How do Australian pre-service teachers understand differentiated instruction and associated concepts of inclusion and diversity?

ABSTRACT

Differentiated instruction is an inclusive approach that recognises and values diversities among students and adapts instruction to include every student. The concept of differentiation has been discussed over the past two decades. However, only limited attention has been paid to how pre-service teachers understand this phenomenon, while very little is known about how their beliefs about knowledge and knowing influence this understanding. This study investigated pre-service teachers’ understanding of differentiated instruction through the lens of epistemic cognition. The findings suggest pre-service teachers demonstrate a predominantly narrow understanding of differentiation, interpreting it as an instructional strategy of adapting teaching to support struggling learners. In addition, the findings also reveal that diversity is generally interpreted as referring to ‘others’ and inclusion is considered as a strategy to bring the ‘other’ people into the mainstream.

KEYWORDS:

• Differentiated instruction
• diversity
• inclusion
• inclusive education
• epistemic cognition

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 All names are pseudonyms.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

S. Nepal

Smita Nepal is an under Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Nepal and currently pursuing her PHD study at Queensland University of Technology. Her research interests include inclusive education, inclusive pedagogy and teacher education.

S. Walker

Sue Walker is a Professor in the Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Her research interests concern pre-service teacher education, children’s developmental outcomes, inclusive education and the role of early intervention in early childhood.

J. Dillon-Wallace

Dr. Julie Dillon-Wallace is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice at the Queensland University of Technology. Her research interests include inclusive education, maternal well-being, child development and disability.