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How accurate is the famous statement, “Each head is a world?” Why should we teach all our students the same way? If each is unique, wouldn’t it be better to leverage these differences to enhance their learning? Although instructing each student individually is still a distant goal, we know it is feasible to find patterns among students that allow us to adapt teaching effectively for each class through differentiated instruction or diversified classrooms.
Differentiated instruction is a strategy for personalizing learning. Niknam and Thulasiraman (2020) identify personalized learning as one where pedagogy, curriculum, and learning environment are adjusted to students’ needs and preferences.
“Design a learning environment where all students have the best opportunities for success, whether the students we call ‘average,’ the struggling, the talented, the gifted, or the neurodivergent.”
Effectiveness of personalization of learning and differentiated instruction
Personalization of learning in general and differentiated instruction have shown favorable results. Here are a couple of practical examples.
At the School of Medicine and Health Sciences at Tecnologico de Monterrey, researchers aimed to develop a personalized learning model with adaptive bases to standardize the knowledge of students who start their careers. The methodology focused on adapting students’ learning processes in cell biology and chemistry courses to enrich knowledge and improve academic performance. The institution’s technological platform, Canvas, emulated an adaptive platform’s behavior. The research team designed a pre-course self-assessment exam to measure the students’ initial knowledge and depth. At the end of the course, they retook the examination to compare the initial and final results. The diagnostic result of the research was that the learning model allowed students to increase their knowledge and understanding of the contents, so they were satisfied with the experience (Hernandez Cardenas et al., 2022).
At the Army Academy, a university in Taiwan, a study explored differentiated instruction in a calculus curriculum to diversify mathematics education to promote students’ concentration, motivation, and academic performance. Also, they wanted to know the ideas and attitudes of students towards differentiated instruction. Sixty first-year Military Academy students participated under a quasi-experimental methodology with a control group and an experimental group of 30 students each. Both classes took the mathematical-input-behavior pretest. The experimental class received differentiated instruction two hours per week for 16 weeks. Then, the final calculus exam was the instrument to assess both groups. The results supported the effectiveness of differentiated instruction in learning calculus, showing a significant difference in performance between the experimental and control groups. Differentiated instruction improved academic achievement, motivation for learning, and teaching efficiency. (Chen and Chen, 2018).
How to achieve a difference in classroom instruction?
Whether you are just starting in teaching or have experience, here are some ways to identify how students learn. They will help you design a learning environment where everyone has a better chance of success, be they the students we call “average,” those who struggle, the talented, the gifted, or the neurodivergent. They will also help you identify those who learn best practically or those who do it through reflection, to mention just a few examples. The goal is to tailor teaching to students’ differences to help them maximize their learning for life.
Here are four steps to apply differentiated instruction
Differentiated instruction begins by identifying needs patterns among your students, classifying them into particular categories, and then using appropriate educational methods for each group rather than relying on a single teaching methodology for all.
Step 1: Identify content that can be customized
Based on your previous experience teaching your course, what topics have you noticed that some students understand easily but others need help understanding? Indeed, It is not possible to customize an entire course at once. Still, you can identify those contents in which a single way of teaching seems to have demotivated or caused a lack of significant learning for some students. Also, identify the moments where they have shown more pronounced individual differences because, precisely, there is where they can benefit from differentiated instruction.
Step 2: Identify differentiation criteria and establish categories
How did your students diverge in each of the topics or moments you identified in the previous step? You probably noticed differences in the depth of their knowledge, proficiency levels, preferred modes of learning, and interests. Once you have identified these criteria, think about how you would rank your students, create categories, and define them. For example, in a course on healthy living habits, you may find substantial differences in their mastery of healthy living habits, and you can divide your students into two categories: (1) Self-managing, they can maintain or adopt healthy habits, and (2) Require managing: they have difficulty maintaining or adopting healthy habits.
Step 3: Define diagnostic instruments
How do you know which category each of your students fits? To “group” them, you need to know them. There are various diagnostic methods and instruments, such as careful observation of their performance in an activity, surveys, questionnaires, standardized tests or inventories, projects, previous qualifications, and many more.
