How does differentiating instruction facilitate learning in the heterogeneous classroom?

Answer 1

Differentiated instruction means that there may be several different things going on in a classroom at any given time. DI addresses different learning styles as well as different abilities. This is crucial in a heterogeneous setting. The teacher can have individuals and/or groups working together to achieve the same objectives by doing different activities. By doing this, each student can approach the objective in a different way, but everyone can still achieve it. This is not easy and takes a great deal of knowledge and planning on the part of the teacher.

Answer 2

Show me a heterogeneous classroom and I'll answer your question. Unless you're teaching plants, you are bound to have a lot of diversity in your room. Diversity includes gender, race/ethnicity, socio-economic status, age, perceived ability and disabilities (amongst other things). All of these things should be taken into account when differentiating instruction.

One of the important things about differentiated instruction is that it opens your eyes to the types of diversity that you might have otherwise missed. I strongly believe that there is no such thing as a heterogeneous classroom.

Answer 3

not everybody's mind works the same way