EDUCATIONAL SETTINGS

Educational Settings in the Classroom



Educational Settings in the Classroom

Orientation of the faculty to differentiated instruction. What are the research bases and best practices that would fit your institution best? Defend your choices.

Nowadays, it is impossible to teach without considering the heterogeneity of classes; students have either the same socio-cultural history, or the same school experience, much less the same abilities and interests (Lawrence-Brown, 2004). It should also be aware that the school, knowledge and learning take on different meanings for each of these young people. How can we then join them all without thinking diversify our teaching approaches? Philippe Meirieu is a pioneer of differentiated instruction and sees the differentiation not just a teaching strategy but rather a philosophy of teaching and learning. From the moment you believes that education is the freedom to bring out the other, we can design "that education as a way to instrument this freedom and may bring out the other in the very act of this instrumentation" (King-Friedrichs, 2001). A few decades ago, Celestin Freinet, French teacher, founder of the modern school and the origin of the Cooperative Institute of the modern school knows him be forward thinking, advocating in its own way differentiated instruction. Primarily to the needs of students, it introduces a natural method based on free expression and on each experimental trial and error.

Differentiated instruction describes individualizing instruction within the general education classroom. It does not mean that every student is learning something different but that there are several different options for learning (Kearsley, 1996). Carol Ann Tomlinson has been perhaps the most widely recognized proponent of this method, with others accepting her basic premise and expanding on her concepts. She identified three components of classroom instruction that can be differentiated to accommodate all learners. These components are (1) content, (2) process, and (3) product, with differentiation based on the student's readiness, interest, and learning profile (Levy, 2008).

The primary goal for education is of course to help students learn. With the diverse needs of many of today's students, differentiated instruction can help ensure learning while decreasing the need for students to leave the classrooms for special services and assistance (Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006). According to Tomlinson (2001), teachers implementing this model of instruction in their classroom are finding students more engaged and expanding their skills in problem solving, integration of previously learned content, and ability to “fit” into the general education classroom.

Identification of the legal, ethical and diversity considerations related to the promotion of differentiated instruction and how these will impact implementation of differentiated instruction in the classroom.

Teachers often find themselves challenged in the implementation of differentiated instruction. Students are often engaged in different activities and academic tasks. Grading is accordingly difficult; because every student is expected to learn through differentiated instruction, they will not all complete the same level or difficulty of an assignment. Thus, the grading system will need to be differentiated as well; this may arouse dissent among many parents and teachers (Friedman, 2005). Finally, planning, developing, organizing, and implementing the various methods of instruction and ...