Differentiated Instruction

I listened to Ken Robinson's talk about the education system in the United States being based on an industrial model in which students are "educated" in groups, or batches, that have nothing to do with readiness or interest or anything at all really except that they are the same age. It is one of those talks that makes so much sense, but at the same time discouraging because at the end of the day we are still a part of this "system" and, for the time being, there isn't a lot that we can do about it.

Although we do have to work within the education system, there are many ways in which we as teachers can move beyond the industrial model of education with its concurrent conformist agenda, and not only engage our students, but empower them. That is where differentiated instruction comes into play.

Stated simply, differentiated instruction is "instruction that is responsive to students' readiness, interest, and learning preferences."

When I think of readiness I think about the zone of proximal development (see image). The hard thing is is that in a class of 20 students you will have 20 different students with different levels of readiness. If you simplify the content too much, some kids will get bored, however if it is too difficult some students will get confused and give up. So the trick is to get everyone engaged and learning based on where they are.

A student will be more engaged and enthusiastic about learning if what they are learning is interesting to them. Check out the primary and secondary principles of interest for more about that.

Learning preferences refers to how each individual wants to learn. I think of Gardner's multiple intelligences and realize that not all learners learn best through lecture or even through hands on activities.


At this point you are probably thinking, "Oh yeah, you're talking about individualized instruction, right?" Wrong! Differentiated instruction is not synonymous with individualized instruction. Differentiated instruction is about using variability of teaching techniques and approaches to address a diverse array of learner needs and preferences.


Bottom line, with our current system it is not feasible to address every students needs and preferences simultaneously, but we can engage a diverse group of students by varying our instructional approaches to meet the needs of those diverse learners.

If you want to learn more here is a great brochure from EduGAINS as well as an image from that brochure that sums up differentiated learning pretty well.

References 
Ken Robinson: Changing Education Paradigms by The RSA https://youtu.be/zDZFcDGpL4U

Reach Every Student Through Differentiated Instruction - EduGAINS
http://www.edugains.ca/resourcesDI/Brochures/DIBrochureOct08.pdf