Focus On Differentiated Instruction
A supplement to the Curriculum HandbookVolume 9, Number 3 Spring 2000
| Overview | Viewpoint | ASCD Resources |
Meeting the Needs of Diverse Learners
Whenever teachers offer students a variety of ways to explore curriculum content, they are differentiating instruction. In contrast to one-size-fits-all instruction that requires all students to learn the same material in the same way at the same time, differentiated instruction provides options—multiple texts and supplementary materials, interest centers, independent learning contracts, group investigations, assignments with varying levels of complexity, computer programs, or rubrics for evaluating student work along a range of abilities.
Adapting instruction according to student needs helps more students maximize achievement, say experts. It benefits students regardless of their ability level, learning style, interests, and motivations.
Interest in improving student achievement through differentiated instruction is not new. For more than a century, educational psychologists have explored learning differences and how teachers can best facilitate instruction given those differences. Lev Vygotsky and his famous work on the zone of proximal development, Maria Montessori's contributions to individualized instruction, Robert Sternberg's learning profile approach, and Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences are just a few examples of how researchers have studied learning differences. Interest in multicultural education, learning styles, brain research, special education, and gifted education is further evidence of how good educators want to help all students.
Differentiation and Standards
Unfortunately, at a time when education leaders are taking a more vigorous approach to differentiated instruction, some educators are backing away from recognizing student differences because of the pressure to meet local, state, and national standards. Do standards require a one-size-fits-all approach to instruction? Can a teacher teach to the standards and still differentiate?
"There's absolutely no contradiction between excellent standards-based instruction and excellent differentiated standards-based instruction," states Carol Ann Tomlinson, author of several books on differentiated instruction and an associate professor in the school of education at the University of Virginia. She argues that most standards are not finite points to be memorized but consist of skills such as problem solving, communicating clearly in paragraphs, analyzing text, or using maps for information purposes. "Those things can nearly all be accomplished by primary grade students as well as Ph.D.s—just at different levels of complexity and with different levels of support," she says.
Although most teachers probably have an intuitive awareness of why differentiated instruction matters, not all practice it well. Admittedly, learning to adapt instruction to meet the needs of diverse learners requires administrative support and practice time. No one, it seems, would object to so worthwhile an effort. Yet many teachers fear that teaching to standards may require standardized instruction--reversing a century of research on how children learn.
"My biggest issue with the question of standards and differentiation," continues Tomlinson, "is not whether we can teach to the standards and differentiate, but how we teach to the standards. I think a lot of standards-based teaching is dreadful stuff—cramming lists of skills and facts into kids so that maybe they can burp them back on a test. But if you organize the standards as concept umbrellas, if you can help kids discover patterns, answer essential questions, and organize their thinking, then it's more likely that the standards will be useful instead of defeating."
For further perspectives on differentiated instruction and teaching with concepts, read the interview with Tomlinson in "Viewpoint."
Viewpoint
Carol Ann Tomlinson is associate professor of educational leadership, foundations, and policy at the Curry School of Education, University of Virginia. Her e-mail address is cat3y@virginia.edu.
Q. Why should we differentiate instruction?
A. Because we don't have any evidence that treating all students alike makes them all successful. And we do have evidence that meeting them where they are and addressing their needs is more likely to make their learning efficient and effective.
Q. How does differentiated instruction fit into classroom practice?
A. I think anything we do in a classroom ought to fit under the umbrella of best-practice instruction. If it doesn't, we should question why we're doing it. Expert instruction can't exist without attending to student needs. Differentiation is about meeting individual needs in the context of best-practice instruction. I don't think there's any such thing as an expert teacher who doesn't attend to student needs any more than there's an excellent doctor who treats all patients alike or a lawyer who argues the same case every time.
Q. Is differentiated instruction becoming more important than it used to be?
A. Not too many years ago, students who weren't doing very well could just stay home or get a job or drop out. But now, kids don't really have that option. The law requires that they go to school, and success in society requires an education. So generally, we're trying to teach more kinds of kids in classrooms than we used to. And we may have more students who come to school with learning problems than has been the case in the past. It's probably also the case that we have more of a chasm between the haves and have nots in school than we have had in the past. At the same time, we have come to understand the need to give all students access to a high-quality education.
Q. What is the principal's role in supporting teachers who are trying to differentiate instruction?
A. Principals should be keepers of the vision--people who use the pulpit of leadership to help teachers reflect on the need to meet students where they are. They should provide the leadership to say, "In this school, we want to nurture teachers who look at individuals rather than groups. We don't do anything in this building that doesn't move us in that direction. We can figure out different ways to get there, and I can support you in different ways, and we can show each other better and better ways of doing this, but that we do it is really not negotiable."
Q. What are the obstacles to differentiated instruction?
A. Several constraints tend to make us move toward a one-size-fits-all practice, and the more proficient we become with that, the more difficult it is to give it up. But I think most teachers, if you can show them a way, are game for trying differentiated instruction as long as they can get some support in doing it.
Time constraints and chopped-up schedules are an obstacle. Teachers could work better if they had longer blocks of time with students. At the elementary level, kids have to go somewhere or someone comes in to do something every 15–30 minutes; at the secondary level, kids rotate in and out every 37 or 42 minutes. It makes teachers crazy.
