American education is set up on curriculum and varying pedagogic approaches to education.   It is important as an active parent that you understand what type of curriculum your child’s school is utilizing as when it comes to the out come of your child’s education, school is not school.   Early childhood education types include, Bank Street, Montessori, Waldorf and many others.  Some are geared towards special education, some are geared towards visual learners and others are experimental.  Finding the correct curriculum for your child is 50% of the job of educational parenting.  Today we will take a look at Direct Instruction Education, used at schools like Thales and Franklin Academy.

Direct instruction education refers to a teaching technique, which includes lectures and demonstration of a subject, compared to the exploratory models. The ethos of this type of education is centred on the explaining of subject mater and this may include student participation.  Although there are some cases where student participation is not required. This method of education relies on giving out direct instructions about the subject, to the students in order to improve their understanding. Athletic coaching techniques are a good example of these education techniques being put into practice.

Direct Instruction in Education is impromptu and improvised. The lesson will have a formal lesson plan but despite this, this method of education means that the lesson may deviate away from the main subject matter at various points throughout the lesson. However, it is very important to keep in mind that direct instruction education is not the same as direct instruction.

This process of education is vital as it empowers the teacher with complete control. Although in some cases, this may not be the most effective way to impart education but then again in other cases it does prove to be effective. The founding principles of this method of education have been derived from the theories of developmental-ism and behaviorism.

In the direct instruction education method, the teacher delivers a lecture on a particular subject. Then he sets the students a problem and assists them step-by-step, in order to help them solve the problem. Later, the students are given a number of similar problems, which they must solve themselves. This is a very common teaching technique that is usually adopted by a Math teacher. He explains how to solve a particular type of problem, and helps the students solve one together. After that, he gives them other problems of the same type. All natural sciences are taught in a very similar way.

Another method used in this type of education procedure is to show students a video and ask them questions in between the viewing. The teacher may also choose to read from a book and stop occasionally in between reading in order to ask certain questions, which the students are expected to answer.However, this method of teaching results in the timing and knowledge of students being under the control of the teacher.

This method of education is based on old theories of learning and there is not much of a scope for the teacher to judge the prior level of knowledge of the students. The students do not always get an opportunity of attending practical sessions; they are stuck within the boundaries of mere theory. Despite the shortcomings, the technique also has some important advantages:

* The teacher has control of the time and of the knowledge, so not much time is wasted
* The students can be monitored easily in the presence of the teacher
* Direct Instruction is a way to encourage middle class students to learn, but is not without controversy.

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