Two Ways to Teach: Direct Instruction and Indirect Instruction/Inquiry: Simplifying Planning Concepts for Early Career Teachers

This paper describes two planning diagrams that support pre-service and early career teachers’ understanding of direct and indirect instructional approaches to teaching Conceptual models can support understanding of the embedded decision points that new teachers must address as they plan lessons. In this paper, we offer 2 models to support the understanding of pre-service and early career teachers with two conceptual diagrams that relate to lesson planning. One of these diagrams has been used for several years with pre-service teachers who have identified that this conceptual diagram has helped them understand planning concepts early in their planning experiences. This diagram demonstrates the phases of instruction used by experienced teachers when they plan for direct instruction. A body of prior research has been completed to demonstrate the existence of the main conceptions and relative times in the diagram as they are evident in teachers’ practice and to identify how the diagram is perceived by pre-service teachers. The second diagram has been designed as a complimentary method of helping pre-service teachers understand concepts related to planning for indirect instruction involving various forms of inquiry.