Although the Barans go to

great lengths to define the terms "teacher" and

"facilitator," they also use the terms

"Teacher-Directed Learning," "Direct

Instruction," and "Teacher-Directed

Instruction" interchangeably, regardless of their

original contexts. After reading this letter, I decided

to ask my middle and high school students what they

thought about it. One question that came out of our

discussion was, "What does direct instruction look

like?"

Typically in schools where

class sizes range into the 30s, direct instruction looks

like the familiar picture of a teacher lecturing or

solving problems on the chalkboard, assigning homework,

and then grading tests. This is not the kind of

"Direct Instruction" that appears in the 1970s

research cited by the Barans.

Instead, the Project Follow

Through study evaluated Zig Engelmann's preschool model

that originally looked like this: Zig would ask six

students to sit in a semicircle and listen while he

explained basic problems in mathematics. Then he would

ask each student questions about the problem until every

pupil could recite the correct answers.

What Engelmann's model

shows is that in a small group setting, direct and

personalized instruction raises student achievement,

something teachers have been saying for decades. Clearly,

it is difficult to tell what instruction directed by

teachers looks like, since it varies greatly from school

to school.

It is equally difficult to

tell what "teachers becoming facilitators" and

"students as workers" look like, since there is

great variation here as well. Facilitating a class might

mean students choose topics for research, or select

specific objectives to work towards, or decide to express

their individuality in artistic ways.

One common feature of

facilitation is more active participation by students.

The Barans claim that students actively participate in

their learning by "paying attention as the teacher

teaches, ... and getting graded for one's work."

None of my students thought

this was active learning. One middle school student

commented, "If the teacher tells them everything

they need to know, the kids don't really do

anything."

Another remarked,

"When you are involved in your learning process, you

will put more effort into it."

In his written reflection

on the Barans' letter, another student said, "You

can have a facilitator as a teacher and still have

well-defined goals. It's not like the teacher doesn't

come to school, but leaves a note saying `learn

multiplication.'"

At this point it would be

logical to cite current research that shows that

student-directed approaches raise student achievement.

Since the mid-1980s when Theodore Sizer's "A Study

of High Schools" was first published, there have

been numerous studies by researchers such as Fred

Newmann, Gary Wehlage, David Bensman, and Margaret

MacMullen that demonstrate how a variety of

student-directed approaches applied in regular classrooms

increase the success of students in schools.

One might even note Central

Park East Elementary School in East Harlem, the focus of

Bensman's research, which recently documented that 94.8

percent of its students graduated from high school,

compared to the city-wide rate of 66.9 percent. Of these

CPESS graduates, 87.4 percent went to college, as

compared to only 15.5 percent of all residents in East

Harlem (1991-1993).

However, one must be

careful reading statistics from studies like Project

Follow Through and others that are cited here. One middle

school student pointed out, "You can find whatever

you want in research" to support your personal

opinion.

Instead of relying on

statistics as proof, one must take a good look at how

schools as a whole support "teachers as

facilitators," what their classrooms look like, and

whether the specific programs work for that school's

student population.

If the Barans or others

want to see what "facilitation" and

"student-directed instruction" look like, I

would gladly invite them to visit our school, where we

have modeled these approaches for the past 25 years.

Lann Wasson

Counterpane School

[email protected]

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