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What is differentiation?
Eddie Braggett (1997) succinctly defines curriculum differentiation as:
"...a set of planned learning experiences that are designed to meet the specific needs of learners" (Braggett, EJ, Day, A & Minchin, M 1997).
Most students, including the gifted, receive the majority of their school-based education in classes comprised of learners whose learning rate, abilities, prior knowledge, interests, preferred learning styles and affective needs are widely diverse. Recognising and providing for these diverse student learning needs is the aim of curriculum differentiation.
Where do I start?
Know the Learner
The starting point for providing for diverse student learning needs is broad based identification of the characteristics of the learner. Effective learning and teaching is founded on the understanding of the learner.
Specific needs of gifted learners
There are many checklists available that list the more specific learning characteristics of gifted learners.
Susan Winebrenner (2000) provides a succinct list of five key learning characteristics that commonly apply to gifted learners. Gifted learners may display some or all of these traits:
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the ability to learn new material in much less time
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the ability to readily retain a quantity of information
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the ability to handle abstract and complex ideas
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have intense interests and passions
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the ability to simultaneously focus on a number of tasks.
It is important to note that, while checklists of gifted characteristics alert us to learning behaviours to look for amongst this group, gifted students are not a homogeneous group. In the end, as with all learners, their specific individual needs must be recognised.
Kaplan (1986) points to the central role of individual student learning characteristics when making decisions about provisions to optimise learning outcomes for gifted learners:
"The ultimate goal of a differentiated curriculum is that it recognises the characteristics of the gifted, provides reinforcement or practice for the development of these characteristics, and extends the recognised characteristics to further levels of development" (Kaplan in Clarke 1986 p.274).
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In recognising learner characteristics as the starting point for curriculum differentiation, student differences in prior knowledge and experiences, learning rate, learning style, ability and interests provide us with essential information about what to differentiate.
The following three focal points for differentiating the curriculum to cater for gifted learners are well recognised in gifted education literature. These focal points can be used as a framework for differentiating the curriculum for all students:
Key elements for differentiating the curriculum for the full range of students within the mixed ability classroom apply to each of these focal points:
Content:
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amount and type of new content
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degree of complexity and abstractness
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number and sophistication of resources to be accessed
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depth of study
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learner interests
Learning Processes:
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thinking complexity
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learning pace
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learning style
Learning Products:
For practical documents, check out our document store category, "Provision - Differentiation - Unit Planning."
What strategies can I use to differentiate learning?
a) Curriculum Compacting
The curriculum compacting process is at the heart of designing curriculum to cater for diverse student learning needs.
The process identifies what the students already know and replaces known material with alternative learning tasks.
How does it work?
The curriculum compacting process replaces known material with alternative learning tasks by utilising the following strategies:
b) Curriculum Design Tools:
1. Employing prior knowledge checks:
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Checking students' prior knowledge, understandings and skills of an intended topic for study before the unit is implemented. Ideally, pre-testing should occur as the unit is being planned. This can avoid unnecessary effort in planning learning experiences that the class as a whole may not require.
As previously stated, if these assessments are completed early in the unit planning process, you will be able to plan efficiently by being able to exclude proposed aspects of the topic that are already well known by students.
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Formal tests or oral assessments
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Assessment activities that are conducted in a less formal manner, e.g: diagram labelling; problem solving scenarios; completeing concept maps about the proposed key aspects to be covered in the topic; KWLs (What do I KNOW; WHAT would I like to know; What have I LEARNT: a KWL chart provides useful information in a format that is easy to check for prior knowledge)
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Previous work samples and achievement data.
2. Planning alternative learning tasks to replace known material and to meet the diverse needs of the learners:
Alternative activities need to take into consideration:
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learning interests
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learning strengths and abilities
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learning styles
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learning rates
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level of learning independence including considerations such as research skills, task persistence and self-organisation
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affective learning characteristics and needs.
(For samples of possible social and emotional needs and appropriate provisions, see our Identification - Social and Emotional pages).
There are numerous models that are important tools for planning of differentiated curriculum.
Examples of these models include:
Check the differentiation categories in our document store for:
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examples showing how a variety of planning models can be used to plan high challenge differentiated curriculum
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sample planning proformas that are useful for planning differentiated units of work for the full range of abilities in the mixed ability classroom setting.
c) Instructional and Management Strategies:
In designing differentiated units, instructional and management strategies that enable the diverse learning needs of learners to be met need to be selected.
Practical Strategies:
1. Independent Projects
In an independent project, the student/s and teacher negotiate:
· what is to be investigated e.g. topic, issue, problem
· how the investigation will occur e.g. timelines, information sources, where the investigation will be done
· the product to demonstrate learning
· how the learning will be shared with others.
