Instruction, Survey of

Donna Adair Breault

How do we account for the many instructional innovations that have appeared in education over the years? How do we respond to the common metaphor that instructional innovation often comes in the form of pendulum swings? A number of instructional innovations over time have claimed to be based on research. However, what has most often been the case is that they are at best loosely coupled with theoretical models or abstracted from related research and do not have evidence to demonstrate their specific effectiveness under given conditions. Robert Slavin also concurs, offering as a vivid example the popularity of Madeline Hunter's model during the 1970s and the 1980s. Hunter's model was initially developed based upon abstractions from psychological and educational research, implemented on a small scale, and then touted as effective research-based practice. As a result, districts and teacher education programs in every state began to use it, and its ...

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