Differentiated instruction is not just about stretching the advanced learners and providing remedial for the weaker learners. How do we cater to the learning needs of those students in middle, who often make up the majority of the classrooom? Mr Azahar Noor and Ms Tan Yen Chuan from the Raffles Girls’ School Centre of Pedagogical Research and Learning (PeRL) shares some learning points from teachers implementing differentiated instruction in a regular classroom made up of high-ability learners.
The Raffles Programme specifically caters to high-ability learners of diverse performance. Raffles Girls’ School has developed a differentiated curriculum that is based on the principles of the Integrated Curriculum Model (Van Tassel-Baska, 1986).
Learners who are gifted in a particular discipline are selected to study it at an advanced level. The advanced curriculum includes more challenging tasks and topics.
Due to the demanding nature of the advanced curricula, the students can only attend at most two advanced classes. For other subjects, they study the standard curricula.
We cannot assume that a high-ability learner will excel in all subjects. Besides diverse abilities in different subjects, gifted learners are also different in terms of their experience, level of interest and learning profile. Hence, it is fair to conclude that high-ability learners are far from homogeneous.
However, teachers often focus on advanced learners in class, and attend to the underachievers through remedial lessons. For the students who are learning at a regular pace, how are they recognized as individual learners with different learning needs?
We sought to find out how teachers differentiate instruction to address students’ learning needs based on their readiness, interest and learning profile.
Using findings from the school’s research on “Differentiated Instructions for High Ability Diverse Learners in a Regular Classroom: A Case Study in an Independent School”, this article will share some learning points on differentiated instruction.
“The strength is that I am able to collect relevant data to ascertain where my students are at, so that I can cater lessons according to their needs. We also have to test them along the way to see where they are.”
– Teacher A
Differentiated Instruction Must Be Guided by Data about Students
Skilful teachers recognize that differentiation must be data-driven. They purposefully plan for feedback and continuously collect data about students. This includes pre-assessment diagnostics before the start of a unit.
Data Collection Must Be Ongoing
Ongoing assessment is one of the principles that guide differentiation. Teachers continuously use assessment to collect students’ data to make further adjustment to their teaching.
One way is to get students to construct a knowledge map to assess prior knowledge. Another example is to administer a short quiz to assess students’ differing level of readiness.
Do Past Test Scores Indicate Student’s Readiness?
Using past test scores to assess students’ readiness level might pose a problem, as one teacher found out. Past test scores could measure a different set of skills and knowledge from the unit that is being taught.
“I made wrong judgment about students’ readiness. I feel that a certain topic is not difficult, but when I give it to that group of students who are ready, they actually find it to be quite difficult. So there can be wrong judgment.”
– Teacher B, on being open-minded about students’ readiness
An Assessment of Problem-solving Style
Some teachers find it difficult to differentiate students’ learning styles. So this school administered a questionnaire known as An Assessment of Problem Solving StyleSM (VIEW) to identify students’ problem-solving style.
There are three dimensions to problem-solving styles (orientation to change, manner of processing and ways of deciding) that are important for learners to understand and for teachers to leverage on (Selby, Treffinger, Isaksen, & Lauer, 2002).
One teacher in this study shared his experience in using students’ VIEW profiles.
Leverage on Standard-based Framework to Plan for Differentiation
Planning is key to effective differentiation. One important aspect is for teachers to consciously include differentiation in the Understanding by Design (UbD) lesson planning framework.
Skillful teachers are able to articulate elements of differentiation in their planning. They identify how knowledge, skills and essential questions will be differentiated, and how activities and groupings can be adjusted according to varying needs of students.
In a SingTeach article “A Class of 40 Needs”, Dr Letchmi Devi Ponnusamy highlighted that differentiation is not just an instructional strategy but also a teaching philosophy to meet the needs of all students.
This means that the teachers should not implement differentiation strategies for the sake of implementing. They need to understand the students first to decide on the appropriate strategy to meet their needs.
One way is to emphasize the objective of differentiation, which is to maximize the potential of each learner through meeting the needs of the varied learners (C. A. Tomlinson, 2001).
When teachers become more skilful in using differentiated strategies, there is merit in evaluating the impact of their practice on learning.
“The reason is so that we can draw on each other’s strengths…the internal ones they will take more time to process the information, so usually they are not the ones who will immediately start off the discussion. Whereas the external ones will begin, and giving ideas for the internal ones will think about it, and come in later.”
– Teacher C, talking about students’ strengths
Gagné, F. (2004). Transforming gifts into talents: The DMGT as a developmental theory 1. High ability studies, 15(2), 119–147.
VanTassel-Baska, J. (1986). Effective curriculum and instructional models for talented students. Gifted Child Quarterly, 30(4), 164–169.
Selby, E. C., Treffinger, D. J., Isaksen, S. G., & Lauer, K. (2002). VIEW: An assessment of problem-solving style. Sarasota, FL: Center for Creative Learning.
Tomlinson, C. A. (2001). Differentiated instruction in the regular classroom: What does it Mean? How does it look? Understanding Our Gifted, 14(1), 3–6.