Differentiation

Differentiation is a method of designing and delivering instruction to best reach each learner. Teachers might differentiate content, process, products and/or the learning environment, with the use of on-going assessment and flexible grouping (Tomlinson, 2014). Differentiation in teachers’ practices takes account of learner differences and matches curriculum content and teaching methods to learning styles and learner needs. It may focus on input, task, outcome, output, response, resources or support. Care must be taken, however, that differentiation does not lead to lower expectations and segregation from the mainstream system. It should offer a range of differentiated tasks to everyone in class, giving learners some choice in what they do and how they respond.

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