Siegfried Engelmann: In Memoriam
It’s strange to feel such a connection to a man I never met in real life, but few have had an impact like this man and his writings did. While it may seem strange that a man who had single-minded determination to completely upend the way public education was taught in the United States would have such an influence on me to homeschool my children, here we are. While he failed at the reforms he wanted, the truths he spoke are timeless, and some day he will be recognized for his accomplishments. That man is Siegfried Engelmann.
Zig, as he was known, was a jack of all trades. For a while he worked in oil drilling, then as a science journalist before becoming interested in children’s education while studying advertising. This led him into academia and effective education became his career-long obsession, culminating in his breakthrough method called Direct Instruction.
In this age of hyper-scientism, it would at first seem odd why his views were seen as so contrary to the Educational Zeitgeist. Here was a man who went into classrooms, treating them as laboratories, and tried a multitude of different methods to understand what truly made children learn. He collected all the data and came to a conclusion that would seem like common sense.
Children learn best when the vast majority of the time is spent on review, and only the smallest, most digestible chunks of new data is added in on every lesson. His lessons often had as much as 90% review from previous concepts, with the new concept added at the end. He would go through every lesson in classrooms, analyzing them to find sticking points that kept the children behind and make meticulous updates. He would specify every word the teacher said to ensure every word the children received was clear. The lesson would have countless prompts for students to respond to ensure the children understand and are engaged.
Note in the video the cadence of the teaching, and how no frills it is. There are no gimmicks involved, no strange ways to keep kid’s attention other than a relentless pace that keeps everything flowing. Amazingly enough, this bare-bones method is far more effective at engagement, and the teachers have a powerful outline to work from.
So where are these studies showing this method is better? That came through Project Follow Through, and initiative started in the 1960’s that was instituted, at least on paper, to find the best instruction method to allow students to keep up in the global economy. Direct Instruction got funding and schools to experiment with, alongside several others. Over the study’s lifespan, they collected data not just on student performance, but also self-esteem and creativity. One might think with this instruction they’ll be better on aptitude tests and such, but not on self-esteem and definitely not creativity. Well…..
Source: https://www.nifdi.org/what-is-di/project-follow-through.html
it ended up being a complete and utter bloodbath for everything BUT Direct Instruction, which showed incredible results that dwarfed the other methods that usually did FAR WORSE than traditional schooling!
One might think after reading these results the nation would completely revamp everything, strip down everything they thought they knew and implement Direct Instruction nationwide. Of course they didn’t, and considered the entire project a failure, even when its success stared them straight in the eye. While Zig had the facts on his side, he didn’t have the Educational Institutions, who had an almost religious antipathy towards Zig’s methods. They buried the study that const hundreds of millions of dollars and Direct Instruction was relegated to “special needs” students who thrived on it (just like everyone else did).
While bureaucrats will ignore results to the detriment of the children they are supposed to help, a good parent will not. This is why, while I don’t have the manuals explicitly stating everything I should read, I have the philosophy he brought forth, and realized I can use the same concepts of review and putting things into bite-sized chunks, all the while closely examining my children for understanding.
Most of all, his passion was intoxicating. Just watch this clip and try to resist the urge to teach….
See how engaged that man is, and how happy these children from a low-income school feel when able to solve his very demanding problems. Think about how much better the world would be with a million Zig Engelmann’s.
I’m planning on going into far more detail with regard to Project Follow Through and Direct Instruction, but this is a tribute to a man who never reached fame, but his ideas will last forever.