Education - Differential Instruction
One of the most challenging aspects of modern education is adapting materials and methods intended for grade-appropriate instruction to students with different or special needs. Among students who present special challenges in the classroom include those achieving below grade level standards, those with clinically defined special needs, those with behavioral issues that undermine their academic abilities, and those whose academic abilities simply require slightly modified instructional approaches to maintain their interest, enthusiasm, and academic focus. Generally, educational materials and methods of instruction are designed with the average student in mind. Consequently, grade-appropriate materials may be inadequate to address the needs of students who are achieving at slightly below grade level; likewise, at the other end of the spectrum, materials geared toward the average student may bore students achieving above grade level. In both situations, it is the instructor's responsibility to monitor students beyond their raw achievement as measured Effective instruction requires maintaining an awareness of
The specific adaptations possible with respect to general Reading/Language Arts, for example, are limited only by the imagination of the instructor. The dual advantage of this approach is that it makes use of the standard lesson materials while avoiding the embarrassment and frustrations often associated with reading difficulties. Paradoxically, some of the students inclined toward negative behavioral manifestations are often those who exhibit high scores in leadership and interpersonal skills. Ultimately, it is the educator's responsibility to adapt academic lessons to the relative abilities of as many students as possible. Modern educational researchers have also identified other issues in learning styles that must be addressed if the goal of education includes adapting materials and methods of instruction to benefit all students equally: specifically, the multiple intelligences theory identified by Gardner (1991) which suggests alternate approaches designed to allow students with different natural styles of synthesizing academic information equal opportunity for academic achievement beyond the limitations of traditional education methods that remain essentially unchanged since the era of the one-room schoolhouse of the nineteenth century (Carter 2000). Philosophy of Differentiating Instruction: Effective academic instruction requires adapting methods and materials to benefit all students equally. Benefiting all students equally requires identifying clinical learning difficulties as well as difficulties posed by learners with non-traditional types of academic aptitudes. The risk of failure in this regard includes disinterest and boredom on the part of high achieving students who master the lessons early, as well as frustration on the part of students who encounter difficulty with the same material. Students encountering reading difficulty, whether generally by virtue of relative aptitude or particularly by virtue of mild dyslexia, for example, may benefit substantially from adapting the general reading comprehension exercises to address the source of their difficulty. changes in student enthusiasm and attention, particularly with respect to students at either end of the learning curve. Instructional and Behavioral Management Strategies for the Classroom: The same principle of adapting specific lessons and materials to academic ability and performance are equally useful in the case of students who learn better from the multiple intelligences approach pioneered by Gardner (1991), those who perform below grade level as a result of specific learning disabilities, and those inclined toward behavioral issues that undermine academic focus. After first mastering the goal of presenting lessons geared to the successful development of the typical or average student, the next essential step in the development of the successful instructor requires adapting general lessons as necessary to benefit atypical learners. One such exercise might require the student to circle only words that present difficulty for focused attention with the instructor's help. A significant amount of recent research also suggests that hands-on instructional approaches to learning, particularly in science, greatly increases student interest in subject matter (Adams & Hamm 1994), in addition to increasing the involvement of lower achievers who tend to participate less than their higher achieving counterparts in traditional lesson methods. Students at high risk of boredom are more likely than average to be those who learn better through hands-on kinesthetic activities (Gardner 2000) than from classical textbook methods.
Common topics in this essay:
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Instruction Effective,
Adams Hamm,
Gerrig Zimbardo,
Reading/Language Arts,
,
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students equally,
gardner 1991,
below grade,
below grade level,
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