Differentiation

Most of us will be familiar with the diversity of our schools and classrooms. While things like Ethnic backgrounds, Special Education Needs and Disabilities stand out and could be the concern of some novice teachers, there is more to diversity in learning than this. More experienced colleagues will be familiar with the term ‘Inclusion and diversity’.

Just a question: What does diversity mean to you as a teacher?

From a learning perspective, students bring different backgrounds and expectations to the classroom, and not everyone learns at the same rate (Fray et al, 2003).

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From a learning theory perspective:

• Students bring different levels/amounts of prior knowledge to the classroom. We need not assume they are all at the same level/point.

• The students will all have different ZPDs.

From a motivational perspective:

Not all students want to learn the subject matter the same way or showcase their understanding in the same way.

What are other differences that will be manifested in your classroom?

So what does it mean for the teacher?