Differentiated Instruction:

Why is it that, for some students, learning is a natural, easy progression while for others it is a chronic struggle? Why are some students highly motivated and engaged in the instructional process while others are detached, unfocused learners? Traditionally, the role of role of educators has included recognizing these differences and facilitating learning activities to meet the needs of differential student profiles. However, sometimes the fit between teacher and his or her ability to differentiate instruction, attending to every facet of an individual learning profile, is not ideal. Increasingly, many teachers-- especially those new to the profession-- are finding themselves ill- prepared to meet the challenge of high-diversity classrooms, classrooms composed of students of varying social, academic, linguistic, and cultural backgrounds. This course focuses on enhancing teacher thought and practice by detailing high-quality, high-impact strategies for differentiating instruction for students in a mixed-ability classroom. While teaching methodology will be a focal point of the course, it will be situated within the broader discourse of social and intellectual conditions defining teaching and learning in the new millennium that have advanced the need for differentiated instruction. Among these issues are the increasing diversity in student populations, the rise of home schooling, the widening “achievement gap,” the elimination of tracking, and a shift toward inclusion education.

It is expected that learners enrolled in this course will:

• Review the empirical research base in differentiated learning

• Analyze key developments in contemporary American education and society impacting upon differentiation

• Identify major characteristics of differentiated instruction

• Examine models of differentiated instruction

• Recognize the needs of targeted student populations, e.g., gifted, inclusion, and special education students

• Develop a DEP (Differentiated Education Plan)

• Use arts and technology tools to skillfully and creatively differentiate instruction

• Reflect on how differentiating instruction can improve teacher practice and student achievement.

• Facilitator: Patricia Duncan