What are the similarities and differences between direct instruction and strategy instruction?
Both models include daily reviews, statements of an instructional objective, teacher presentations of new materials, guided practice, independent practice, and formative evaluation. Both follow a sequence of events and involve the presentation of information through a step-by-step progression from subtopic to subtopic and use examples, demonstrations, and visual prompts to convey instructional material. Differences are generally in the area of the kinds of information the models aim to teach. Strategy instruction focuses on more top-down procedures, teaching the rules and reasons for using certain learning tactics. Direct instruction focuses on more bottom-up procedures, breaking skills into parts and teaching students subskills needed to accomplish certain tasks.
