There are many different approaches educators can use to help all of their students succeed. In this article, we will talk about differentiated instruction, which allows educators to adjust their teaching to individual students.
What is differentiated instruction?
Differentiated instruction describes the ways a teacher or educator adjusts to their students’ needs, abilities, and interests. This allows students to learn at their own pace, in a way that suits them. It acknowledges that not everyone in a group is the same and recognizes the traits of each individual member.
In other words, educators who use differentiated instruction in their classrooms offer different ways for their students to achieve their goals. There are three levels: flexibility is applied to all students in the class, while adaptation and modification apply to only a few specific students.
Using flexibility to achieve learning objectives
Flexible differentiated instruction is used for a whole group. It can be intuitive or deliberate and is designed to make sure all students can achieve the learning objectives.
This allows the educator to differentiate the content—the knowledge, strategies, or skills being taught. Differentiation can also influence processes like the support provided, the resources used, and the types of strategies employed by students. It can be applied to the learning environment as well, for instance classroom layout and group makeup.
Finally, differentiation may involve products, or the way students present what they’ve learned. Educators can use flexible differentiation in different ways. For example, they may offer visual aids for time management, different types of readings, options for the final format of the work (handwritten, digital, audio, video, etc.), and different types of work (individual, in teams, or in large groups).
Using adaptation to demonstrate competencies
Adaptation is always deliberate and specific to each student who needs it. It’s deployed after a series of observation and information-gathering activities to fully understand the student, their skills, and their needs. The resulting adaptations allow the student to develop and demonstrate their competencies. They can address the same elements as flexibility, i.e., content, processes, learning environment, and products. However, unlike flexibility measures, adaptations are documented in an intervention plan.
Because it’s aimed at a smaller number of students, adaptation complements, or is added to, flexibility. Students with adaptations also have access to the same flexibility measures as their classmates.
The use of technological aids, the opportunity to take more time to complete a task, or changing the font size on homework can all be considered adaptations.
Using modification to adjust the initial objectives
Modification is juxtaposed with flexibility and adaptation. It involves changing what is expected of students in class. It’s instituted when a student is unable to achieve the objectives that have been set for them and their peers. Instead, new objectives are set and recorded in an intervention plan. Modifications are also noted on the student’s report card and may change one or more subjects.
Differentiating the classroom
To make room for differentiated instruction in the classroom, educators need to be familiar with students and their differences. In other words, educators need to know their students well to develop successful differentiation strategies.
They also need to understand the types of differentiation available to them and consider the best ways to implement them. Questions like, “What? Why? When? How?” can guide that consideration.
Let’s end with a translation of the inspirational definition from Gillig (1999) that can help all educators find ways to implement differentiated instruction: “Ultimately, it’s about finding different ways to help each student reach their fullest potential.”
After all, isn’t that a school’s ultimate goal?
