Effectiveness
Debates about the efficacy of DI have raged since before the final results of Project Follow Through were published; however, there is substantial empirical research supporting its effectiveness. A meta-analysis published by Adams & Engelmann (1996), a chief architect of the DI program, finds a "mean effect size average per study...(as) more than .75, which confirms that the overall effect is substantial."
In some special education programs it is used in a resource room with small groups of students. Some research has shown benefit with this model.
However, one three-year study of methods of teaching reading showed that highly scripted, teacher-directed methods of teaching reading were not as effective as traditional methods that allowed a more flexible approach. The study, headed by Randall Ryder, Professor of Curriculum and Instruction in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Education, also found that teachers felt the most highly scripted method, known as Direct Instruction (DI), should be used in limited situations, not as the primary method of teaching students to read. (Ryder, et al., 2006) Urban teachers in particular expressed great concern over the DI's lack of sensitivity to issues of poverty, culture and race. (Ryder et al., 2006).
The findings from Ryder's study are not constant with the findings of more than twenty other studies. (See the critique of Ryder's study noting the inherent methodological flaws.) Direct Instruction is widely and successfully used with students from every population segment (with regard to poverty, culture, and race). In Project Follow Through, the DI model was ranked first in achievement for poor students, students who were not poor, urban students, rural students, African American students, Hispanic students, and Native American students. Today, many of the Bureau of Indian Affair's highest-performing schools use Direct Instruction materials. See Chief Leschi School and Nay Ah Shing School. The Baltimore Curriculum Project has many schools with Free and Reduced Lunch Rates above 75% serving student populations that are more than 90% African American. These schools have shown strong achievement gains using Direct Instruction (Rebar, 2007).
Meta-analysis of 85 single-subject design studies comparing direct instruction to other teaching strategies found the effects to be substantial for students with learning disabilities; however, when qualified by IQ and reading levels strategy instruction (SI) had better effects for the high IQ group. For the low-IQ discrepancy groups higher effect sizes were yielded for a Combined DI and SI Model when compared to all competing models. With the exception of handwriting DI's effects were all above .8 (i.e., reading and mathematics).
John Hattie's Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement (2009) summarizes the results of four meta-analyses that examined Direct Instruction. These analyses incorporated 304 studies of over 42,000 students. Across all of these students, the average effect size was .59 and was significantly larger than those of any other curriculum Hattie studied.
Direct Instruction is recognized as one of two effective models of comprehensive school reform (see the federal government's site on Comprehensive School Reform) (See http://www.csrq.org/CSRQreportselementaryschoolreport.asp) and in many cases, can be integrated into a tiered model system to address students will developing problems. The findings from Project Follow Through, conducted in a variety of communities throughout the United States, conclude that Direct Instruction is the most effective model for teaching academic skills and for affective outcomes (e.g., self-esteem of children). Recent large-scale studies (1997–2003), such as the Baltimore Curriculum Project, show that it is possible to help schools that are in the lowest twenty percent with respect to academic achievement steadily improve until they are performing well above average. In some cases, school achievement improved from the 16th percentile to above the 90th percentile (Rebar, 2007).
The president of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), Anne Tweed, also questions whether direct instruction is the most effective science teaching strategy. In the December 15, 2004 NSTA Reports she concluded that a variety of teaching strategies, including those that are inquiry-based (see inquiry-based instruction) as well as direct instruction techniques are what is best for students (Tweed, 2004).
Currently, Direct Instruction is one of the few curriculums that have been scientifically validated to be effective for use in the Response to Intervention model, which has been proposed as an alternative method of diagnosing learning disabilities in schools.
Read more about this topic: Direct Instruction