Rosenshine's Principles of Instruction

Rosenshine's Principles of Instruction is a set of ten research-based teaching practices identified by educational psychologist Barak Rosenshine and published in a 2012 article in American Educator, synthesizing findings from studies of the classroom practices of highly effective teachers, cognitive science research on how memory works, and studies of the instructional strategies used to scaffold complex tasks such as reading comprehension, into a single practical list. The ten principles include beginning a lesson with a short review of previous learning, presenting new material in small steps with practice after each step, asking a large number of questions to check understanding, providing models and worked examples, and guiding students through independent practice with a high success rate before withdrawing support. Rosenshine intended the principles as a synthesis for classroom teachers rather than a wholly new theory, and the list has become widely cited in teacher training and school instructional-coaching programs, particularly in the United Kingdom, as a compact, evidence-based checklist for lesson design.