Tutorial 10: Differentiated Instruction

(Please click here for an overview of Differentiatied Instruction.)

To Differentiate or Not to Differentiate? That is the question.

While I concur with the need for Differentiated Instruction, I cannot help but question if I will fall into the trap of employing "undifferentiated instruction", once I succumb to the teaching and administrative workload that most teachers warn me about.

In my teaching practicum at Changkat Changi Secondary, a senior teacher cautioned that such teaching strategies required the time and effort, which the overburdened teacher could ill afford. Fortunately, I only had to teach one to three classes a day, during my teaching practicum, so I could and did employ these time consuming and "troublesome" strategies.

Despite the many arguments for the adoption of Differentiated Instruction (Adams, 2001; Skowron, 2001; Tomlinson & Kalbfleisch, 1998), I found that many teachers often did not follow through with it. Even though they recognised that their students were different and therefore had different learning needs and learning styles, there was no difference in the way they assessed them. While they used differentiated products and processes in their teaching, they still imposed standard assessment criteria for every student in the class.

For instance, the rubrics which the teachers created, often applied to everyone in a class of 40, even though they could clearly tell that certain students would certainly fare worse--not because of lack of effort, but simply because they were at an inherent and unfair disadvantage.

I can recall one such incident when I was teaching in Changkat Changi Secondary School. Students were urged to research on hybrids--real or imagined, organic or synthetic--and to present their findings in anyway they felt comfortable--orally, through pictures, photographs, video, sketches, audio, constructed models, or even a write-up. I observed that there were students from well-off families who had digital cameras, inkjet printers, scanners and wireless laptops, while at the other extreme, there were students who did not even own a floppy disk.

When I asked to see their research portfolio, the better off students naturally produced far more impressive, extensive and interesting research materials, by virtue that they had unrestricted access to external resources from the comfort of their homes.

On the other hand, the students who did not have such luxuries, produced newspaper and magazine clippings. Those who used the school computers had to jostle for the limited number available at the library and only for a few hours in the afternoon. There were also students who gave oral presentations, while others brought realia into the classroom.

Despite the many different products and apparent difference in Socio-economic status of the students, the assessment criteria were uniformly applied to every student. This clearly placed several students at a disadvantage.

What then can be done? Can we have different rubrics for different students? I am not suggesting that we have 40 different rubrics for 40 different students. Perhaps a rubric for each type of product? Of course, that means that the teacher will have to ascertain what product the student intends to work on, before creating the separate rubrics.

Is this practical? Well, perhaps not if, in a class of 40, the teacher has to create 10 different rubrics for 10 different products. The teacher would then be forced to restrict the choice of products, so that rubric design is kept managable.

So, should Differentiated Instruction be a feature in classrooms? Absolutely, but that would necessitate differentiated assessment too, to be "fair" to students who were unfairly disadvantaged.

REFERENCES

Adams, C.M. (2001) Critical Questions About Tiered lessons. Retrieved from the Project GATE Web site at Ball State University at http:// www.bsu.edu/teachers/services/ctr/javits/Instruction/critical questions.htm.

Skowron, J. (2001). Powerful Lesson Planning Model. Illinois: Skylight Training & Publishing Inc.

Tomlinson, C. & Kalbfleisch, L. (1998). Teach Me, Teach My Brain: A call for differentiated classrooms. Educational leadership, 56(3), 52 – 55.