Accordingly, design a diagnostic instrument that works for your purpose. Establish the conditions for each category, defining the characteristics (or degree of performance) the student must demonstrate to fall into categories A, B, C, etc. Look at accessible sources such as Eduolog or Psychology Today for a standardized test or inventory.
Step 4: Note the difference, design for each category
With your students properly categorized, how do you personalize your instruction? Although learning activities should lead to mastery of the same concepts or skills, the competencies may be achieved differently. Consider what changes you can make to address your different groups of students. For example, use a variety of cases, situations, or problems according to their interests or profiles; present them with different levels of complexity or depths of content; or use different formats to share the materials with them. Similarly, you can ask each group to do different projects or provide different types of evidence to evaluate the results for the same learning objective. More than one student will appreciate being able to choose the assessment method that best suits their way of learning!
It does not mean that students with similar characteristics or needs should always work together. Working in homogeneous teams can serve to focus on specific skills or content, but you can also form heterogeneous teams that benefit from the strengths of each member. As in any class, continue resorting to individual, group, peer, or teamwork activities or learning. Remember that the classification of students is flexible and can vary according to their needs in the different contents of the course.
Can technology support differentiated instruction?
Although differentiated instruction does not rely on specialized educational technology, some Learning Management System (LMS) functionalities can help you identify your students’ particular differences or learning needs. An example is the analytics and tracking provided by Canvas. Through Canvas MasteryPaths, content, and activities can be assigned automatically to each student according to their “exam” or diagnostic test results. Also, the modules section of the course will show only the tasks corresponding to the category for that course.
Reflection
What do you think of this educational innovation in teaching practice to benefit students? The idea of diversifying teaching is familiar but has yet to be explored, especially in higher education. Increasingly, there is evidence that this educational approach positively affects learning.
Today, we know that there is not only one way of teaching all learners, but it is feasible to find patterns of needs among students and adapt effective teaching for each group through differentiated instruction. Teaching in the various ways students learn means helping them maximize their potential, which is always a teacher’s goal.
About the authors
Adriana Plata-Marroquín (adrianaplata@tec.mx) is an Educational Innovation and Evaluation Leader with Technology at Tecnologico de Monterrey. She has almost 30 years of experience in education, including teaching at the upper middle, professional, and extension levels, coordination of teacher-update programs, instructional design, pedagogical architecture in the design of models that introduce educational and technological trends, and pedagogical consultant for curricular design. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Applied Linguistics and a Master’s in education with a Specialty in Cognitive Development.
Leticia Castano (lcs@tec.mx) is an Educational Innovation and Personalized Learning Leader at Tecnologico de Monterrey. She has over 25 years of experience in the Design, Planning, and Production of Academic and Business Courses and Instructional Design and Academic Administration of Educational Programs. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Education, a Master’s in Educational Institution Management, and certification in Innovation Management. She has been a judge for the QS Reimagine Education Awards.
Perla Téllez Garza (perla.tellez@tec.mx) has a degree in Communication Sciences from Tecnologico de Monterrey. She has worked as an author and editor of articles related to educational innovation and is currently a Digital Content Designer in the Directorate of Educational Innovation and Digital Learning.
References
Hernandez Cardenas, L. S., Castano, L., Cruz Guzman, C., & Nigenda Alvarez, J. P. (2022). Personalised learning model for academic leveling and improvement in higher education. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 38(2), 70–82. https://doi.org/10.14742/ajet.7084
Chen, J. & Chen, Y. (2018). Differentiated Instruction in a Calculus Curriculum for College Students in Taiwan. Journal of Education and Learning, v7, n1, 88-95. http://doi.org/10.5539/jel.v7n1p88
Niknam, M., & Thulasiraman, P. (2020). LPR: a bio-inspired intelligent learning path recommendation system based on meaningful learning theory. Education and Information Technologies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-020-10133-3.
Editing
Edited by Rubí Román (rubi.roman@tec.mx) – Editor of the Edu bits articles and producer of The Observatory webinars- “Learning that inspires” – Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education at Tec de Monterrey.
Translation
Daniel Wetta
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