Principles of Engelmann's Direct Instruction: Speed Principle

This post is part of a series where I go in to detail on some of the main aspects of Direct Instruction as laid out by Siegfried Engelmann in this book.

Below are links to the other posts in this series. Scroll past them to read the article.

• Atomisation
• Overtisation
• Expansion and Context Shaping
• Cognitive load
• Review
• Lesson structure and schemes of work
• Speed principle
• Difficulty and Motivation
• Defining range/scope
• Categories for different types of knowledge
• Instruction for basic types of knowledge
• Instruction for linked types of knowledge
• Instruction for routines
• Instruction for problem solving techniques
• "Real world" maths
• Prompts and scaffolding
• Correcting mistakes
• My take on the strengths and weaknesses of Direct Instruction

Speed Principle

Maintaining a high pace is central to the DI method. This is for several reasons:

• There are multiple activities and repeated review built in to the schemes of work. Activities need to be short in order to cover the large amount of GCSE content in this way.
• In order to get sufficient practice of a skill, within these short activities, the time a student has per question must necessarily be short.
• If a component cannot be explained and grasped in <1 minute, it it likely too complex and will result in the failure of the initial instruction to several students. This is a sure sign that the component should be further atomised.
• Time between each example and each student question needs to be very short in order to ensure that students are seeing the questions as a whole topic and making the correct conclusions about the range/scope of the topic.
• If students get bogged down with the calculations, they will be unlikely to make inferences from one question to the next. In this case, the component should either be further atomised or taught as a routine.