Karl Wheatley: Has Direct Instruction Banished Exploration? Not So Fast!
Guest post by Karl Wheatley
A recent guest post here by John Thompson, Neither Teacher-less nor Teacher-proof: Constructivism Meets Guided Instruction, led to a lively discussion in the comments. I asked one reader to expand on his thoughts, and this post is the result.
Here we go again ... How much should teachers provide direct instruction/guidance and how much should they allow for child-initiated learning and jointly-planned activities?
I believe that "big-picture" research provides strong support for substantial child-initiated and jointly-planned learning (e.g., play, projects, emergent curriculum) at every grade level. Some folks consider this crazy:
Is Direct Instruction Clearly Superior?
In the Spring 2012 American Educator, Clark, Kirschner, & Sweller claimed that this pedagogical debate was
A recent guest post here by John Thompson, Neither Teacher-less nor Teacher-proof: Constructivism Meets Guided Instruction, led to a lively discussion in the comments. I asked one reader to expand on his thoughts, and this post is the result.
Here we go again ... How much should teachers provide direct instruction/guidance and how much should they allow for child-initiated learning and jointly-planned activities?
I believe that "big-picture" research provides strong support for substantial child-initiated and jointly-planned learning (e.g., play, projects, emergent curriculum) at every grade level. Some folks consider this crazy:
Is Direct Instruction Clearly Superior?
In the Spring 2012 American Educator, Clark, Kirschner, & Sweller claimed that this pedagogical debate was