Explicit Direct Instruction and Cognitive Processing: A Perfect Pair for Learning
In today’s dynamic educational landscape, educators must understand not only what to teach but how students absorb and retain new knowledge. Leveraging the Information Processing Model in tandem with Explicit Direct Instruction (EDI) provides a powerful framework for enhancing student learning. By understanding how the brain processes information and applying EDI strategies, teachers can create a learning environment that promotes sustained engagement and deep comprehension.
The Information Processing Model: How Students Learn
The Information Processing Model, based on principles of cognitive psychology, illustrates how learners receive, store, and retrieve information.
This model identifies key stages through which knowledge passes, highlighting the importance of intentional teaching strategies for each phase:
- Sensory Memory: The initial stage where information enters through the senses. Attention plays a key role in determining what moves to the next stage.
- Working Memory (Short-Term Memory): The active processing area where new information is held temporarily. Without reinforcement, information can be lost quickly.
- Long-Term Memory: Information that is deeply processed and stored for future retrieval. Effective encoding strategies, such as meaningful connections and practice, enhance retention.
Explicit Direct Instruction (EDI): A Structured Teaching Approach
EDI follows a structured framework to ensure students effectively process and retain new information.
Key components of EDI include:
- Learning Objectives: Clearly defined goals help students understand what they are expected to learn.
- Concept Development: Breaking down concepts into simple, digestible parts facilitates comprehension.
- Checking for Understanding: Frequent assessment ensures students grasp concepts before moving forward.
- Skill Modeling: Teachers explicitly demonstrate skills before students practice them.
- Guided Practice: Students work with teacher support to reinforce new learning.
Integrating the Information Processing Model with EDI: A Strategic Approach
By integrating the Information Processing Model with the principles of EDI, educators can optimize how information is delivered, processed, and retained.
Here’s how this integration looks in practice:
Learning Objective
The teacher reads the objective; the students choral read and pair-share: “We will identify a theme in a story.”
Information Processing Connection: This step helps students focus their attention (sensory memory) and prepares their brains for learning.
Activating Prior Knowledge
Teacher Asks: “Have you ever learned a lesson from a book, movie, or real-life experience?”
Provides an Example: “Think of ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf.’ What lesson did the boy learn?”
Discussion: common themes (e.g., honesty, kindness, perseverance).
Information Processing Connection: Activating prior knowledge helps retrieve related ideas from long-term memory, making it easier to process new information.
Concept Development
Defines Theme: “Theme is the message or lesson the author wants us to learn.”
Provides Example with explanation: Aesop’s Fable: The Tortoise and the Hare. “The story is about a race between a slow tortoise and a fast hare. The hare is overconfident, but the tortoise keeps going. What lesson do we learn? ‘Slow and steady wins the race.’ That’s the theme!”
Checks for Understanding: Ask Higher-Order questions
Which example(s) from the text help you determine the theme?
Why is _____ a non-example of a theme?
In your own words, what is a theme?
Information Processing Connection: During Concept Development the working memory is engaged as students actively listen, process, and connect information. Checking for Understanding helps strengthen encoding by reinforcing the idea through discussion and practice.
Skill Development/ Guided Practice
Students read a short story and identify the theme. Pair-share answers, then discuss as a class.
Information Processing Connection: Repetition and application move information to long-term memory.
Closure/Exit Ticket
Ask: “What did you learn today about a theme?”
Information Processing Connection: Reviewing key points helps reinforce memory retrieval and strengthen learning.
By using the Informational Processing Model, the student processes information in stages—first sensing, then working with, and finally storing the theme of a story. Through Explicit Direct Instruction, the teacher clearly models, guides, and supports the student’s learning, leading to independent understanding and mastery of the theme.
Conclusion: Transforming Teaching with Cognitive Insights
By combining the Information Processing Model with Explicit Direct Instruction, teachers do more than just present information—they actively guide students through learning and remembering. Using structured, research-based methods, students shift from simply receiving information to fully engaging in their own learning.
This approach helps them stay more involved, understand concepts better, and remember them for longer. When educators understand how the brain processes information, they can design lessons that greatly improve learning, giving students the skills they need to succeed both in school and in everyday life.
Research:
Hollingsworth, J., & Ybarra, S. (2009). Explicit direct instruction: The power of the well-crafted, well-taught lesson. Corwin Press.
Sousa, D. A. (2022). How the brain learns (6th ed.). Corwin Press.
