Jason Graham & Susiati Widiningsih

Differentiating instruction means creating multiple paths so that students of different abilities, interest or learning needs experience equally appropriate ways to absorb, use, develop and present concepts as a part of the daily learning process. It allows students to take greater responsibility and ownership for their own learning, and provides opportunities for peer teaching and cooperative learning. - P Theroux, Teacher, Alberta, Canada  June, 2004 ptheoux@shaw.ca 

People learn at their own pace, some take longer than others to learn certain tasks to a variety of success rates. For example, some children can read by the age of 5, while another may not yet be competent. There is nothing 'wrong' with this child, in  most cases it is a matter of not being ready for this at a developmental stage. Differentiated learning and instruction focuses on facilitating learning for the individual and not a 'one size fits all' classroom and learning experience. Finally, no two children learn in the same way and teachers need to make available many strategies that allows the learner to think for themselves and learn at their own pace within their own learning style.

What is your Learning Style? Take the Test.

The Differentiated Curriculum

By assessing the curriculum, teachers and curriculum stakeholders can assess what learners know, need to know and assess what skills and abilities learners will need to achieve these goals. By recognising differing abilities, alternative activities can be set up, thought of in advance thus allowing for a well prepared teaching environment. Learners who need further practice or instruction can do this via certain tasks in the self access centre (see below) while learners that have a sound grasp of the concept might require less instruction and can move on to more challenging activities.

The Differentiated Classroom

The power of questions allows a teacher to adjust the degree of difficulty and check for the level of understanding of concepts of individual learners. Open ended questions are best, and these questions can often fuel further discussion, and perhaps more questions that can be further inquired about. Open ended tasks in the classroom allow learners to go beyond the minimum requirements and show their true understanding of a concept. Differentiated instruction is not just for the lower level learner but also benefits a learner with a solid understanding of the concept as well.

How Can I Provide Differentiated Instruction in My Classroom?

• Multi-Level Instruction - Allows for differing abilities to be challenged, tasks vary in complexity relating to the learners understanding of the concepts. Teachers can assist the learner in using alternative learning strategies to reach their goals. Wide range of  ability based instruction methods/tasks available.

• Flexible Grouping - Although we might group learners, this should not exclude them for more challenging work or 'pigeon hole'  them into a certain type of learner into a certain ability group. Learners need to be challenged and benefit from working with others that have differing abilities. One learner might be a grade level ahead in numeracy but lack literacy or sciences skills.

• Peer Teaching - Allows learners to re-teach concepts or assist in learning strategies.

• Study Buddies - Such as reading partners or small group research whereby each student has a responsibility to contribute something to the group. Each learner  brings their own strengths (and weaknesses) to the group.

• Self Access Centres - Readily accessible areas in the classroom (ie: Maths Corner) dedicated to 'hands-on' activities, can be structured to suit individual needs or completely unstructured where the focus is on learning through play. I first discovered self access centres while teaching ESL, many learners with differing language abilities, then I applied it to my primary school teaching and found the results to be very positive.

• Make things interesting, fun and relevant - Does this really need explanation!

Useful Links