Explicit Instruction versus Direct Instruction

Teaching Mathematics | 0 comments

There is a lot of talk about using explicit instruction in mathematics, and I think it often gets confused with direct instruction.
I’m Christina Tondevold, the recovering traditionalist, and today we’re going to take a look at explicit instruction versus direct instruction, in our quest to build our math minds so we can build the math minds of our students. 

Watch the video or read the transcript below:

Now, with this new way of teaching math where we want kids to be able to explore, sometimes lessons kind of go off the rocker, should I say. Have you ever had a lesson where you give students this task, like a really rich task to work on, they’re diving in deep, they spend time on it, they’re trying things out, you discuss things afterwards, you share as a group, and at the end, you just feel exhausted and not even sure if they took anything of mathematical value away from the lesson. I know, I’ve sure been there . It’s really hard when we try to open things up for our students and let them explore, we feel like we shouldn’t be there doing things, like we shouldn’t be telling them what to think or telling them what to try. And so then they kind of are just like, out there exploring on their own, not sure which way to go. But we need to step in sometimes as their tour guide, I guess I’d say, so that they have some clear paths in order to explore. I tell you this, because I think so many of us want to get away from the old direct instruction type of lesson, but we aren’t sure what else to do, except just let them play and explore, and us not tell them things. The middle area to me is using explicit instruction. But too often people kind of interchange these terms of direct instruction and explicit instruction. And I don’t think they really should be. 

Direct Instruction

I want to spend a little bit of time talking about the difference between direct instruction and explicit instruction. But I want you to know that I’m really using like, I’m generalizing each of these types of instruction. There has been specific research done, that really details out the kind of steps or stages and parts and pieces of each of these types of instruction. But some of these have been modified through the years and people still call it direct instruction or explicit instruction.  I am not giving you like step by step: this is what it means to be direct instruction and explicit instruction, I’m using general terms, because that’s kind of what it’s morphed into. Like, we don’t see it like the exact type of direct instruction very often anymore, because it’s been morphed around. So I just want to say that in the beginning, so that those of you who are like purists for types of instruction, I know I’m not giving justice to the exact ideas of these, I just want to talk in general terms.  So generally, if we are talking about direct instruction, this is the type of instruction that is highly scripted. It is very detailed out about teacher says this. Kids will say this back, and there’s not a lot of flexibility, you are supposed to follow the script, basically step by step, and the kids are expected to kind of say this, like parrot back certain things. As we move away from that, because for years that has what we have done, especially in mathematics, there are certain steps and procedures we’ve wanted kids to do, and so we detail those out and then expect them to parrot it back to us.  Well, now this “new” way of teaching math, and I’m using new in quotes, but the new way of teaching math is to let kids have more flexibility and that we don’t all need to do it the same way. And if you’re doing it differently than me, that’s okay. And we want kids to explore and play. And yet if we do that, too freely, sometimes kids don’t take away the big ideas from the lesson. 

Explicit Instruction

Explicit instruction is still teacher-directed, but you carefully plan out what the focus is. You have a clearly defined content, goals, and outcomes that you have in mind that you want kids to take away from the lesson. But you are allowing kids to work through some of these things and apply them in different contexts and approach things through different strategies.  But your goal as the teacher, when you’re doing explicit instruction, is to call out the things that you really want them to pay attention to. It’s like calling out landmarks or certain points along the path that you really want them to pay attention to.  You don’t have to directly say, “You go right here “and you take this step and this step and this step, “and this turn and this turn and this turn on the path.” You can say, “I want you to get to this point, “and I want you to go and explore a little bit, “but then we’re going to come back together, “and I want to highlight certain things for you “that maybe you didn’t notice.” I like to think of it as explicit instruction is the opposite of like, implicit, right?  Implicit is things that we think are just obvious. It’s like implied that that’s what you’re supposed to do, that that’s what you’re supposed to be seeing. But so many of our kids aren’t seeing it. We expect that as they’re walking down the trail, and there’s this beautiful waterfall off to the side, every kid’s going to stop and admire that waterfall and see its beauty.  But really, what happens, is you’ve got kids going like this. “Oh, did you guys see that squirrel?”, right? They’re not all seeing the beautiful waterfall along the path. We have to stop as tour guides and point it out and say, “Let’s reflect on this for a moment. “Take a moment and look at that beautiful waterfall.” That’s what explicit instruction is to me, is that when you’re working on a task, and kids are deep in it, and they’re going through and they’re playing and they’re exploring, we got to call them back together sometimes and highlight some things. Maybe it’s not together as a group, it can be even individually, you see a kid is floundering, and they’ve got that squirrel moment, and you say, “Hey, did you have you thought about this? “Did you see this? “I see what you’re doing here. “Did you notice this?” Explicit is bringing it out, it is making it obvious when those kids aren’t seeing what is obviously right there in front of them. That is the ticket to explicit instruction.  As you’re planning lessons, that let kids explore and dig deep into the math, you don’t have to let it be a free for all, right? You can guide the instruction by pointing out the mathematics and making it explicit. Think about the wonderful landmarks along the way that you hope that they are seeing. And you’ve got to make sure they see them, because it is not obvious to some of our kids. You have to be that tour guide that points out and does it explicitly. You can’t think everybody’s going to see the same thing along the path, okay?  So explicit instruction is saying: “We’re going to get to point B,” but letting kids explore and pointing out things along the way. Direct instruction is when you say: “We are here at point A, “I need you to get to point B. “And here is the exact steps you’re going to take to get there. “Everybody’s going on the same path. “I’m leading you, we’re taking a right here, “we’re stopping here, we’re going to go this way.” And you directly take them from point A to point B. Explicit instruction is, “We are all at point A,” and some kids might be back at point zero, even before the point A, but we got to get them to point B.  All the kids might go different routes. But you want to point out those big landmarks along the way and still guide them to get to point B. Alright, I hope that this video has helped you build your math mind so that you can go build the math minds of your students. Have a great day!

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