Engelmann et al.: Educational logic and illogic

What are the problems with many explanations for educational problems?

Siegfried Engelmann, Barbara Bateman, and I wrote a paper explaining our thinking about the relationships between instructional problems and solutions for those problems. We distributed the paper to people who attended the annual Direct Instruction Conference in Eugene (OR, US) in the summer of 2009. To announce the release of the paper, there were no big press releases, no fireworks displays, no armadas of canoes and kayaks on the Willamette River. We just gave it away to folks who were there.

More recently, I reread the paper. In my opinion, it is pretty darn good. It makes points that are quire relevant to the education situation today. With all the discussions of “The Science of This” or “The Science of That,” the importance of instruction is frequently shunted aside.

So I thought I’d release it to folks here on Special Education Today. I also wanted to add a bit of a celebratory air for the release, so I asked an AI Agent to generate the accompanying image.

AI-generate image of people floating downstream under a sky filled with fireworks. It appears that the AI Bot gave the people appropriate appendages, but I wouldn’t look too closely at the watercraft and the people’s position in them.

In the paper, Zig, Barb, and I examined some the convoluted and overly complex reasoning—the illogic—that undergirds many approaches to solving educational problems. As readers read our illustrations, I suspect they will conjure connections to some familiar ideas.

Our fundamental premise in this analysis is that the most beneficial approaches to solving educational issues will be found by (a) identifying the education problem in simple, uncompromising terms; (b) directly teaching students how to act, behave, or perform in ways that do not indicate that problem; and (c) document the problem and the instructional solution’s effects on it.

I am saddened that the ideas in this paper have not become part of the thinking of most of us who advocate for improving education. So, I’m posting this note in hopes that the paper will gain greater circulation. With the assent of the Association for Direct Instruction and the National Institute for Direct Instruction, I am pleased to make the paper available for free. Take a look:

Engelmann, S., Bateman, B. D., & Lloyd, J. W. (2007). Education logic and illogic. National Institute for Direct Instruction. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/KPU4Z