What is differentiated education? Strategies and methods of application
Differentiated education
Differentiated education means teaching each student to suit his or her strengths, needs, and personal interests. This style of education is a highly developed style. It gives students choice and flexibility in what they want to learn. It also gives teachers a personal, not group, learning experience for all students.
Differentiated education techniques for application require an advanced educational system and specific goals, in order to enable students to reach their goals faster and more.
differentiated education strategies
- The existence of differentiated teaching tools and methods
- Use task cards
- class discussion strategy
The existence of differentiated teaching tools and methods : The primary goal of differentiated education is to teach each student the way that suits him. Therefore, one of the basic strategies to support this is to have differentiated education tools and methods. Among the learning stations and effective methods:
- Watch educational videos
- Read articles on a topic similar to the one the pupils are learning
- Solve riddles on the subject
- Discuss with the pupils about what they have learned, or answer their various questions about this matter
Using task cards: a means of differentiated education. Task cards give students content or tasks to complete. It can also help to divide students into groups, and this adds variety to the method of studying, which usually depends on individual learning. To apply this, you must:
- Prepare or specify tasks and questions that are usually found in worksheets or textbooks
- Print cards that each contain one task or one question
Classroom discussion strategy: One of the most important strategies in differentiated education is called the “Think-Pair-Share Strategy” in English. This method, as its name indicates, begins by asking students to think about a specific topic or answer a specific question.
After that, the students are brought together to discuss the results and findings, and each pair of students can discuss their ideas with the rest of the class, allowing room for class discussion within the limits of the lesson and the limits of commitment to the scientific discussion without wasting time.
Goals of differentiated education
- Useful because teachers learn about different types of teaching aids
- Enhancing students’ learning by giving them choice
- Necessary for the learning of students, regardless of their circumstances, or for students with disabilities
Enhancing pupils’ learning by giving them choice : not all pupils learn in the same way. Some can learn faster by reading, while others learn faster by using a computer. Others may prefer to learn by watching educational videos or a learning aid game. Giving students a choice helps them use the best possible methods for learning.
Necessary for students to learn, regardless of their circumstances, or for students with disabilities : Differentiated education is sometimes a necessity, not a luxury. We cannot apply the same laws of learning to two students, one of whom is blind or cannot write with his hands. There must be a special way for this student to learn and not lag behind his peers as long as he has a sound mind and is not afflicted with an intellectual defect.
How do I apply differentiated education?
In order to implement differentiated learning, and make sure that all students are interested in the lesson you are giving and understand what you are saying, apply these steps:
- Offer the pupils several options in order to create plans for the next lessons
- Providing multiple scripts and a wide choice of learning mechanisms
- Applying many differentiated education options and providing students with the opportunity to participate in the learning process
- Adapting the lesson in order to fit the different types of intelligence in the minds of the students, as each person has a different type of intelligence that responds more to some things than others.
In order for the differentiated education experiment to succeed, there must be cooperation between teachers and students. It is not enough just that teachers want to improve the learning experience without the help of students. Rather, work must be done jointly towards one goal and a desire to grow, develop, and expand ideas and mental perceptions.What is differentiated education?
To implement this, teachers must be aware of the needs of each student, and this promotes the creation of an interactive environment in the classroom, where students cooperate with each other and strive towards one goal, which is learning, regardless of the different means to reach this goal.
Preparing a lesson using the differentiated education method
If you want to prepare a lesson using differentiated education, these methods will help you to make this lesson a success
- Conversation with students and asking them questions to understand the type of education appropriate for each of them
- Targeting different senses in lessons
- Give students time to study and review
Conversation with the students: ask questions to the students in order to identify the methods that suit each student individually, and among these questions that help to identify the student’s learning style are:
- His preferred type of lessons
- Favorite activities in class
- What are the things he is proud of doing?
- What are the exercises that help him more to remember the main points in the lessons?
Targeting the different senses in the lesson: This method is useful for all students to learn, regardless of each student’s ideal method of obtaining information. So in the lesson you want to give, put the following:
- Educational videos
- Use of illustrations
- Hearing audio recordings aid learning
- asking pupils to act out a scene (this can be useful in reading lessons, literature texts, even science lessons)
- There are written and oral tasks that students must complete within the classroom
- Introducing tangible things for learning, such as using money while teaching students skills in math lessons
- Inquire about what students think of the lessons and their opinions about what they have learned
Giving students time to study and review: After giving the lesson using the differentiated teaching method, time can be given to review what the student has learned. This work can be individual or group work.
Things that help revision time be a time for student achievement are:
- Providing audio books, or things and videos on the topic of the lesson
- Keeping the place quiet in order for the students to study and review and not get distracted with each other, and for the students to be able to record their notes and finish their work.
- Pupils can be allowed to work together in groups and finish work, in a space separate from the individual revision space.