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Version 1.1 – Updated August 2021

Explicit teaching strategies

Overview

  • Influence: Explicit teaching strategies
  • Domain: Teaching Strategies
  • Sub-Domain: Instructional strategies
  • Potential to Accelerate Student Achievement: Potential to accelerate
  • Influence Definition: Explicit instruction is characterized by a series of supports or scaffolds, whereby students are guided through the learning process with clear statements about the purpose and rationale for learning the new skill, clear explanations and demonstrations of the instructional target, and supported practice with feedback until independent mastery has been achieved. Explicit teaching strategies typically involve instruction, guided practice, and teaching to mastery.

Evidence

  • Number of meta-analyses: 15
  • Number of studies: 5,743
  • Number of students: 1,488,150
  • Number of effects: 12,963
  • Effect size: 0.57

Meta-Analyses

Meta-Analyses
Journal Title Author First Author's Country Article Name Year Published Variable Number of Studies Number of Students Number of Effects Effect Size
Unpublished Thesis Rosenbaum USA A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of educational treatment programs for emotionally disturbed students 1983 Treatment programs for emotionally disturbed students 235 0 99 1.02
Conference paper O'Neal Cerebral palsy: the meta-analysis of selected interventions 1985 With cerebral palsy students 31 0 96 0.81
Sex Roles Baenninger & Newcombe USA The role of experience in spatial test performance: A meta-analysis 1989 Spatial strategies on spatial outcomes 26 0 26 0.51
Education and Training in Mental Retardation Forness & Kavale USA Strategies to improve basic learning and memory deficits in mental retardation: a meta-analysis of experimental studies 1993 Teaching with low ability students 268 8,000 819 0.71
Unpublished Thesis White USA The effects of cognitive learning strategies interventions with learning disabled students, in the topical areas of reading and mathematics 1997 Cognitive learning strategies in math with LD 72 8,527 831 0.20
Unpublished Thesis White USA The effects of cognitive learning strategies interventions with learning disabled students, in the topical areas of reading and mathematics 1997 Cognitive learning strategies in reading with LD 222 15,080 1,796 0.39
Oxford Pergamon Press Scheerens & Bosker The foundations of educational effectiveness 1997 Various strategies on achievement 228 0 545 0.20
Review of Educational Research Swanson & Hoskyn USA Experimental intervention research on students with learning disabilities: A meta-analysis of treatment outcomes 1998 Teaching with low ability students 180 38,716 1,537 0.79
Book Marzano USA A theory-based meta-analysis of research on instruction 1998 Classroom instructional techniques 4,000 1,237,000 4,000 0.65
Book Swanson What instruction works for students with learning disabilities? Summarizing the results of a meta-analysis of intervention studies 2000 Learning strategies for Spec Ed students 180 180,827 1,537 0.79
Language Learning Norris & Otega USA Effectiveness of L2 instruction: A research synthesis and quantitative meta-analysis 2000 Focused instruction vs. Minimal exposure to learning in L2 49 0 78 0.96
Review of Educational Research Seidel & Shavelson USA Teaching Effectiveness Research in the Last Decade: Role of Theory and Research Design in Disentangling Meta-Analysis Results 2007 Teaching and learning processes 112 0 1,352 0.07
Language Learning Spade & Tomita Canada Interactions between type of instruction and type of language feature: A meta-analysis. 2010 Implicit instruction on EFL 24 0 38 0.38
Language Learning Spade & Tomita Canada Interactions between type of instruction and type of language feature: A meta-analysis. 2010 Explicit instruction on EFL 28 0 44 0.81
American Educational Research Association Kyriakides & Christoforou A synthesis of studies searching for teacher factors: Implications for educational effectiveness theory. 2011 Teaching and learning processes 88 0 165 0.29
TOTAL/AVERAGE 5,743 1,488,150 12,963 0.57

Confidence

The Confidence is the average of these four measures, each divided into five approximately equal groups and assigned a value from 1 to 5 based on the following criteria:

  • Number of Meta-analyses
    • 1 = 1
    • 2 = 2–3
    • 3 = 4–6
    • 4 = 7–9
    • 5 = 10+
  • Number of Studies
    • 1 = 1–10
    • 2 = 11–50
    • 3 = 51–200
    • 4 = 201–400
    • 5 = 400+
  • Number of Students
    • 1 = 1–2,500
    • 2 = 2,501–10,000
    • 3 = 10,000–20,000
    • 4 = 20,000–100,000
    • 5 = 100,001+
  • Number of Effects
    • 1 = 1–100
    • 2 = 101–300
    • 3 = 301–600
    • 4 = 601–1,200
    • 5 = 1,200+
Confidences
Number of Meta-Analyses Number of Studies Number of Students Number of Effects Overall Confidence
Confidence Factor 5 5 5 5 5
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