Literature Review

In today’s society, technology is inextricably intertwined within our daily lives. This obviously extends into the classroom as the use of technology accompanies students throughout their day. During the last few years, many education systems have attempted to implement technology in the classroom to enhance learning or to fill learning gaps with varying success. However, because new technologies emerge on a near daily basis, vetting useful technology from not, as well as integrating useful technology is a monumental task. Implementing technology is critical in reaching modern students and fulfilling their educational needs.

This literature review will analyze differentiated learning through the need, process, and drawbacks from implementing blended learning during a class through the means of station rotation in order to incorporate differentiation of instruction with the goal of meeting the needs of all students in the heterogeneous educational setting. This paper will draw from educational research across the globe, without excluding relevant information from countries outside of America. This paper will analyze what differentiated learning actually entails while highlighting the various methods for implementation, as well as those methods’ effectiveness and feasibility. This paper will also define blended learning and methods for applying this teaching strategy in the classroom. This paper will highlight the importance of using station rotation to facilitate the implementation of both blended learning and differentiated instruction (DI), while analyzing the benefits and drawbacks of a heterogeneous classroom. Notably, this paper will concentrate on the traditional rotation model with a digital component while excluding other rotation models. The goal of this paper is to understand the effects of differentiated instruction through blended learning in a station rotation model on student outcomes.