Differentiation

Background

One of the greatest challenges of our job is that we are teaching individuals in a group situation.  This means that we cannot hope that one style of teaching will fit the needs of all our students.  So, as we attempt to develop the ability of all our students to achieve, we need to use differentiation.

At its basic level differentiated teaching is recognising that each student is unique and will therefore have a unique set of needs and preferences.

Definition

Differentiated learning is the use of teaching and assessment activities that take into account the differences between students.

Differentiation is not just about levels of ability.  All students have learning needs, for example the most academic of students might be too shy to speak in a group.  Good teachers have always differentiated their approach to students, whether it be in the level of advice given for coursework or the amount of time spent with individuals during class exercises.

This section is intended to help make our approach to differentiation more systematic and take into account a wide range of differences.  It focuses particularly on the way students differ and how to support all students needs.