have mastered the objectives set for the lesson. You should assess the effectiveness of the lesson and give the results of the assessment to students as soon as possible. Steps in this process: review independent practice work or give a quiz give feedback on correct answers reteach skills if necessary

Slavin, Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice, 11th Ed. © (2015, 2012, 2009) by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved 7-11 Provide Distributed Practice and Review Practice or review spaced out over time increases retention of many kinds of knowledge. Steps in this process: assign homework to provide distributed practice on the new material in later lessons, review material provide practice opportunities to increase the chances that students will remember what they learned and also be able to apply it in different circumstances

Slavin, Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice, 11th Ed. © (2015, 2012, 2009) by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved 7-12 How Does Research on Direct Instruction Methods Inform Teaching? Most of the principles of direct instruction discussed in this chapter have been derived from process-product studies in which observers record the teaching practices of teachers whose students consistently achieve at a high level. Although the research on direct instruction models has produced mixed conclusions, most researchers agree that the main elements of these models are essential minimum skills that all teachers should have.

Slavin, Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice, 11th Ed. © (2015, 2012, 2009) by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved 7-13 How do Students Learn and Transfer Concepts? A very large proportion of all lessons focus on teaching concepts. A concept is an abstract idea that is generalized from specific examples. Concepts are generally learned in one of two ways: most concepts we learn outside of school we learn by observation other concepts are typically learned by definition: for example it is very difficult to learn the concept Aunt or Uncle through observation

Slavin, Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice, 11th Ed. © (2015, 2012, 2009) by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved 7-14 Teaching for Transfer of Learning Transfer of learning from one situation to another depends on two factors: the degree to which the information or skills were learned in the original situation the degree of similarity between the situation in which the skill or concept was learned and the situation to which it is to be applied

Slavin, Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice, 11th Ed. © (2015, 2012, 2009) by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved 7-15 Teaching for Transfer of Learning continued Initial learning and understanding: One of the most important factors in transfer of a skill or concept from one situation to another is how well it was learned in the first place. Learning in context: the ability to apply knowledge in new circumstances depends on the variety of circumstances in which we have learned or practiced the information or skill.

Slavin, Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice, 11th Ed. © (2015, 2012, 2009) by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved 7-16 How are Discussions Used in Instruction? You can use discussions as part of instruction for many reasons. Discussions lend themselves to: subjective and controversial topics difficult and novel concepts affective objectives attitudinal objectives

Slavin, Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice, 11th Ed. © (2015, 2012, 2009) by Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved 7-17 How are Discussions Used in Instruction cont. Whole-class discussion differs from a usual lesson because the teacher plays a less dominant role. Small-group discussion students work in four-to-six member groups to discuss a particular topic, and the teacher moves from group to group, aiding the discussion.