Differentiation in the Classroom

What’s the most successful way to teach gifted students? Of course there is no one agreed upon answer to that question but certainly differentiation is one option. So we asked three gifted experts, Sandra Kaplan, Carol Ann Tomlinson and Jann Leppien, to talk to us about how differentiation works. (Biographies of these interviewees are at the end of the article.)

How would you define differentiation? What does it “look like” in a classroom? What observable evidence should be present to indicate that it is going on? How does one evaluate whether differentiation is truly in place and working for students?

Tomlinson: At its core, differentiation indicates that a teacher is teaching human beings as well as content. That is, the teacher is aware that students differ in how they learn and that the best teachers are actively responsive to those differences.

Teachers differ, too, of course, and effective differentiation would likely look a bit different across classrooms. However, it’s likely that a teacher who differentiates in effective ways will:

• set very clear learning goals
• pre-assess students as units of study begin to determine:
  • who may be lacking some precursor skills
  • who already knows some or a great deal about the topic ahead
  • what students’ interests are in regard to the topic
  • how students learn best.

Throughout the unit, the teacher would continue to proactively monitor student progress to understand who needs:

• more complex material
• additional teacher support to master key ideas
• additional time on a topic either because of a deeper interest in it or because of a need for more support.

It’s likely that effectively differentiated classes include both whole class and small group instructional time—so that a teacher can target students’ particular interests and needs in the context of helping all students achieve desired goals. It’s likely that students would, at least some of the time, use different materials, work with different tasks, work in varied student groupings, have different homework and so on—the goal always being to ensure continual student growth. Most differentiated classes also balance teacher-choice options for student work with student-choice options—and in most such classrooms, the teacher enlists the help of students to make the class work as smoothly as it can in ways that allow attention to individual needs. In other words, students and teacher are partners in learning.

I suppose the real test for any teaching/learning setting is whether it is working for the folks in it. No classroom can be a perfect fit for every student every minute of the day, but it should be the case that students generally feel both challenged and supported in achieving the challenge.

Kaplan: Differentiation is defined as a response to the cognitive, affective, social, and physical characteristics that distinguish what and how students learn. A classroom where learners are provided with equal opportunity to learn, but are not expected to learn the same curriculum in the same way at the same time is the context that exemplifies differentiation.

Respect for individual differences among and between learners is a definition of differentiation. A classroom where the belief that heterogeneity rather than homogeneity is the norm for teaching and learning represents the environment where differentiation is practiced. An informal formative or summative assessment of differentiation is predicated on being able to observe outcomes of teaching and learning that share common yet individualistic expressions of specific core curricular standards or objectives.

What factors must be in place before you can implement differentiation successfully?

Tomlinson: At the classroom level, differentiation calls for a teacher who is a student of his/her students—that is, a teacher who is reflective about what’s taking place for individual students, a teacher who wants to know each student a little better every day. It also calls for a teacher who understands his/her subject matter well enough to be flexible in teaching it, despite the need to help all students achieve particular benchmarks. Effective differentiation happens around the big ideas or key principles of a discipline. Virtually all students should have support in coming to understand those. Highly able students should have the opportunity to explore those fundamental underpinnings of a discipline in greater depth, at a level of complexity that’s appropriately challenging, using skills and habits of mind that approximate those of experts in the discipline. So a teacher has to understand what matters most in a discipline and has to build a good bit of classroom instruction around those essential understandings. Further, a teacher has to be flexible in his/her approach to teaching. That means the teacher has to have the skill and will to have more than one thing at a time going on at least some of the time—has to be able to use time, space, groupings, tasks, and so on in flexible ways rather than only in one-size-fits-all ways.

Kaplan: Just as there are factors that signal students’ readiness to learn, there are factors that indicate readiness to differentiate: understanding the relationship between curriculum and the varied needs, interests, and abilities of learners; understanding how to modify or adapt curricular elements such as thinking skills, content or subject matter, resources and products without obliterating the integrity of the curriculum; and understanding how a repertoire of instructional models and strategies affects teaching and learning.

Leppien: First and foremost, teachers must be supported in their attempts to provide differentiated learning experiences for their students. Differentiation is not something that is achieved in an ­academic year by having one day of professionaldevelopment. Differentiation is a long-term goal that requires constant refinement, new information, and continued assessment to chart its effectiveness. Professional learning communities (i.e., study groups) can be established to study a particular aspect of differentiation. These study groups can develop a set of questions to guide their inquiry into the selected area of study. This team should focus on the knowledge, skills, and ­behaviors needed to successfully apply the practice of differentiation to their classroom settings.