This form of negotiated learning recognises learner interests and can be adjusted to allow for learning pace, complexity of thinking and learning style. Independent projects encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning.
2. Interest Centres
These are learning "stations" involving tasks and resources to investigate different aspects of a topic. Student can explore and build on their interests. Teachers may also use this strategy to foster new interests. Interest Centres are also a useful means of providing alternative learning experiences for students who have demonstrated mastery of core learning.
3. Tiered Tasks
This strategy involves the design of tasks to explore key concepts, generalisations and understandings at varying levels. The teacher develops tasks at differing levels of complexity in accordance with student differences in prior knowledge and thinking abilities. Tiered tasks may be designed for students to complete individually or in small groups. When designing and implementing these tasks, consideration must also be given to variations in independent learning skills.
4. Flexible Grouping
Flexible Grouping is a strategy that allows the composition of student groupings to change based on the classroom activity and the desired learning outcome. Depending on the purpose of the learning experience, students may be grouped according to learner interests, abilities, knowledge, skill level or learning style.
In a differentiated classroom, students within these grouping types may also change. For example, student interests may change and therefore interest groupings will change. Similarly, ability groups will rarely remain constant since students have different strengths within learning areas and also because they learn at different speeds.
Flexible Grouping promotes teacher and student appreciation of student strengths and learning preferences.
5. Learning Centres
A Learning Centre is a “station” set up for learners to practise skills or to explore a topic. The use of this strategy enables teachers to accommodate variations in student knowledge, skill levels or learning styles. Learning Centres are designed to allow students to move through learning tasks at their own pace. This is a highly student-centred approach to learning with the teacher truly acting as the facilitator.
6. Contracts
A contract is an agreement negotiated between student/s and the teacher. After identifying the learning goal, learning tasks are designed that allow the learner/s to meet the goal with respect to learning styles, thinking ability, knowledge, skill levels or interests. The contract identifies specific learning tasks, how these tasks will be undertaken and the evidence that will be produced to demonstrate learning.
7. Open-ended Tasks
An open-ended task allows student responses that will vary. Multiple responses can be given since there is no single answer to the task. For instance tasks that involve critical or creative thinking will result in students responding to a task in a variety of ways. Well designed open-ended activities provide opportunities for learners to match the quality of their responses to their ability level and to respond in accordance with their learning characteristics (Hertzog, 1998).
Examples of the above strategies are continually being added to the document store. Examples of how teachers have used these strategies to differentiate learning can be found in the document store under the category "Provision - Differentiated Curriculum - Practical Strategies."
Students who are gifted have specific learning needs. It is recommended that a deeper understanding of the nature of giftedness be obtained by investigating:
- Module 5: Curriculum Differentiation for Gifted Students of the AGQTP Gifted and Talented Education Professional Development Package for Teachers.
To access the AGQTP Gifted and Talented Education Professional Development Package for Teachers, click on the link most appropriate to your context:
Early Childhood
Curriculum Differentiation for Gifted Students: Core Module
Curriculum Differentiation for Gifted Students: Extension Module
Curriculum Differentiation for Gifted Students: Specialisation Module
Primary
Curriculum Differentiation for Gifted Students: Core Module
Curriculum Differentiation for Gifted Students: Extension Module
Curriculum Differentiation for Gifted Students: Specialisation Module
Secondary
Curriculum Differentiation for Gifted Students: Core Module
Curriculum Differentiation for Gifted Students: Extension Module
Curriculum Differentiation for Gifted Students: Specialisation Module
References:
Gross, M, MacLeod, B, Drummond D & Merrick, C 2001, Gifted students in primary school: differentiating the curriculum, Gifted Education Research, Resource and information Centre, Australia, (GERRIC) UNSW.
Gross, M, MacLeod, B, Sleap, B & Pretorius, M 2001, Gifted students in secondary schools: differentiating the curriculum, 2nd edn, Gifted Education Research, Resource and information Centre, Australia, (GERRIC) UNSW.
Heacox, D 2002, Differentiating instruction in the regular classroom, Free Spirit Publishing, Minneapolis.
Kaplan, S, Gould, B & Siegel, V 1995, The flip book, Educator to Educator, California.
Kanevsky, L 1999, The tool kit for differentiating instruction, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby.
Reis, S, Burns, D, & Renzulli, J 1992, Curriculum compacting, Hawker Brownlow Education, Australia.
Tomlinson, C 2001, How to differentiate instruction in the mixed ability classroom, 2nd edn, Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Tomlinson, C 1999, The differentiated classroom responding to the needs of all learners, Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Winebrenner, S 2000, Teaching gifted kids in the regular classroom, 2nd edn, Hawker Brownlow Education, Australia.
Winebrenner, S 2000, Gifted students need an education too, Education Leadership, September 2000.
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