Blending Pedagogy and Why There's More Than One Way to Teach

Recently, I was on X, formerly known as 'Twitter,' and I saw someone with a large educator-following share that he thinks that any type of teaching experience based on student inquiry, student empowerment, or authentic tasks like projects— is a waste of time.

Now, usually, I don't debate with people I disagree with on the internet. Not because I don't want to—believe me, I enjoy a good debate like anybody—but mostly because I think it's fruitless. Very rarely are you going to change somebody's mind using your keyboard alone. But I've experienced too many instances of students thriving when they were empowered and doing authentic work to stay quiet this time. 

So I broke my rule and engaged with this person on Twitter.

"Explicit Instruction is the Be-All-End-All"

Essentially, what he shared is that explicit instruction— where the teacher explicitly presents and leads students through the material—is the most effective way to teach. In his view, the traditional model of education should be the only model of education. Teachers are the experts who hold the information, and successful teaching is primarily about their ability to deliver that information. According to this educator, systems like project-based learning are not as effective and should not be used.

My Rebuttal

I made the point that quality project-based learning actually uses explicit instruction at times. Just because students are working on projects doesn't mean that the teacher doesn’t have to give direct instruction at times, model learning, and deliver expertise.  Project-based learning means that teachers are still using their best practices to teach, but now there's an authentic outcome at the end. Students are driven to engage and learn because there's a purposeful motivator behind the work.

I shared the example of my students learning grammar and spelling so that the subtitles in the documentaries they were making would be perfect and not distract the audience. I still used direct instruction as my primary method for teaching grammar— I've found quite effective to demonstrate grammar on a whiteboard before having students practice it themselves— but now my students' motivation for learning the material is higher because of the authentic outcome of the project.

I shared that there is plenty of research that shows when students are doing authentic tasks, they engage more and the learning sticks. They don’t forget it right after an assessment; instead, it remains long after the learning experience. This makes sense to me as an educator, but also as a human. People want to do meaningful work. We want to know that our time and effort is being well spent, and when schoolwork is meaningful, it has an impact on the way students work and engage. Surely my debate partner on Twitter would have to agree with this!

The Silo-Mentality in Education

The person I was debating said "No, Explicit Instruction isn't just a descriptor of a teaching method; it is the teaching method. Like, that’s what this method is called, capital E in Explicit and I in Instruction. It's a specific method and it’s the best way to teach."

Now, you can misinterpret things on the internet very easily, so I'm not going to assume I know exactly what this guy was saying. However, this is a sentiment I've seen way too often in education. This idea that it's all or nothing, almost tribal, saying:

"Nope, this is the best. I'm on team Explicit Instruction, or, I'm on team project-based learning, or I'm on team accelerated reader, or, I'm on team PBIS"—

You get the point. To me, this is such a reflection of our society right now. We revert to a silo-mentality. We can be so binary at times—right or wrong, black or white, "this is how it's done, this is how it's not done"—when, in reality, we all know that there is nuance. Education is a paradox. There are slivers of good in many different methodologies, and what we really need to do is take the best from everything and incorporate that into how we teach students.

Best Practices Means Blending Methodologies

Listen, I love project-based learning. I've written books on it, and I spend a lot of my professional life helping educators learn how to do it. But do I think it's the only way to teach?

Of course not.

It's not even the only way I teach. But I do think we can take the principles of purpose and authenticity and use them in many different types of teaching. Even when students are not doing a project we can articulate the purpose of a learning experience. That purpose still motivates deeper learning. We can even do that when we teach explicitly. "Here's the purpose behind this lecture I'm about to give."

So, what if we stopped feeling like we have to pick teams and instead regrouped around what is best for students? If one of the chief goals of school is to make kids college-ready, then yes, let's use aspects of Explicit Instruction. We also want to make sure they can collaborate, think critically, communicate, and practice adaptability to solve real-world problems. Let’s do some project-based learning. And if we want all of that for our students, for them to be well-rounded individuals, let’s do both.