What is explicit instruction teaching?

Explicit, or direct instruction, is a teacher-led teaching method. The way it works is that the educator gives clear, guided instructions to students from the front of the classroom or lecture hall. This teaching strategy works best for development of particular skills and not necessarily those that require experimentation.

How does explicit teaching work?

When you adopt explicit teaching practices, you are clearly showing your students what to do and how to do it. You are not relying on students to construct this information for themselves.

There are several steps to explicit instruction teaching:

1. A teacher decides on a learning intention for a class and sets specific, transparent success criteria. These criteria are shared with students and explained in detail.
2. The teacher clearly shows students what to do and how to do it through a clear physical demonstration.
3. The teacher checks for student understanding periodically. At the end of the lesson, the teacher will revisit what was covered to summarize understanding and learning.
4. In the content of an ongoing task or assessment, students are provided with all the information they need to complete this independently.

Benefits of explicit teaching in the classroom

1) Fast-tracked performance

2) Increased flexibility

3) Clear expectations

4) Systematic and sequential

Explicit teaching ideas for teachers

Explicit teaching involves a high level of teacher-student interaction, incorporating targeted feedback. Teachers need to take an active role in supporting students to achieve success as they move through the learning process. By carefully monitoring student understanding, you can offer targeted individual support.

ClickView’s interactive video feature can be used to create your own teaching videos. Just add an interactive layer of questions or steps to any video to help students better understand the content as they learn.

Top 2 ways ClickView can help you with explicit teaching

1) Create your own step-by-step videos

It’s so easy to create your own video content to demonstrate specific skills for your students. These might include how to draw a spiral pattern for elementary art students, how to cut wood correctly for a high school woodworking lesson, or even how to perform a dance sequence.

2) Access sample explicit teaching content

You can also take advantage of the extensive library of explicit teaching strategy content that already lives on ClickView. ClickView houses many video examples of explicit teaching uploaded by our users, to inspire you in your classroom.

3 Teacher tips for explicit teaching

1. Curriculum-relevant content and resources
   You can find videos demonstrating explicit teaching skills for school classrooms by searching for terms such as flipped lessons or featured channels. In the high school library, find videos on literacy or lab skills. For the elementary classroom, you can watch a literacy, math, or science video. Browse all videos for free.
   
2. Opportunities to upskill
   We’re always here to help with resources, training and all the support you need to maximize the use of ClickView in your lessons. Take advantage of our huge library of educational resources and professional learning opportunities to keep your students engaged.
   
3. Share best practices
   Do you have a great idea for a teaching activity or video that might help with explicit instruction? Film it and share it so other educators can find it and learn from you. You could even involve your students for a whole-class teaching activity.

Achieve learning outcomes by using explicit teaching

You could have full access to 1000s of standards-aligned videos on ClickView, including all our supporting educational resources, such as lesson plans and a range of teaching and learning ideas. We also encourage you to take advantage of our extensive training offerings. Watch how-to videos on ClickView features via our dedicated training channel, watch a webinar, or get in touch with our customer success team for any advice. Our teaching strategies resources are designed to help you and your students achieve fantastic learning outcomes.