The 60-second card
The finding
When material is new, students learn more when the teacher explains and models it than when they are asked to figure it out on their own.
Do this
Explain, show a model, guide practice while checking every student, then release to independent work. Save open-ended problems for after students have the basics.
Best evidence
A meta-analysis of 164 studies found explicit teaching beat unassisted discovery. Guided forms of discovery did better than other methods, which is why "guided" matters (Alfieri et al. 2011(opens in a new tab)).
164 studies
explicit teaching beat unassisted discovery
The 5-minute brief
Why it works
Beginners don't have the knowledge in long-term memory to make sense of an open problem, so searching for a solution eats up working memory instead of building knowledge. Explanation and modeling hand them the pattern directly. As students gain knowledge, they need less support, and too much support can start to get in the way. Researchers call this the expertise reversal effect (Kalyuga, Chartered College(opens in a new tab)).
In one classic study, 112 third and fourth graders learned how to design a fair experiment. After direct teaching, 77% could design sound experiments, and they did as well as the few who discovered the method on their own on a later, broader task (Klahr & Nigam 2004(opens in a new tab)).
What it looks like
| Grade band | In practice |
|---|---|
| K–2 | "Watch me make ten with these counters. Now you do one with me. Now show me on your whiteboard." |
| 3–5 | The teacher thinks aloud through a multi-step word problem, then students solve a matching one together before trying one alone. |
| 6–8 | Before a lab, the teacher explains what a fair test is and what to look for, then students run it. |
| 9–12 | In history, the teacher tells the story of the war's first year before students read primary sources about it. |
Common mistakes
- Thinking "explicit" means long lectures. The explanation is short and broken by frequent student practice and questions.
- Releasing to independent work before most students get it right in guided practice.
- Keeping full support for students who already know the material. Fade it as they gain knowledge.
What a leader looks for in 5 minutes
- Is the teacher teaching new material, or are students left to figure it out first?
- After the explanation, does every student practice while the teacher checks?
- Are students mostly getting it right before they work alone?
What we don't know yet
Where exactly guided discovery or problem-solving-first helps is still argued. The evidence for productive failure comes mainly from older students who already have the basics. See the contested section on the evidence bar page.
Go deeper
- Researcher
- John Sweller; David Klahr; Barak Rosenshine, Principles of Instruction (American Educator, 2012(opens in a new tab))
- Translator
- Zach Groshell, Just Tell Them; Anita Archer
Also called: explicit instruction, I do, we do, you do, gradual release