And while not all explicit instruction is delivered in this way, it’s misguided to argue that scripted lessons strip educators of their flair and professional identity, Campbells Creek Primary School's James Dobson contends.
“A script doesn’t reduce teachers to being the same … no one argues that a script robs an actor of their ability to perform Macbeth incredibly well.
“No one argues that musicians shouldn’t be following a piece of music.
“But then when we get to teaching, there’s this idea that somehow giving teachers very structured lessons is going to rob them of that artistry, and it’s just simply not true,” the Victorian foundation teacher and learning specialist says.
After noticing an emerging vein of commentary on social media and elsewhere online that is spreading ‘misconceptions’ about the science of learning, Dobson says he feels compelled to mount a rebuttal of sorts.
Many of the negative arguments about the science of learning shared in posts by academics – or concerns posted anonymously by teachers – are rooted in a misunderstanding about what the field of study actually is and how it translates to the classroom.
“I’m fortunate that I’ve seen so many classrooms, including quite a few that use scripted lessons, and at no point does the teacher’s individual personality fail to shine through,” he tells EducationHQ.
“You don’t go around seeing a carbon copy, a clone that (some) people suggest would happen.
“Rather, teachers are able to bring the script alive, and it just gives them that really solid grounding of what we’re going to teach, how we’re going to teach it, and then it lets the teacher be so much more responsive because their cognitive load is not [totally consumed]…”
The idea that ‘differentiation is dead’ is another myth that’s emerged around the move to evidence-based instruction, Dobson says.
For too long differentiation has been an inherently murky and misunderstood concept, the teacher says, which has often seen exhausted teachers creating multiple versions of the same lesson, or ‘watering down’ tasks in a fraught bid to make learning accessible.
This work is unsustainable and as an approach, it largely fails to ensure equity or excellence for all students, Dobson warns.
“I’ve certainly in the past had [multiple] groups of students doing different activities at different times, and a real challenge there was not only has it increased my workload, but it also meant that I wasn’t able to be responsive to my students in the classroom at that point in time.
“I’d be stuck working with one group of students while three or four other groups would be off doing independent work – they didn’t have access to that immediate feedback that’s so important in learning,” he reflects.
James Dobson says ‘compliance’ has become something of a dirty word in education.
Teachers can also fall into the trap of locking kids into a trajectory that sees them underperform, Dobson adds.
Here differentiation actually caps their learning, whereas whole-class explicit instruction, when done well, allows all to engage with the same core knowledge and skills while extending those that are ready to go deeper.
“We [can] make an assumption around the child and what they can do, and then give them work based on that assumption.
“I think it’s really important that … [we’re not] just teaching to the bottom, but actually we’re teaching to the top, and through that exposure to that rich, rigorous curriculum, we’re actually lifting up all our students to meet higher expectations.”
Dobson says that you can absolutely differentiate within whole-class explict instruction by creating ‘subtle changes’ in activities. These shouldn’t prevent weaker students from tackling more advanced work either, he notes.
Another flawed argument contends that explicit instruction also strips students of their agency and removes the joy from learning, Dobson flags.
The reality could not be further from this, he says.
“It just shows me that perhaps those teachers haven’t had the chance or the opportunity to see [these] classrooms (in action), because we all know what a classroom of students is like.
“They’re vibrant places, and the personality of our children shine through.”
Calm and orderly classrooms do not stifle students’ personalities, Dobson says, and instead allow everyone’s voice to be heard, not just the loudest few.
“It’s interesting that ‘compliance’ sometimes becomes a bit of a dirty word in education, whereas compliance when we’re driving on the road is pretty important. Compliance in lots of parts of our lives is pretty important.
“I think when we have students who are showing respect to their teachers, who are listening carefully to their instructions and they’re engaged with their work, we actually have these wonderful classrooms that are humming with learning and not distracted by other things.”
Other academics, such as Dr Lorraine Hammond from Edith Cowan University, have prevously warned that explicit instruction is frequently misunderstood.
“[The instructional approach is] often characterised as being traditional, didactic and boringly reminiscent of Charles Dickens’ Thomas Gradgrind in Hard Times,” Hammond has told EducationHQ.
“The reality is, this is not the case. As Mark Twain noted, ‘A lie can travel around the world and back again while the truth is lacing up its boots’.
“The pace of instruction is fast, students have multiple opportunities to practice and teachers do not teach this way all day.”
Explict instruction is the quickest route towards knowledge mastery, the expert added.
“The information processing model illustrates how vulnerable novice learners are to experiencing cognitive overload; that sensation when we know our brains are struggling to juggle information and we run out of space in working memory.
“Learning something new is hard, but by repetition and practice we can get to the point of mastery quickly.”
For Dobson, the sooner myths about the science of learning are squashed the better.
“You absolutely cannot stop a child’s personality showing through. It’s almost like you can’t stop a teacher’s personality showing through.
“Children are these wonderful, vibrant, rich people who make teaching the joy that it is,” he says.
