Special education teacher here- explicit instruction definitely leads to better learning outcomes for my students, doesn’t matter what the disability. As a result, in years past at least 1-2 of the areas of my teaching rubric on observations was in the lower range because this way of teaching does not fit the model of DOK and engaging students in discovery learning. Discovery learning has its place in education ( science, art, group projects, pre academic skills at the pre k through first grade levels, ), but for teaching the foundational skills kids need to reach a level where the focus can be on analysis, etc, I would argue explicit instruction works for any kid who does not have the foundational skills in math, reading, or writing.
Who typically gets discovery learning? Affluent students.
Who gets a heaping dose of direct instruction? Students in poverty.
Did you notice that the task they were supposedly learning was some pointless discovery of a pattern of shape, color, or "texture"? I mean, wouldn't most students say "who cares?" about that task?
And your questions for practice are pretty much the definition of scaffolding.
Special education teacher here- explicit instruction definitely leads to better learning outcomes for my students, doesn’t matter what the disability. As a result, in years past at least 1-2 of the areas of my teaching rubric on observations was in the lower range because this way of teaching does not fit the model of DOK and engaging students in discovery learning. Discovery learning has its place in education ( science, art, group projects, pre academic skills at the pre k through first grade levels, ), but for teaching the foundational skills kids need to reach a level where the focus can be on analysis, etc, I would argue explicit instruction works for any kid who does not have the foundational skills in math, reading, or writing.
It’s been a longtime coming …
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14736316/
Just read a post from Pedro De Bruyckere "ADHD, Dyslexia, and the Possibilities and the Limits of Explicit Instruction" about more research into exactly this topic on LinkedIn. This is the link to the article https://theeconomyofmeaning.com/2025/06/16/adhd-dyslexia-and-the-possibilities-and-the-limits-of-explicit-instruction/ It's quite interesting and digs deeper into the outcomes of explicit instruction for different diagnoses.
Music to my ears! Spot on!
Re: Equity.
Who typically gets discovery learning? Affluent students.
Who gets a heaping dose of direct instruction? Students in poverty.
Did you notice that the task they were supposedly learning was some pointless discovery of a pattern of shape, color, or "texture"? I mean, wouldn't most students say "who cares?" about that task?
And your questions for practice are pretty much the definition of scaffolding.