Differentiated Instruction: 5 Elements of Differentiated Learning

Differentiated instruction, also known as differentiated learning, is an instructional approach that tailors classroom activities to suit specific students’ strengths, comprehension levels, or needs. Rather than applying homogeneous standards to teaching educational material and student testing, differentiated instruction accounts for diverse learning styles. Differentiation can create a learning environment where students reach equal learning goals through different approaches depending on how the student learns best—whether that’s verbal, through simulation, or by understanding how the concepts they’re learning about apply to the real world.

Much of the research and methodologies used in differentiated learning are based on the work of Carol Ann Tomlinson in her book The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners. Differentiated instructional techniques are used throughout many elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools, often in gifted and talented programs, special education classes (like speech class), and targeted education for English as a second language (ESL) students.

Differentiated instruction works by assessing the individual needs of each student, and developing classroom activities that best suit those students within one classroom. Differentiated instruction may be based on a student’s social style—introverted students may be assigned essays, while extroverted students may do oral reports or performances—or understanding of a particular topic.

For example, a teacher may split a classroom up into a series of small groups based on Bloom’s Taxonomy, which provides a framework of educational activities increasing in complexity based on a student’s mastery of a topic. Students who are learning about a concept for the first time will do activities that cover basic comprehension and application. Students with some prior knowledge of a topic will learn how to analyze the topic. Students who demonstrate a mastery of the topic will do activities that encourage synthesis or by connecting it to disparate concepts to make a new argument.

Here is a basic overview of the elements of differentiated instruction.

1. 1. Pre-Assessment for a classroom learning profile: Teachers can run a formative assessment prior to the school year of the students in their classroom to get a sense of the student body’s mastery of a topic. This allows teachers to design lesson plans that best suit their students and the whole class. Pre-assessment can provide information about students’ learning preferences—whether they prefer auditory, visual, or kinesthetic learning—as well as their preferences for demonstrating their learning—through tests, presentations, or class discussion.
2. 2. Diversity of content to suit different learning needs: Armed with information from the pre-assessment, teachers can plan lessons that present educational content in a variety of ways catering to students’ needs. Teachers may assign group work to small groups of students that have similar learning styles. Flexible grouping allows students to learn alongside other students of similar learning styles.
3. 3. Differentiated learning outcomes for mastery: The students in mixed-ability classrooms can benefit from different forms of assessment—whether it be traditional testing, presentation, discussion, or essays—to demonstrate the depth of their learning.
4. 4. Establishing a supportive learning environment: In a differentiated classroom, it’s important to establish an environment that supports the whole class. Things like the layout of a classroom, where students sit (either in clusters of desks or individual desks), and the schedule of the school day are all taken into account with differentiated instruction.
5. 5. Continue to monitor student performance: Teachers in the differentiated classroom will perform ongoing assessments to monitor student achievement and comprehension, making adjustments to the students' educational needs when necessary.

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