Pedagogical Approaches
Differentiated Instruction
Also Known As Differentiated Learning
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Differentiated instruction is a framework for teaching in which a teacher deliberately varies content, process, product or the learning environment to match what a given student is ready for, interested in, and learns best by, rather than teaching one lesson the same way to an entire class. Carol Ann Tomlinson is the approach's most influential contemporary architect, defining differentiation as ensuring that what a student learns, how they learn it, and how they demonstrate it is matched to that student's own readiness, interest and preferred mode of learning. The approach is popular in mixed-ability classrooms, but the learning-styles theory often cited to justify it is itself contested in the research literature.
Facts
Disputed
Most Effective ForMixed-ability classrooms working from readiness and interest data; the weakest evidence is for the narrower claim that matching activities to a students preferred learning style specifically improves outcomes. 1 Mixed-ability classrooms differentiating content and pacing to readiness data show the strongest support; the narrower claim that matching activities to a students self-reported learning style specifically improves outcomes is contested, and several reviews report no improvement from learning-style matching. See the dissent recorded on this fact. Central QuestionDoes deliberately varying what, how and by what means students learn, rather than teaching one lesson uniformly, improve outcomes across a range of student readiness and interest? 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
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Dissenting Readings (1 dissenting reading)
Most Effective For
Differentiation practitioners hold that varying content, process and product to a students readiness and interest improves outcomes, and cite Tomlinsons framework as evidence-based practice. A body of cognitive science review, most influentially Pashler et al. 2008, holds that the specific mechanism most differentiation programs invoke, matching instruction to a students preferred sensory or modality learning style, has not been supported by rigorous studies: several reviews found no improvement in learning outcomes from learning-style matching specifically, distinct from the better-supported practice of varying pacing and content to a students actual readiness level.
A dissenting reading, from Cognitive science reviewers (Pashler, McDaniel, Rohrer and Bjork, 2008 meta-review)Wikipedia: Differentiated instruction, Wikimedia Foundation
Frequently Asked Questions
Does matching lessons to a student's own "learning style" actually improve outcomes?
Not for that specific claim: a body of cognitive science review, most influentially Pashler, McDaniel, Rohrer and Bjork's 2008 meta-review, found no support for matching instruction to a student's preferred sensory or modality learning style. Varying pace and content to a student's actual readiness level, a different and better-supported practice, is not the same claim.
Differentiation practitioners hold that varying content, process and product to a student's readiness and interest improves outcomes, and cite Carol Ann Tomlinson's framework as evidence-based practice. A body of cognitive science review, most influentially Pashler, McDaniel, Rohrer and Bjork's 2008 meta-review, holds that the specific mechanism most differentiation programs invoke, matching instruction to a student's preferred sensory or modality learning style, has not been supported by rigorous studies: several reviews found no improvement in learning outcomes from learning-style matching specifically. This is distinct from the better-supported practice of varying pacing and content to a student's actual readiness level, which the reviewers do not challenge. The atlas records this as a live dissent rather than a settled verdict on differentiated instruction as a whole.
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