Description

Differentiated instruction is a teaching method that requires instructors to change their teaching styles and educational materials to meet the diverse needs of learners within a classroom. It generally involves grouping learners into several sub-groups in the classroom based on ability, skill set, or learning preferences.

Advantages

• This strategy allows the instructor to more effectively address the diverse needs of learners in a large class.
• Differentiated instruction ensures that learning is personalized and that all students learn up to their potential.

Disadvantages

• Teachers sometimes utilize differentiation as a reason to water down the content. Differentiated instruction must be used in conjunction with high expectations to ensure all learners are working to their maximum potential.

Implementation

1. Separate learners into three ability groups: Advanced, Middle, and Lower. The advanced learners can be given project-based learning tasks to complete while the instructor teaches the middle and lower groups the same concept but on a lower level of Bloom’s taxonomy.
2. Provide learners with a range of tasks that address the same goal. Learners can select between different tasks depending on their learning preferences.