Class size and teaching load are two of the biggest constraints. A secondary teacher who works with150 kids a day gets glassy-eyed when told he needs to get to know those kids better. It's doable, but we would be far more efficient by arranging schedules so teachers had fewer students to get to know or kept them over longer periods of time.
And then there are smaller constraints such as single textbooks that are too easy for half the kids in a class and too hard for the other half, or report cards that suggest we should sort and stack kids according to some great yardstick in the sky.
Q. You have often advocated the use of concept-based teaching for differentiating instruction. How does that work?
A. When you differentiate instruction, you have to ask, On what basis should I differentiate it? If all I teach is facts, then the only way to differentiate is to give some kids more facts and some kids less. That doesn't help much—giving a child who doesn't understand how to add fractions 10 problems instead of 15 because she didn't understand the first 10. And a kid who already knows how to do something doesn't need to do more of it. Doing more or less doesn't provide meaning.
With concept-based teaching, you ask, What is this discipline about? What does it mean? If I understand a concept, there are all sorts of ways to help kids learn it. For example, instead of teaching facts about dinosaurs, teachers might approach dinosaurs according to the concept of classification: Is it a dinosaur that runs or walks? That eats animals or plants? That fights or hides? We could also study dinosaurs according to the concept of extinction--what it means to adapt or not adapt to the environment and what happens when something isn't well-suited to its environment.
Q. Does concept-based teaching help students learn better?
A. Whether it's classification or extinction or environment, a concept-based approach makes the topic of dinosaurs more memorable. I can give some kids a more concrete approach to it and other kids a more abstract or complex approach. In doing that, I'm still retaining the essential meaning and the powerful ideas. Concepts, as contrasted with facts, give us a much sounder footing on which to differentiate.
Teaching with concepts also makes teaching more organized; knowledge more retrievable; and subject matter more relevant to learners, more connected, and more focused on meaning and utility. Rather than accumulating disjointed trivia, kids see cubbyholes to put things in.
As desirable as it is, concept-based teaching is not mandatory for differentiation. What is mandatory is teacher clarity about what students should know, understand, and be able to do as the result of any segment of learning. Without that in place, lessons, activities, and products tend to be aimless. Clarity of intent is a nonnegotiable of high-quality differentiation.
Q. How difficult is conceptual teaching for most teachers to learn to do?
A. It's not easy for teachers to master because we've not been taught that way ourselves. We tend to have learned our disciplines by a textbook approach, at the level of concrete facts and topics rather than at the level of looking for meanings. But I don't think I've ever seen quite so much excitement among teachers as when they have the courage to try teaching by concepts and start seeing how knowledge is organized. It not only is so much more compelling for them but also convinces them how much more sensible it's going to be for their students to learn.
ASCD Resources on Differentiated Instruction
Networks
The Differentiated Instruction Network
This ASCD member-initiated network facilitates communication about differentiated learning through a Web page (in development), newsletters, and regional conferences. Contact Donna Strigari, adjunct professor at Seton Hall University, P.O. Box 523, East Hanover, NJ 07936; 973-887-5650.
Books
Educating Everybody's Children: Diverse Teaching Strategies for Diverse Learners
Robert W. Cole, Editor
With nearly 90 proven instructional strategies for all students, especially those who are at risk of academic failure, this book features specific, teacher-tested methods for increasing achievement in reading, writing, mathematics, and oral communication.
Product #195024; Price: $21.95 (ASCD members); $25.95 (nonmembers)
The Differentiated Classroom—Responding to the Needs of All Learners
Carol Ann Tomlinson
Describes a way of thinking about teaching and learning that puts students in a new perspective. Citing current research along with real-life examples of learning, education, and change, Tomlinson shares why differentiated instruction is important to today's children, and how both students and teachers benefit from this approach.
Product #199040; Price: $17.95 (ASCD members); $21.95 (nonmembers)
Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom
Thomas Armstrong
This guide to identifying, nurturing, and supporting the unique capabilities of every student provides clear explanations and practical advice on introducing students to Howard Gardner's theory of the seven intelligences, developing multiple intelligence lessons, conducting multiple intelligence assessments, and much more.
Product #194055; Price: $14.95 (ASCD members); $17.95 (nonmembers)
Videotapes
Differentiating Instruction
This set of two 45-minute videotapes examines how teachers can meet the needs of students who are at different levels of readiness, have varied interests, and have different preferences for how they learn. Shows how teachers in elementary, middle, and high schools analyze differentiated learning tasks, plan differentiated lessons, and manage differentiated classrooms. Tape 1, "Creating Multiple Paths for Learning," explores principles of differentiated instruction and how it changes the learning environment. Tape 2, "Instructional and Management Series," presents a variety of strategies for supporting a differentiated classroom and preparing students to work in that environment. The 166-page Facilitator's Guide provides detailed activities for professional development workshops.
Product #497023; Price: $495 (ASCD members); $595 (nonmembers)
Professional Inquiry Kits
Differentiating Instruction for Mixed-Ability Classrooms
Eight folders of print material and a 20-minute videotape help K–12 educators improve their understanding of differentiated instruction. Each folder contains journal articles, book chapters, actual student work, and case studies. Video clips show what differentiated instruction looks like in practice.
Product #196213; Price: $159 (ASCD members); $191 (nonmembers)
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