Differentiated Learning: Philosophy and Practice

Differentiated Learning: Philosophy and Practice

This paper reviews the basic philosophy and principles of the concept of differentiated learning for students. It provides a personal interpretation of the idea, as well as suggestions for putting differentiated learning into practice in the classroom.

My philosophy of inclusion.

My philosophy of inclusive education is that the best education for each and every single student is different, depending on the student's educational needs, personality, and background. True education can never be standardized: "No two children are alike. No two children learn in the identical way. An enriched environment for one student is not necessarily enriched for another" student ("Differentiating instruction," 2004, Enhance Learning with Technology). A good teacher creates a classroom where student's diverse needs are acknowledged, yet students are still able to communicate with one another and learn from one another's differences within the classroom community.

My philosophy of differentiating instruction

Differentiating instruction means creating multiple paths so that students of different abilities, interest or learning needs experience equally appropriate ways to absorb, use, develop and present concepts as a part of the daily learning process. It allows students to take greater responsibility and ownership for their own learning, and provides opportunities for peer teaching and cooperative learning" ("Differentiating instruction," 2004, Enhance Learning with Technology). Children create the unique dynamic of the classroom, as much or if not more than the teacher at the front of the room. Every class is unique in and of itself, and instruction is always a dialogue between students and teachers. The teacher must listen to the students just as closely as the students listen to the teacher.

The instructional strategies I would use in my classroom.

Differentiated instruction is usually differentiated by the content, process or product or method assessment deployed in the context of the lesson plan. To differentiate by content, students in a class might be split into various groups, depending on their interest, to present a specific segment of the lesson to the class. Within their groups, they might select different processes or ways of researching their subject to create the final presentation. The students could select presentation methods that were tailored to their own levels of ability within the group. Thus, the product they presented would be determined their preferred learning modality, ability, and level of comprehension. ("Strategies for Differentiating," 2004, Enhance Learning With Technology).

This multiple differentiation has the added advantage of making presentations much more interesting than it would be if all groups do everything in the same way and each presentation was simply a repetition of the former one." ("Strategies for Differentiating," 2004, Enhance Learning with Technology) "To differentiate instruction is to recognize students varying background knowledge, readiness, language, preferences in learning, interests, and to react responsively" and to encourage students to get to know themselves as learners, as they discover what specific subject areas are of greatest interest to them, and where their talents and abilities are strongest and weakest (Hall, 2007).

The behavior management I would use in my classroom

One of the most effective aspects of using group learning techniques is that it forces students to take responsibility not just for their own grades and learning, but for the performance of their fellow students. Students would be graded upon their own, individual contributions, but they could not let down their fellow group participants. They would have to complete their task, and as the task was within their framework of ability, this would not seem too daunting. Another suggested method of behavior management to ensure student compliance with assignments is to instate a points system, whereby a student can earn a maximum number of points for performing specific diverse tasks relating to a unit, which they can select themselves and tailor to their own interests and levels of ability (Childs, 2007).

Lesson Plan