1. Teaching Basic Skills
Through Direct
Instruction

2. The Nature of Direct Instruction

DIRECT INSTRUCTION - is a
deductive instructional strategy
that is taught in a step-by-step
fashion.

According to Gagne (1985), it can be
used in teaching procedural knowledge
and declarative knowledge.

3. PROCEDURAL KNOWLEDGE – deals with
basic academic skills, learning and
thinking skills and the skill components
od various learning areas in curriculum.

Some Examples of Procedural Knowledge
are computational skills, reading and
writing skills, library research skills,
note taking skills and analysis and
evaluation skills

4. Mathematics
Languages
Physical Education
Livelihood Education
Music
Social Studies
Procedural Knowledge Declarative Knowledge
Curriculum areas, like Social studies, have
more declarative knowledge, which cannot
learned without the mastery of basic learning
and thinking skills.

5. 
Direct instruction is called in several names in
research literature: skill instruction, mastery
teaching, explicit skill instruction and training
model (Joyce & Weil, 1992).

According to Louisell and Descamps (1992), this
strategy has three basic characteristics, namely:
~ The teacher presents and demonstrates a
procedural knowledge
~ The students asked questions to verify
understanding; and
~ The students practice the skill guided and
independent condition until the skill is prepared.

6. 
The major purpose of Direct Instruction is to
teach basic academic skills, learning skills and
teaching skills in a way that leads to transfer.

There are 3 major roles a teacher has to play
in direct instruction.
1. Focus on attention
2. Coaching role
3. Assessing their progress and degree of
mastery.

7. Phases of Direct Instruction

Phase 1: Stating Objectives and establishing
Set.
The teacher states the objectives of the lesson
and presents background information...

Phase 2: Demonstrating or Modeling the skills
or knowledge.
Teacher demonstrates the skills correctly or
presents step-by-step information.

8. 
Phase 3: Providing Guided Practice.
The teacher provide initial and guided practice.

Phase 4: Checking for Understanding and
Feedbacking.
The teacher checks to see whether the students
are performing correctly and provides
feedback.

Assigning Independent Practice.
The teacher provides independent practice after
he is convinced that students can work by
themselves with minimal teacher intervention.

9. Preparing Objectives

To be able to formulate skill-oriented
objectives, the teacher has to
undertake tasks analysis. Through tasks
analysis the teacher can define
precisely what the students has to do to
perform the desired skill.

10. 
According to Arends (1994), tasks analysis
can be done through the ff. ways:
~ Find out what a knowledgeable person does
when the skill is performed.
~ Divide the overall skill into sub-skills.
~ Put sub-skills in some logical order.
~ Design strategies to teach each of the sub-
skills and how they are combined.

11. Facilitating Learning Through
Direct Instruction

Providing objectives and Establishing Set. The
teacher begins the lesson by explaining the
objectives and establishing learning set.

Conducting Demonstration. Direct instruction of
a skill or concept relies heavily on demonstration.
Demonstrating a particular concept or skill
requires two things from a teacher: a thorough
understanding or mastery of the concept or skill
demonstration; and careful rehearsal of all the
aspects of demonstration before the actual
classroom event.

12. 
Providing Guided Practice. It is a critical step
in direct instruction. There are three values
of guided practice in teaching a skill or
concept through direct instruction.
~ Retention of a skill or concept is increased
with active practice.
~ Learning of a skill or concept becomes
automatic.
~ The student is able to transfer learning to
new or stressful situations.

13. There are three principles teachers have
to consider when providing guided
practice (Arends,2004).
~ Assign short, meaningful amounts of
practice.
~ Assign practice to increase
overlearning.
~ Attend to the initial stages of practice.

14. 
Checking Understanding and Providing
Feedback. Practice will be of less value
without knowledge of result. Providing
students with meaningful feedback or
knowledge of result is the most important
task of teacher using direct instruction.

Assigning Independent Practice. Most
teachers employ homework in providing
independent practice for their students.
Through the homework, students are provided
the opportunity to perform the newly
acquired skill on their own.

15. 
Evaluating the Acquisition of a Skill.
According to Arends (1994), evaluation for
skills taught or knowledge in a step-by-step
fashion can be done through performance
test measuring skill development rather than
paper and pencil test of declarative
knowledge.

The best way to determine whether the
students has acquired a basic or cognitive
skills is to ask him to submit a tangible
product, demonstrating mastery of skill.

16. 
To determine if a student has mastered
a psychomotor skill, the teacher needs
to observe the student performing the
skill. Such skill include handwriting,
drawing, dancing, jumping and the like.
~ The END ~