Office Chat: Differentiated Instruction

It is often beneficial to step back from our current processes and look at what we do through the lens of others – from a different perspective. Just as inventions developed for space exploration have been adapted for use in our daily lives we in distance learning can benefit by looking into the common practices of educators in other areas.

One such opportunity comes from an examination of “differentiated instruction” as practiced in schools and taught in college and university education programs. At the University of Mary Washington, College of Graduate and Professional Studies I had a chance to talk with Dr. Laurie Abeel about differentiated instruction.  One take away was that, although those teaching online are very aware of learning styles and the concept of student-centered education, we can benefit from hearing the topic addressed in a different way, with varying language and nomenclature, and with a renewed sense of urgency and passion.

In this talk Dr. Abeel discusses the differentiated learning as a philosophy of meeting the needs of all learners at the level at which we encounter them.  The philosophy is implemented by a focus on content, process, and product. Content is what we teach; process is how we teach and how the students learn; and, product is how the learner demonstrates that they have acquired and understand the content.

Again, educators have recognized this need to individualize instruction for quite some time. But, listening to this concept explained using a different vocabulary is illuminating. For example, compacting and tiered lessons are strategies used in differentiated instruction and have counterparts in online teaching and learning. Dr. Abeel’s explains educational growth via formative assessment in a manner that would be easily implemented in an online course.

External References:

In Mapping a Route Toward Differentiated Instruction, Carol Ann Tomlinson, states:

To make differentiation work—in fact, to make teaching and learning work—teachers must develop an alternative approach to instructional planning beyond “covering the text” or “creating activities that students will like.”

This is one of Tomlinson’s earlier publications on differentiated instructions and shows why she is now a recognized expert in this field. This article is a very readable discussion of the basic concepts with examples, both good and bad, from school settings.

Lee Rutledge, in Differentiated Instruction, includes these bullets on what differentiated instruction is:

In DI, the teacher assumes that students have differing needs.

Is more qualitative than quantitative

Is rooted in assessment

Provides multiple approaches to content, process, and product

Is student centered

Is a blend of whole-class, group, and individual instruction

Is dynamic

From Teach-nology.com:

Related research areas:

1) Brain-based Research

2) Learning Styles and Multiple Intelligences

3) Authentic Assessment