We searched for a variety of studies that report the use of an instrument for assessing differentiated instruction, via Scopus, ERIC, and Google Scholar, but do not claim to present an exhaustive inventory of such instruments here. To obtain insights into the practice and quality of differentiated instruction and to determine how providing DI could be trained and assessed in practice, the literature has been reviewed for instruments that researchers have used to measure the quality or degree of differentiation, as the construction of such instruments requires an explicit operationalization of teacher behavior. The classroom observations were used as a basis for the interviews and were therefore not analyzed. This was done by asking all subject-matter experts to identify those constituent skills that, in their opinion, were crucial for teachers to differentiate well. Furthermore, the performance indicators showed that effective differentiation is not only complex due to the interrelatedness of these chronological phases, but also because the core of differentiation is in deliberate and accurate choices. The interviews were used for finding general themes and behavioral patterns mentioned by a sample of teachers. Although applying DI is crucial for every subject, the focus of this paper is The expert group consisted of experts on the pedagogy of mathematics (educational consultants and researchers), professionals who provide training courses in differentiated instruction (teacher trainers and educational consultants), experts who study differentiation (researchers), and those who evaluate differentiation (school inspectors). A more detailed analysis of the distribution of items across these scales and factors showed that adapting instruction proved to be the major focus of the instruments we studied involving 124 out of 294 items. Capturing the complexity of differentiat .... : Teaching quality from a conceptual and a methodological perspective, Differentiation as part of teaching quality, https://doi.org/10.1080/09243453.2018.1539013, https://www.rug.nl/research/portal/files/14812458/bosker.pdf, https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/binaries/rijksoverheid/documenten/rapporten/2015/04/15/de-staat-van-het-onderwijs-onderwijsverslag-2013-2014/de-staat-van-het-onderwijs-onderwijsverslag-2013-2014.pdf, https://www.ou.nl/Docs/ICO/Oratie_Van_Merrienboer.pdf, Flexible grouping is used (e.g., heterogeneous, homogeneous, cross-age, between-class, within-class), Varied student groupings: individuals, pairs, small groups, How difficult is: using different materials for struggling learners. Tomlinson and Imbeau (2010) have stated that “the core of the classroom practice of differentiation is the modification of four curriculum-related elements – content, process, product, and affect – which are based on three categories of student needs and variances – readiness, interest, and learning profile” (p. 15). 0000003102 00000 n Although numerous CTAs have been conducted in a variety of contexts within different domains (Clark, Feldon, Van Merriënboer, Yates, & Early, 2008), a CTA of teacher behavior in primary education, as far as we know, is novel. In order to design professional development activities, a thorough description of DI is required. s2�́� ��%��x�@�g1tiY�6E�Y��k�5�#P�"�C^r�O)��,Dpa��"�wI,r differentiated instruction is a complex concept, teachers need to remember that professional development cannot provide a ―one-size-fits-all‖ approach to teaching just one lesson plan and will not meet the needs of all of the students in a class. (Hess, 1999). Abstract Differentiated instruction has become a popular way to attempt to reach some students, and many people accept the idea of differentiated instruction … Previous Article / Next Article. trailer << /Size 79 /Info 56 0 R /Root 58 0 R /Prev 159190 /ID[<841149977944dafd311ecec982fca109><841149977944dafd311ecec982fca109>] >> startxref 0 %%EOF 58 0 obj << /Type /Catalog /Pages 44 0 R /OpenAction [ 59 0 R /XYZ null null null ] /PageMode /UseNone /JT 55 0 R /PageLabels 42 0 R >> endobj 77 0 obj << /S 284 /L 355 /Filter /FlateDecode /Length 78 0 R >> stream Action identification and human behavior, Ontwikkeling in de pedagogisch didactische vaardigheid van leraren in het basisonderwijs [The development of teachers’ pedagogical-didactical skills in primary education], Revisiting “Assessing professional competence: From methods to programmes.”, A model for programmatic assessment fit for purpose, Development and teaching of complex skills in invasive procedures, The development and use of a structured teacher observation scale to assess differentiated best practice, Developing Adaptive Teaching Competency through coaching, Differentiated instruction: Hong Kong prospective teachers’ teaching efficacy and beliefs, School Effectiveness and School Improvement. The outcomes of the CTA can be used to design such a training or inform curriculum adjustments. (2015) stated: “the key of successful differentiation may not merely be placing students in groups but actually adapting the teaching to the needs of different ability groups” (p. 49). Lower level skills facilitate the learning and performance of the skills higher up in the hierarchy. The key to successful differentiation is not the application of strategies, but the actual adaptation of teaching to the thoroughly identified needs of all students. Basic information about students is often represented in an overview that teachers compose at the start of a lesson period. 0000001461 00000 n The cognitive task analysis we performed resulted in a unique overview of constituent skills required for providing differentiated instruction. (3) Which factors contribute to the complexity of differentiated instruction? These choices must be based on a variety of well-considered goals and the analysis of students’ instructional needs, in combination with continuous monitoring of student progress and adapting on the fly. However, the teacher also uses the acquired insights about students’ prior knowledge (e.g., during the introduction of the lesson) and the information (s)he continuously acquires by monitoring student progress (e.g., by asking questions and observing student behavior) in order to specifically match instruction with students’ estimated levels of achievement, prior knowledge, and/or level of understanding. In addition, we studied how the opinions of subject-matter experts differed from teachers’ opinions. The assessment of differentiation quality seems to require a combination of insights into students’ needs as well as a valid picture of the appropriateness of teachers’ actions to meet these needs. Teachers describe their overall instructional approach in an instructional plan for this lesson period. This article is about differentiation. In the retrieved studies, we mainly found instruments based on self-report regarding DI practice (Coubergs, Struyven, Vanthournout, & Engels, 2017; Prast, Van de Weijer-Bergsma, Kroesbergen, & Van Luit, 2015; Roy et al., 2013) and instruments for measuring the perceived difficulty of DI strategies (Gaitas & Alves Martins, 2017), teachers’ attitudes towards DI (Coubergs et al., 2017), and teacher self-efficacy regarding DI (Prast et al., 2015; Wan, 2016). (2018) even stated that adapting instruction is “a cornerstone of effective instruction” (p. 206) and “considered the gold standard teachers should strive for” (p. 206). Research by the Dutch Inspectorate of Education (Inspectie van het Onderwijs, 2014, 2015a, 2015b) showed that teachers insufficiently adapt their instruction to student differences. The Burris Laboratory School outlines how teachers can reach all the students in their classrooms when they are academically diverse, have special needs, are ESL learners or have some combination of any or all of these factors. The CTA focused on the actions and reasoning of teachers exposed to real-life classroom situations requiring instructional differentiation. This preparation enables the teacher to adequately address the differences between students during the lesson (Stage 3). The following steps were performed: (1) collect preliminary knowledge, (2) identify knowledge representations, (3) apply focused knowledge elicitation methods, (4) analyze and verify data acquired, (5) format the results for the intended application. 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