From novice to expert: A critical evaluation of direct instruction

22nd January 2020 : 16:30 - 18:00

Category: Seminar

Research Group: Teacher Education and Professional Learning

Speaker: Christian Bokhove, University of Southampton, School of Education

Location: Department of Education, Seminar Room K/L

Convener: Katharine Burn

Seminar Abstract

 

Direct instruction is a hot topic in school, but discussions about it often end up with people talking past each other, as the term can mean several things. In this talk Dr Bokhove will look at different ways of conceptualising ‘direct instruction’, for example as scripted Direct Instruction (in capitals) from the seminal Project Follow Through, lecturing and more interactive teaching like Rosenshine’s ‘explicit instruction’ and ‘active learning’. He will also highlight strengths and limitations of their respective evidence bases. The seminar will frame this review more generally as a ‘guidance dilemma’: what amount of guidance do we use in teaching and learning in learners’ journey from novice towards more expert and will conclude with some concrete recommendations.

 

About the speaker

 

Dr Christian Bokhove is Associate Professor in Mathematics Education within Southampton Education School at the University of Southampton.

Dr Christian Bokhove is a specialist on the use of ICT in mathematics education. He was a teacher of mathematics and computer science, and head of ICT at a secondary school from 1998 to 2012 in Zaandam, the Netherlands. During these years he participated in and led projects on maths and ICT (wisweb, Galois, Sage). In 2011 he obtained his Ph.D at Utrecht University’s Freudenthal Institute with his thesis ‘Use of ICT for acquiring, practicing and assessing algebraic expertise‘. From August 2012 he is appointed at the University of Southampton, specialising in mathematics education, technology use and research methods. He has been involved in several projects over the last years, including the European MC-squared project which looked at creating creative, digital books for mathematics, and the British Academy funded ‘enGasia’ project which looked at geometry education in secondary schools in Hong Kong, England and Japan. Two current projects are a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on World Class Maths: Asian Teaching Methods with publisher MacMillan and Prof. Lianghuo Fan, and a feasibility study to start up a new version of the seminal mathematics textbooks of the School Mathematics Project.

To receive more event details from the Department of Education, join our mailing list.