The Value of Explicit Instruction for All Learners: Working Memory, Motivation, and More

Presented at 45th Sanibel Leadership Conference, June 2025

Jun 17, 2025

OVERVIEW

The elements of explicit instruction provide educators with a clear framework for the content and design of reading instruction. Decades of research have shown that direct, explicit instruction is most effective for all students to successfully learn new content and skills (Rosenshine & Stevens, 1986; Christenson et al., 1989; Swanson, 2001). An explicit lesson can help reduce the demands on working memory, increase student engagement, and provide opportunities for students to respond, which builds oral language skills.

Explicit instruction helps to drop the perceived difficulty and sets students up to be successful as they apply the learned skills, which are critical components of motivation. Motivation affects the amount students read, a critical pathway to fluent reading that facilitates vocabulary acquisition and knowledge building. Additionally, motivation affects the strategies students employ during and after reading and is linked with reading ability itself. Students tend to be more motivated to engage in reading when they are good at it (Mol & Bus, 2011; Willingham, 2017). This presentation will address the elements of an explicit lesson with hands-on activities and resources to apply the format to reading instruction. The connection between working memory and motivation will be discussed.