Explicit Direct Instruction (EDI) encompasses research-based instructional practices explored by cognitive and educational researchers. EDI is the delivery of strategically planned lessons that explicitly teach new concepts to mastery. Our teachers use EDI to teach new concepts in all learning areas, addressing the ‘surface level’ learning in our Beeliar Instructional Model.
EDI lessons contain eight main components for success:
- Learning Objective
- Activating Prior Knowledge
- Concept Development
- Skill Development
- Guided Practice
- Relevance
- Closure
- Periodic reviews
During EDI lessons, teachers utilise ‘engagement norms’ (TAPPLE) to motivate students and hold them accountable for their learning. Engagement Norms ensure children are doing something every minute, whether it be discussion with a partner, reading text aloud, showing responses on a whiteboard or gesturing. These norms are designed to keep students actively engaged in their learning.
Examples of engagement norms include:
- Series of higher order questions posed throughout the lesson;
- Students ‘pair-sharing’ their responses to organise ideas and allowing all students to actively participate;
- Calling on non-volunteers to check for understanding;
- Use of individual mini-whiteboards for immediate teacher feedback;
- Students justifying their responses using academic language;
- Teachers correcting responses at point of need;
- Re-teaching concepts if 80% mastery has not been achieved;
- Reading and tracking the text with the teacher;
- Adding actions or gestures to assist with retention of definitions.
Since 2017, our school has been fortunate to have received ongoing professional development from Joe Ybarra, a lead trainer from DataWORKS, California. DataWORKS is a US company that has developed a comprehensive EDI program for teachers based on extensive research. Their exploration includes 25,000 classroom observations, analysis of over 2 million student assignments, and implementing EDI lessons in K-12 classrooms across all content areas. Joe has assisted with the implementation of EDI in our school and has worked closely with teachers and year level coaches to refine our EDI teaching methods.