Teaching Strategies for Direct and Indirect Instruction in Teaching Engineering

Abstract

It is important to select the proper instructional strategy for a specific learning outcome in teaching engineering. There are two broad types of learning outcomes: facts, rules and action sequences (on lower levels of complexity in the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains), and concepts, patterns and abstractions (on higher level of complexity in the above named domains). Facts, rules and action sequences are taught using instructional strategies of direct instruction. Concepts, patterns and abstractions are taught using strategies of indirect instruction. Strategies of both types of learning may be combined, providing a menu of teaching strategies that help students solve problems, think critically and work cooperatively. This article presents teaching strategies suitable for direct and indirect instruction used in teaching engineering.