5E Learning Cycle

I was recently reading the November/December 2022 issue of “The Science Teacher” a publication of the National Science Teaching Association.  In this issue, I read the “Editor’s Corner” column, written by Ann Haley MacKenzie.  She wrote a column entitled, “Direct Instruction: A Healthy Place for Both Science Teachers and Students?”  

Direct instruction doesn’t always work.  What we know about human learning is that students need exposure to a concept at least five or six times before they can begin to move it into long term memory.  Hence the 5E Learning Cycle:  Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate.