The most important of these are classroom management techniques: firstly, by carefully placing students where they will learn most effectively – for example those with visionary or hearing impairments should always be seated where they can see or hear clearly, those who are easily distracted, such as ADHD sufferers, should be in small groups near the teacher’s desk; secondly, by ensuring that the classroom is a space that is conducive to learning – information on the walls, bright colours to stimulate imagination and produce a lively atmosphere, children’s work on display; desks arranged to facilitate discussion; equipment easily accessible; and thirdly, by creating an environment where children know what is expected or allowed: for example, when they can engage in group discussions and when they are expected to work quietly and alone.
Assessment is also key to differentiated learning. The teacher must use all of his or her experience to monitor a child’s learning and teach at the appropriate pace. This has been referred to as the ‘zone of proximal development’ and refers to ‘the gap between what the learner can demonstrate without assistance and what the learner can do with assistance.’ (Allan & Tomlinson, 2000).
The amount of research into the value of differentiated teaching is still limited, but certainly studies that do exist point to consistently positive results for students at both ends of the ability spectrum. A study of 645 maths students in Canada found that differentiated learning allowed talented students to achieve higher results in tests than their equally talented peers who were taught under traditional text book methods.
Another study, also carried out in 2008 in Canada by McQuarrie, McRae, and Stack-Cutler found that, compared with the general student population, students with mild or severe learning disabilities received more benefits from differentiated and intensive support, especially when the differentiation was delivered in small groups or with targeted instruction.
The practicalities of differentiated learning do pose a challenge. How do you employ small group learning in a class of 50 or more students? How can you expect all students to stay engaged if you are spending time with one group to ensure they have grasped a concept? What use are computer programmes to aid learning if you only have access to one computer screen on one day of the week?
This is where the skills and imagination of the teacher really comes to the fore. Visual aids, peer teaching, group discussion, using the natural environment, cross-curricular projects and a host of other methods can be employed to give the children an enriched learning experience. And under these teaching conditions, differentiated learning can be introduced.
What should be clear is that there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to differentiated learning. Generally, however, the teacher will be adjusting one, two or all of the following conditions:
1. The content, or what students learn;
2. The process, or how students learn; and
3. The product or how students demonstrate their learning.
-Concluded.
-Ikwuemesi wrote
