Is there a ‘ready-made recipe’ on how to personalised and differentiate learning?

Now more than ever, teachers are called to move away from the ‘one-size-fits-all’ model of teaching into inclusive instructional approaches that embrace student diversity and provide meaningful education for all. Building inclusive classrooms requires teachers to create effective learning environments that provide equal learning opportunities for all students by means of a personalised and differentiated instructional approach (Gheyssens, Conseugra, Engels, & Struyven, 2020; Lindner, Alnahdi, Wahl, & Schwab, 2019).

Tomlinson (2014, 2017) stated that in order to maximise learning, teachers should modify the content, processes, and products of learning according to their students’ readiness, interests, and learning profiles. In other words, teachers should seek to implement the most appropriate instructional activities directed at effectively meeting students’ diverse learning needs while continuously monitoring students’ academic process (Dack, 2019; Suprayogi et al., 2017). Such personalised or differentiated activities or didactical strategies include, for example, tiered assignments, building homogeneous or heterogeneous subgroups based on students’ performance, readiness or interests, as well as tutoring systems (Hall, 2002; Tomlinson, 2014). Other possible practises are the use of staggered nonverbal material learning aids such as checklists and forms of open education such as station-based work, interest-based centres, project-based learning, or portfolios (Tomlinson, 2014, 2017). Additionally, Lawrence-Brown (2004) suggested implementing variants of mastery learning strategies such as enrichments or prioritised curricula directed at both high and low achieving students.

Overall, the ways in which teachers approach student diversity are manifold, and many instructional practices are commonly applied in practice. The scientific literature and pedagogical guidebooks offer a wide range of strategies for teachers to implement as a means to differentiated and personalised their daily instruction, however, many teachers keep on asking: “which is the best practice?”. In other words, which is the best recipe out there I can follow to implement an effective and successful personalised and differentiated lesson.

Differentiated instruction expert, Dr. Wouter Smets argues that there is no best “ready-made recipe” to differentiated or personalised instruction (W. Smets, personal communication, October 09, 2020). In contrast, he suggests to start asking a different question: “what are the differences that I as a teacher need to address in my classroom?”. When teachers start by reflecting on their students’ needs, it sets in motion formative assessment. Formative assessment is a key factor for personalised and differentiated learning, as it provides teachers with the necessary information on the what learning need they want to support, and how will they do it.

Once this information is gathered, teachers can then start to analyse and thus, select a practice that would be the most suitable for them to implement. During this process, teachers must reflect on each personalised and differentiated strategy’s advantages and disadvantages. It is important to highlight that each practice implies distinct instructional methods, and thus, sometimes they are not conceptualized to be implemented alone, but rather meaningfully combined (Bruder & Reibold, 2010; Hall, 2002). For example, the use of homogeneous within-class grouping would make little sense if groups did not receive appropriately adapted assignments or materials (Lou, Abrami, & Spence, 2000), while heterogeneous within-class grouping calls for the concurrent implementation of peer tutoring systems (Slavin, 1987). Lastly, it is important that teachers are also aware that the success of each and every personalised and differentiated practise will always depend on factors such as school subject, student age, group composition, individual student learning prerequisites (Prast, van de Weijer-Bergsma, Kroesbergen, & Van Luit, 2015).

To finalize, in this blog I offer a list of questions teachers can reflect on in order to select, design, and implement the best personalised and differentiated strategy:

1. What are the relevant differences between my learners? (Not only considering prior achievement or cognitive differences, but also, their motivation, interests, language competence, etc.)
2. What are the learning goals I wish my students to achieve in this lesson?
3. What skills and knowledge do individual learners need if they are to achieve these goals?
4. What particular goals do I wish to achieve by using this practice? (i.e. do I as a teacher want to support all students, or only high achievers or low achievers? Do I want to support students’ performance and/or motivation?)
5. Do I have the resources to implement this practice? (i.e. classroom facilities, technology resources, etc.)
6. Am I willing to invest the time and effort to plan, design, implement, and evaluate the use of this practice? 

And remember, personalised and differentiated learning is, at the end of the day, all about how we can best support students. Thus, if the ‘one-size-fits-all’ instructional approach is not sufficient, a ‘ready-made recipe’ is unlikely to ensure equal learning opportunities for all students.

References

Bruder, R., & Reibold, J. (2010). Weil jeder anders lernt. Ein alltagstaugliches Konzept zur Binnendifferenzierung [Everyone learns in a different way: A concept for within-class differentiation]. Mathematik lehren, (162), pp2-9.

Dack, H. (2019). The role of teacher preparation program coherence in supporting candidate appropriation of the pedagogical tools of differentiated instruction. Teaching and Teacher Education, 78(1), 125-140. https://www.learntechlib.org/p/202832/

Gheyssens, E., Consuegra, E., Engels, N., & Struyven, K. (2020). Good Things Come to Those Who Wait: The importance of professional development for the implementation of Differentiated Instruction. Frontiers in Education, 5(96). https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2020.00096

Hall, T. (2002). Differentiated Instruction: Effective Classroom Practices Report. National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum, CAST, U.S. Office of Special Education Programs. https://eclass.upatras.gr/modules/document/file.php/PDE1342/differentia…

Lawrence-Brown, D. (2004). Differentiated Instruction: Inclusive Strategies for Standard-Based Learning that Benefit the Whole Class. American Secondary Education, 32(3), 34–62.

Lindner, K-T., Alnahdi, G.H., Wahl, S., & Schwab, S. (2019). Perceived Differentiation and Personalization Teaching Approaches in Inclusive Classrooms: Perspectives of Students and Teachers. Front. Educ., 4:58. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2019.00058.

Lou, Y., Abrami, P. C., & Spence, J. C. (2000). Effects of within-class grouping on student achievement: An exploratory model. The Journal of Educational Research, 94(2), 101–112. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220670009598748

Prast, E., Van de Weijer-Bergsma, E., Kroesbergen, E., & Van Luit, J. (2015). Readiness-based differentiation in primary school mathematics: Expert recommendations and teacher self-assessment. Frontline Learning Research, 3(2), 90-116. http://dx.doi.org/10.14786/flr.v3i2.163

Slavin, E. (1987). Ability grouping and student achievement in elementary schools: A best-evidence synthesis. Review of Educational Research, 57(3), 293–336.

Suprayogi, M. N., Valcke, M., & Godwin, R. (2017). Teachers and their implementation of differentiated instruction in the classroom. Teach. Teach. Educ., 67, 291–301. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2017.06.020

Tomlinson, C. (2014). The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners (2nd ed.). Virginia: ASCD.

Tomlinson, C. (2017). How to Differentiate Instruction in Academically Diverse Classrooms (3nd ed.). Virginia: ASCD.