Differentiation and Adaptive Teaching

Differentiation is the pedagogical term for adapting our teaching to meet the needs of all students in our classroom.

When we plan our lessons there are multiple considerations that must take place – what is the lesson content? What is the learning objective? What activities could I use to teach the lesson? How will I assess the learning and progress of students?

One of the most important considerations for any lesson plan, is how are you going to ensure you meet the needs of every student in front of you therefore maximising the learning outcomes for the whole class.

This is called Differentiation.

It is our responsibility to “adapt” our lesson plans to meet the needs of everyone. Therefore, is it vital that we know and have an understanding of the various needs within our class group. It is important that we dedicate our TPD (Teacher Professional Development) time towards expanding our knowledge to fulfil the needs in our classroom.

We may have students who are lower attainers; perhaps their literacy skills are not where they should be for their age. Perhaps we have students who have medical issues such as a visual or hearing impairment. We may have students who have autism or another learning need.

We must ensure that we are clear on who our students are and what their needs are prior to teaching the lessons. Maybe your school has a department which caters for this, and you can access key information about your students and what methods may work best for them.

Once we have this knowledge it is important that we, as teachers, spend time researching and learning about how to structure lessons which are tailored to all our students.

Perhaps we need to deliver content in various ways, such as enlarged handouts or use of projected images and instructions. Perhaps you could develop worksheets which are simplified for the lower attainers and more challenging for higher attainers.

Students also feel more comfortable when we provide regular check-ins with them; crouch to the table level and talk to students who may perhaps benefit from more one-to-one teaching.

In addition to catering to needs at a lower attainment, it is important that we include our higher attainers. We may have students who are exceptionally advanced for their age and very skilled at learning and progressing.

We need to nurture this skill and rather than give these students extra work to do to keep them occupied, we must give our lessons and these students prior consideration. We need to differentiate our lesson to enable these learners to progress to higher order tasks such as more analytical and inquisitive tasks. You could even utilise these students to support your weaker attainers thus giving them a chance to “teach” the skills they already have and support their peers.

Differentiation, or adaptive teaching is a key element of any lesson plan and enables us as educators to reach all learners. Find out more about this aspect on www.teach2030.com where we have certified courses developing this teaching skill.

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