Features of Direct Instruction: Content Analysis

The goal of Direct Instruction (DI) is to teach content as effectively and efficiently as possible. To do this, instructional designers must identify generative relations or strategies that allow the learner to respond correctly to untaught situations. The purpose of content analysis is to identify generative relations in the domain to be taught and arrange the content in such a way that it supports maximally generative instruction. This article explains the role of content analysis in developing DI programs and provides examples and nonexamples of content analysis in five content domains: spelling, basic arithmetic facts, earth science, basic language, and narrative language. It includes a brief sketch of a general methods of conducting a content analysis. It concludes that content analysis is the foundation upon which generative instruction is built and that instructional designers could produce more effective, efficient, and powerful programs by attending explicitly and carefully to content analysis.