How to Differentiate Instruction

Differentiation is the process of tailoring learning experiences to the needs of individual learners. The aim is that each learner can be enabled to reach his or her potential.

Knowledge bank

The essence of differentiation is that effective teaching is about working with individual learners, not classes or groups.

The challenge for teachers is to design learning experiences that are accessible and engaging for all the learners in a class.

There are obvious links between differentiation and Personalization in education, as both seek to ensure that the needs of individuals are catered for.

While this does not mean that you need to create an individual learning plan for every learner in every lesson, it does mean that you need to reflect on the learning differences and of your learners before you can design effective learning experiences.

The factors that need to be borne in mind before differentiation can take place include the individual's:

ability level in the subject or task
barriers to learning: psychological, physical or social
learning style preferences: the mix of auditory, visual, kinaesthetic for example
motivation level
social and cultural background
physical size, shape and structure of the learner.

As such, differentiation can be seen to encompass a wider spectrum than simply the ability of learners, which has traditionally been seen as the key focus of differentiation.

Various strategies can be used by teachers to differentiate learning experiences, including varying:

the depth of learning
the breadth of learning
the tasks set
the difficulty of stimulus materials
the resources themselves to make them more accessible
the support given to learners
the degree of independent learning.

These strategies can be used with varying frequency as well as with varying degrees of magnitude, so that learners experience the differentiation strategies only some of the time and to varying extents.

Although in general it's not helpful to pigeon-hole learners, it is possible to distinguish several types of learners for whom differentiation is especially significant:

very able learners
very weak learners
learners with a special educational need
learners with dual exceptionality (e.g. very able and with a special educational need).

The diagram overleaf illustrates how the magnitude and frequency of use of the various differentiation techniques can vary with different types of learners.

Ask yourself

What differentiation strategies do you currently use?
Are there any individual learning differences or preferences that you do not currently cater for to the extent you would like?
What specific strategies could you use to address these?
Consider one of your more challenging classes - which learners most need differentiation and what strategies need to be used to ensure these learners can access the curriculum?

To do list

Review the differentiation strategies you use in the light of the information in this briefing.
Consider implementing new strategies to target particular learners.
Study the diagram and consider the strengths and weaknesses of the different differentiation techniques.