Enhancing direct instruction through an adapted K-W-L strategy

Observations of pre-service teachers (PSTs) conducting Direct Instruction (DI) lessons reveal low levels of learner engagement, with instruction remaining predominantly teacher-centred. This conceptual pedagogical paper proposes a modification of Ogle's (1986) Know-Want-Learned (K-W-L) strategy, reformulated as K-W-L in Direct Instruction (K-W-L in DI). This is intended to help PSTs bolster learner engagement and implement inclusive teaching practices when using DI as a teaching strategy. Incorporating the K-W-L framework into DI activates learners’ prior knowledge, promotes alignment with the lesson objective through structured teacher questions, and provides means for reflective learning through formative assessment. The K-W-L strategy in the DI framework can support differentiated instruction and scaffold learning within Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development. Although numerous adaptations of the original K-W-L strategy have been applied across disciplines to improve comprehension of expository texts, K-W-L in DI uniquely positions the K-W-L chart as an instructional tool within direct teaching. The three sections of the K-W-L chart facilitate the organisation of lessons into three phases: before, during, and post-engagement with new material. These three sections align, respectively, with the introduction, development (body), and consolidation stages of a DI lesson. This alignment enables the K-W-L chart to function as a structured scaffold for guided learning when utilising the DI teaching strategy. The proposed framework embeds teacher-generated questions, grounded in Bloom’s revised taxonomy, to facilitate differentiated instruction and sustained learner participation throughout the lesson. This study underscores the value of preparing future teachers to use K-W-L in DI as both a planning and instructional medium to improve student engagement and inclusive teaching practices when presenting DI lessons.