Difficulties of Incorporating Differentiation into Our Lesson

How do we incorporate differentiation in our lessons? This seems like a simple concept, teachers are to match their lessons to the skills of the students. Our classrooms are filled with multileveled students each with their own struggles as they are encouraged to keep up and stay focused. Most teachers insufficiently adapt their instructions to these differences (Geel, et al., 2019). Why is that the case? We started teaching and stick with it because we love to teach. So why do we let these kids fall behind and allow for the skill gap to increase?For so many it is a lack of time and experience.

How many hours do teachers spend grading each week, filling out admin paperwork, going to meetings, taking useless trainings, managing disruptive behavior, creating lessons, and planning. Overall how many years does it take for a teacher to become experts in their subject matter and create 170 lessons that are perfect for the average student. From that point, how do teachers create instructions that are modified for every SPED student’s multidimensional needs and incorporate complexity for the gifted and talented students. Many teachers modify their teaching as they engage each student but to what degree and is it purposefully planned?

Our classrooms are filled with multileveled students each with their own struggles as they are encouraged to keep up and stay focused. Most teachers insufficiently adapt their instructions to these differences (Geel, et al., 2019).

How do we incorporate differentiation in our lessons? This seems like a simple concept, teachers are to match their lessons to the skills of the students. How many hours do teachers spend grading each week, filling out admin paperwork, going to meetings, taking useless trainings, managing disruptive behavior, creating lessons, and planning. Overall how many years does it take for a teacher to become experts in their subject matter and create 170 lessons that are perfect for the average student. From that point, how do teachers create instructions that are modified for every SPED student’s multidimensional needs and incorporate complexity for the gifted and talented students. Many teachers modify their teaching as they engage each student but to what degree and is it purposefully planned?

So what are “high quality” adaptations and how to enact them into the classroom? I am not surprised that researchers are not capable of pinpointing adaptive teaching due to their lack of experience with actual practice of differentiation of instruction (Corno 2008). According to many administrations differentiation is simple, requiring teachers just to incorporate small group instruction with other teaching strategies. Is this truly high quality differentiation or just checking a box? Researchers felt that more is required, stated that, “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” (Deunk p. 49). Over the last few years we have moved to the concept of data-driven small group instructions (SGI). Yet so many teachers still just throw students in groups of 3-4 and call it purposeful SGI. We, as teachers, know this is unacceptable. We see the light turn on for students who come for tutorials but we feel that we do not have that kind of time in a classroom. In our list of duties, adding in a few more hours for data analysis a week is difficult and will our lessons incorporate these groups successfully without an extensive rework? Is data driven SGI the answer? No, this does not solve the root problem of meeting the needs of each student at their level through all dimensions.

Teachers must demand from our administration and fellow teachers to stop treating teachers as islands to govern their own domain, but as groups that create content and enhance learning.

How do we, as teachers, change this perpetual churning out of students who have fallen behind yet move up to the next grade level? Teachers must demand from our administration and fellow teachers to stop treating teachers as islands to govern their own domain, but as groups that create content and enhance learning. Obviously, though unfortunately, this is a hard pill for many teachers to swallow when they demand to teach their own content that they created, as they want, not as others may want. However, we have all seen the gaps this attitude has created over our teaching career. It is time we come together to form teams that create content and differentiate for the better of our students. We should demand that our professional development be filled with ways to adapt instructions to student differences and prepare for differentiated instructions.

Reach out to form relationships with teachers from neighboring school districts to work together to increase the amount of people that work as a group to create engaging lessons that incorporate multileveled differentiation in our instructions. This is the age of technology and interconnectivity, yet we work alone in our room hovered over our computer trying desperately to create lessons that enrich the lives of our students. Overall, we are failing.

Resources

Monk, S., Mills, M., Renshaw, P., Geelan, D., Keddie, A., & Gowlett, C. (2013). Investigating ‘moments’ for student agency through a differentiated music curriculum. International Journal of Pedagogies and Learning, 8(3), 179–193. https://doi.org/10.5172/ijpl.2013.8.3.179

Deunk, M., Doolaard, S., Smale-Jacobse, A., & Bosker, R. J. (2015).Differentiation within and acrossclassrooms: A systematic review of studies into the cognitive effects of differentiation practices.Groningen: GION onderwijs/onderzoek

van Geel, M., Keuning, T., Frèrejean, J., Dolmans, D., van Merriënboer, J., & Visscher, A. J. (2018). Capturing the complexity of differentiated instruction. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 30(1), 51–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/09243453.2018.1539013