Additionally, teachers should receive in-depth training on the use of strategies for differentiation, and they should be encouraged to experiment with these strategies in their classrooms. The teachers who are trained and have experimented successfully with these strategies can then serve to train other teachers in the use of differentiation. Eventually, each team or department should develop plans for implementing those strategies that align most closely with their curricular standards and courses, making concerted efforts to conduct action research about how the selected strategies worked within their classrooms.

Are there stumbling blocks to implementing differentiation in schools in general and in classes specifically? If so, what are they?

Tomlinson: There are plenty of stumbling blocks for almost anything worthwhile in schools. They’re complex places at best. These days, the pressure teachers feel to “cover” curriculum in preparation for a high stakes test can be a huge deterrent to knowing students and individuals and to addressing their particular learning needs. The irony is that most students would do much better in school and on the tests if teachers helped them move to and beyond designated goals on their own terms rather than assuming that student differences have no place in the classroom. It’s also a challenge that most teachers were not taught themselves in a differentiated way, and therefore often lack images of what effectively differentiated classrooms might look like. It’s the case in all of life, however, that learning anything new challenges us whether it’s golf, a foreign language, a video game, or differentiation. We typically begin in a sort of feeble, flailing way, and get better and better over time IF we want to and if someone supports us in developing the skills we need to do so.

Kaplan: There are contemporary educational issues that inhibit differentiation. The current emphasis on “teaching to the test” standardizes expectations for curriculum rather than allowing differentiation of the curriculum. The current emphasis on prescribed curriculum and pacing charts that define what and when the curriculum is to be taught inhibits opportunities to vary the curriculum and pacing necessary to differentiate. The current emphasis on the belief that equity in education is met by teaching whole class or large group lessons inhibits the opportunities for small group and independent learning that are crucial to differentiation of curriculum and instruction.

Leppien: The stumbling blocks to implementing differentiation in general include varying philosophies that exist among educators within school settings regarding the meaning and use of differentiation. This is why continuous professional growth and opportunity for inquiry are necessary elements to foster within the context and culture of a school. It is important for all educators to view differentiation as a philosophy and then to assess the manner and degree to which differentiation occurs within each classroom. It is also important to realize that teachers will vary along the lines of a continuum in their expertise in knowing how to differentiate in the teaching and learning environment. This variance, not unlike the variance we see in students, should be respected when planning effective professional development.

Obviously, the level to which teachers have clarity of the content and skills being addressed in specific units of study will affect their ability to design instructional tasks that are challenging to students. When educators have the time to study their content and to clarify what they want students to know, understand, and be able to do, I often find that the instructional tasks that they design become more meaningful and require students to think more deeply. Therefore, time must be given to educators if we truly wish to enhance differentiated practices.

What is the role of differentiation in serving gifted students? How does it compare to “grouping” and other educational practices?

Tomlinson: The role of differentiation for gifted students should be the same as for all others—to play a role in maximizing their capacity as learners. Gifted students are not a homogeneous group, of course, and so differentiation would look different for different gifted kids. I taught Teresa who went to Carnegie-Mellon at 14, and placed out of her first two years of college at that. It’s highly unlikely that a differentiated classroom could provide her with everything she needs in public school. In truth, the special classes for gifted students in our district fell far short of meeting her needs too!

There are many gifted kids who’d fare far better in school if they had really robustly differentiated classrooms than if the only time someone attends to their learning needs is in a 40 minute pullout class once a week. I’ve seen differentiated classes that fall short of providing challenge to high end learners and I’ve seen special classes for gifted learners that are equally insipid. Conversely, I’ve seen both differentiated classrooms and special classes that are magical for the bright kids in them. The question is a hard one to answer definitely because of the variance in students. Perhaps the most important thing to say, however, is that a differentiated classroom that attends to the needs of a bright student would challenge that student on an on-going basis, help that student pursue particular interests, and also work toward helping that student be an important member of a larger community of learners in which his/her individuality is respected. It’s also important to say that special classes for gifted kids are likely to be far more effective if they also vigorously attend to student differences in them rather than assuming that all students are fundamentally alike in what and how they need to learn.

Kaplan: The role of differentiation for gifted students is defined by responses to these questions: WHO are gifted learners; WHAT should gifted students be learning; HOW do gifted students learn; and WHERE is the most appropriate setting for gifted student to learn?

Leppien: As students become more advanced in their knowledge, understandings, and skill in a domain, the challenge level of materials and tasks will necessitate escalation. Developing curriculum that is rigorous, challenging, and interesting for students is the role that differentiation serves to achieve for gifted students. Therefore the content of the curricula for gifted students should focus on providing ways to have students interact with more advanced readings, resources, and research materials; apply the ideas and skills within a unit of study to contexts quite unfamiliar and dissimilar from those applications explored in class; develop systems for making connections, achieve balanced perspectives, and address problems within a field of study; work with problems currently posing difficulties to experts in specific fields of knowledge; and reflect on how theories, beliefs, and principles in a field relate to themselves.

