Direct Instruction or the Lecture Method

Direct instruction is aimed at helping students acquire procedural knowledge which is knowledge exercised in
performance of some task. Procedural knowledge refers to skills needed in the performance of a task. Examples are
using the microscope, doing a PowerPoint presentation, playing basketball, and sewing a pair of pajamas.

Direct instruction is also used for lessons that are factual and non-controversial. In the College of Law, for example,
professors use direct instruction or the lecture method. They are there to help the students understand and master the
laws of the land.

Steps of the Direct Method or Lecture Method

To employ this methodology in teaching skills, follow these steps: a) provide the rationale, b) demonstrate the skill, c)
provide guided practice until mastery, d) check for understanding and provide feedback, e) provide extended practice and
transfer, and f) assess learning at the end (This is what we call summative assessment). The lesson objective has
something to do with skill and therefore the assessment tool must be a performance test (what you used to call practical
test), such a technique requires careful structuring of the entire procedure. Attention focused on every detail of the
procedure.

If you teach facts, principles, or laws, your steps are similar with those of teaching a skill: a) give a short introduction by
providing the rationale, b) present your lesson, c) develop the lesson by explaining, illustrating it with diagrams if
appropriate and/or by giving concrete application of the lesson and e) check for understanding and provide feedback.
(You may also check for understanding while you are in the process of teaching. This is what we call formative
assessment). You can check understanding again at the end of your lesson. This is summative assessment.

Instructional Characteristics

1. The strategy is teacher-directed.

2. The emphasis is on the teaching of skill. Each step must be mastered; hence the students gain "how" rather than
“what”. It is termed procedural knowledge.
3. Taught in a step-by-step fashion, it ensures the learning of the entire procedure with no step missed.
4. Lesson objectives include easily observed behaviors that can be measured accurately. If the lesson is to develop
skill in performing five steps of a particular experiment, such skill can be observed and measured. The level of
performance can be assessed from the number of steps performed correctly.
5. This is a form of learning through imitation, sometimes termed "behavioral modeling".
6. This can also be used to teach facts, principles, and laws.

Advantages

● Effective lecturers can communicate the intrinsic interest of a subject through their enthusiasm.
● Lectures can be specifically organized to meet the needs of particular audiences.
● Lectures can present large amounts of information.
● Lectures can be presented to large audiences.
● Lecturers can model how professionals work through disciplinary questions or problems.
● Lectures allow the instructor maximum control of the learning experience.
● Lectures present little risk for students.
● Lectures appeal to those who learn by listening.
Disadvantages

● Lectures fail to provide instructors with feedback about the extent of student learning.
● In lectures, students are often passive because there is no mechanism to ensure that they are intellectually
engaged with the material.
● Students' attention wanes quickly after fifteen to twenty-five minutes.
● Information tends to be forgotten quickly when students are passive.
 ● Lectures presume that all students learn at the same pace and are at the same level of understanding.
● Lectures are not suited for teaching higher orders of thinking such as application, analysis, synthesis, or
evaluation; for teaching motor skills, or for influencing attitudes or values.
● Lectures are not well suited for teaching complex, abstract material.
● Lectures requires effective speakers.
● Lectures emphasize learning by listening, which is a disadvantage for students who have other learning styles.

Looking at the list of advantages shows a clear place for lectures. For example, members of the general public voluntarily
attending a lecture on, say, genetic engineering or art appreciation. The audience need not take notes and will not be
assessed on the content so the teaching need not be especially effective. Furthermore, such a self-motivated audience is
probably receptive to inspiration by the lecturer.

Students attending lectures as part of a course of study are significantly different. There is probably a greater diversity of
learning styles than in the audience attending a lecture out of interest. Undoubtedly, lectures will suit some students but it
would be wrong to assume that all (or even most) of the students were motivated intrinsically by the material or by the
inspirational style of the lecturer! (To believe this would be to ignore a huge body of evidence on personality, learning style
and the factors that drive course/subject selection). Furthermore, the assessment requirements significantly determine the
learning process. In these cases, the disadvantages of lectures loom large so that, for many materials, lectures are
probably not the vehicle of choice.

These lists of advantages and disadvantages rely on a fairly narrow view of lectures and it is possible to increase the
interactivity of lectures and (at least partially) overcome some of the disadvantages. But, in the end, the prevalence of
lectures probably has less to do with learning and more to do with the efficiency (time, cost) of lectures, the familiarity of
the format to teachers (probably a function of teachers' learning styles) and time-efficiency of preparing them that sees
them so broadly applied.

Guidelines for Its Effective Use

Teaching skill

1. The students must be given ample time for practice.

2. They must be included in the planning stage since this technique is highly task-oriented and aimed at mastery of
every step. The lesson objectives are student-based.
3. Describe the testing situation and specify the level of performance expected.
4. Divide complex skills and understanding into subskills or into its component steps so they can be taught easily
and with precision.
5. Design your own strategy in teaching each skill which will eventually contribute to the learning of the entire skill.
6. Before the demonstration, carefully rehearse all steps. The steps should be observed and followed.
7. Assign practice for short periods of time, then continue learning by imitating others.
8. Provide feedback and encouragement through praises. Positively motivated, the students will never get tired of
practicing.
9. Be able to construct good performance-based tests.

Teaching declarative knowledge - facts, principles, and laws.

1. Be sure the facts, principles, and laws are correctly, clearly and adequately explained.
2. Use visual aids to concretize abstract principles and laws.
3. Illustrate laws and principles with concrete examples.
4. Present facts meaningfully by citing their significance and by connecting them with everyday life.

Sources:

Principles of Teaching by Brenda Corpuz and Gloria Salandanan

Slightly adapted from http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/nise/CL1/CL/doingcl/advlec.htm