In a study with ninth-grade mathematics students on learning the concept of variance, students experienced either direct instruction (DI) or productive failure (PF), wherein they were first asked to generate a quantitative index for variance without any guidance before receiving DI on the concept. Whereas DI students relied only on the canonical…

Successful academic writing requires strong command of the rhetorical moves that orient the reader to the theme and substantive material of an academic essay. Effective control of the introduction leads to better overall writing. The goal of this study was to devise and evaluate a pedagogy for teaching the writing of academic essay introductions.…

"Reading Mastery" is designed to provide explicit reading instruction to students in grades pre-K-5. One of several Direct Instruction curricula from McGraw-Hill, "Reading Mastery" is available in two versions: (1) "Reading Mastery Classic" (for grades pre-K-2) aims to help beginning readers identify letter sounds,…

There is limited research demonstrating direct instruction (DI) as an effective language intervention for students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and developmental disabilities (DD). Existing research has shown that instruction using partial implementation of DI programs resulted in student learning (Ganz, 2007) and instruction using whole…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of explicit, direct, and generative strategy training and working memory capacity (WMC) on mathematical word problem-solving accuracy in elementary schoolchildren. In this study, children in third grade ("N" = 82) identified as at risk for math difficulties (MD) were randomly…

Background: Cooperative Learning (CL) is an inclusive name for various models of teaching/learning methods, all of which emphasize the fundamental of meaningful collaboration among learners during their learning activities. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine whether the CL teaching model contributed to the teaching efficacy and…

This research proposal is a mixed method action research project. Social problems in the school setting can affect students negatively. This project will see if explicit instruction reduces conflict and increase confidence to handle problems. The participants are 46, 2nd grade students. Quantitative and qualitative data are collected in this…

In Volume 35, Issue 1 of the "Australasian Journal of Special Education," Carter, Stephenson and Strnadova (2011) replicated a study by Burns and Ysseldyke (2009). In Carter et al.'s study, 194 Australian special educators were asked to rate the extent to which they used eight instructional practices. These practices were applied…

The purpose of this study was to determine the pitch-matching ability of high school choral students. Years of piano experience, middle school performance experience, and model were considered as variables that might affect pitch-matching ability. Gender of participants was also considered when identifying the effectiveness of each model.…

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a Direct Instruction summer reading intervention program designed to minimize summer reading regression. The summer intervention program targeted the lowest quartile of readers in grades kindergarten through third grade from a suburban school district over a three-week period before…

Although vocabulary plays an important role in literacy and content instruction, there is a paucity of research identifying effective methods for teaching vocabulary. One promising strategy is morphemic analysis, which involves breaking words into morphemes, the smallest meaningful parts of words, and teaching students the meanings of those parts.…

This report outlines a 2-year investigation into how secondary science teachers used professional development (PD) to build scientific classroom discourse communities (SCDCs). Observation data, teacher, student, and school demographic information were used to build a hierarchical linear model. The length of time that teachers received PD was the…

This study investigated whether the level of instructional guidance affected student learning and science self-efficacy when nine- and ten- year old children learn to design unconfounded experiments using control of variable strategies (CVS). Specifically, the goal of this study was to replicate and extend prior research that examines the impact…

As part of the Small Schools movement in Chicago Public Schools, a high school dedicated to African-centered education was chartered. The virtues of Ma'at and the Nguzo Saba, otherwise known as the seven principles of Kwanza, were the foundational principles of the school and were to be integrated into all of the practices and policies of the…

This research examined the reported level of implementation of eight practices in a national sample of Australian special education teachers, replicating the North American study of Burns and Ysseldyke (2009). The 194 respondents reported extensive use of a number of evidence-based practices, such as direct instruction and applied behaviour…