The grouping practices that the field of gifted education has used in the past (acceleration, with-in grouping, cluster grouping, etc.) can co-exist with differentiated practices. Flexible grouping practices should be used within classroom settings as learners work together to develop knowledge of new content.

What can schools do to support the use of differentiation practices by teachers?

Tomlinson: Schools that support the use of differentiation typically have a strong leader who has a vision for ensuring that each student is known as an individual and taught accordingly. The leader is often a principal but can be a department chair, a team leader, or a respected colleague. The leader ensures that there is an ongoing conversation among the faculty about effective curriculum, student-focused instruction, the importance of assessment to guide instructional planning, flexibility in the classroom, and so on. The leader makes sure teachers have time to collaborate and learn from one another—including time to work with and learn from specialists, such as gifted education specialists. There is generally a sense of problem-solving among the faculty rather than a sense of operating on a mandate. Good leaders provide vision, need, time, materials, support, encouragement and some pressure to accomplish change. It’s also the case that most leaders who support effective differentiation also recognize the differences in their teachers and model differentiation for them.

Kaplan: The best support schools can provide for differentiation is to assume the responsibility to clarify the term "differentiation” as it relates to all students in general and to gifted students in particular. The proliferation and misunderstanding of the term have the potential to hinder rather than facilitate quality educational experiences for gifted students.

When parents are told that differentiation is being done for their child, what should that look like to them and how can they judge whether it is effective?

Tomlinson: I think it’s very important for parents to ask the question you asked me. They should say to a teacher (and to a principal), “Can you explain to me how differentiation for my student will look? How will you know what to do for him or her? How will you know whether it’s working? What should I look for at home? How can I be supportive of the teacher’s efforts?” Teachers should be able to say, “Look for student products that have these traits...” or “Your daughter will be working with advanced skills in these areas….and here’s how that will play out.” It’s always important for parents to be a positive support for a teacher. Adversarial roles seldom make things better. That doesn’t exclude the role of the parent as “an educated consumer,” however.

Kaplan: Parents can assess that differentiation is being provided to their gifted children by making note of how teaching and learning allow for multiple means to lead to fixed ends or how fixed means lead to multiple ends. More explicitly, parents should be aware of where or when in the teaching/learning process the curriculum and instruction have been modified to respond to the characteristics that generally identify giftedness and the characteristics that specifically identify their gifted child. Parents should watch for the teaching/learning experiences that recognize and respond to their child’s potential and help realize that potential into performance.

Leppien: If differentiation is occurring in the classroom, we should see all students challenged in a manner that respects them as learners. When families visit with their child’s teacher, there should be evidence that a teacher knows the child as a learner, and has used this information to maximize the learning potential of that child. If a child is challenged at an appropriate level and in an appropriate manner, we should see a child who feels more efficacious about their learning and motivated to learn. Teachers who work actively to develop learning environments, curriculum, and instruction that honor the complete learner help students to feel secure in the classroom setting and with the learning process. If teachers are truly differentiating then students get a sense that the classroom is a safe place to express their ideas, ask questions that matter to them, and view making errors as an inevitable part of learning and growing. In a differentiated classroom, students understand how they learn differently, thus they learn to appreciate each other’s contributions to the learning process. So to judge the effectiveness of differentiation, families should see their children continuing to learn at a pace and in a manner that ensure continuous growth and excitement about learning. Additionally, assessment data can provide a picture of student achievement over time.

Carol Ann Tomlinson’s career as an educator includes 21 years as a public school teacher of a differentiated classroom. Her work included 12 years as a program administrator of special services for struggling and advanced learners. She was Virginia’s Teacher of the Year in 1974. More recently, she has been a faculty member at the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education, where she is currently Professor of Educational Leadership, Foundations and Policy, and where she was named Outstanding Professor in 2004. She has recently served as President of the National Association for Gifted Children.

Sandra Kaplan is a Clinical Professor, Rossier School of Education, University of Southern California. She is the author of articles on curriculum and instruction. Kaplan has been president of the California Association for the Gifted and the National Association for the Gifted.

Jann Leppien is an associate professor at the University of Great Falls in Great Falls, Montana, where she teaches course work in curriculum and instruction, gifted education, assessment and learning, educational research, and methods in social sciences. Additionally she teaches curriculum courses and thinking skills courses online and in the Three Summers Program at the University of Connecticut.  l