Responding to students’ learning needs: how secondary education teachers learn to implement differentiated instruction

ABSTRACT

As student populations in schools become more diverse in many western countries, the urge for teachers to provide instruction that caters for students’ needs increases concurrently. Teachers however find it difficult to put differentiated instruction into practice. This study is based on an action research project that documented teachers’ professional development. Three teams of secondary education teachers were trained and coached to implement differentiated instruction in their classrooms. They planned their instructional design collaboratively to align with the contextuality of their school and while implementing the planned instructional design, they responded to students with diverse readiness levels or learning profiles. Teachers’ implementation of differentiated instruction was observed and interpreted using an action research methodology. Results show that teachers struggled in assessing students’ differences. Moreover, teachers’ responsivity appeared to be determined not only by cognitive traits but also by other types of individual differences. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Differentiated instruction
• responsive teaching
• action research methodology
• secondary education
• in-service teachers

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.