Theory Synthesis
Ashley Miller
ECED-7260 Investigating Science Methods and Materials
Dr. Stacey Britton
September 10, 2023
The approach to learning that best relates to my teaching style is differentiation. The
article I chose to review is How to Differentiate Instruction in Academically Diverse Classrooms
By Carol Ann Tomlinson. Tomlinson gave some great analogies to teaching students of diverse
backgrounds and abilities to help grasp the concept of differentiation and how important it is to
the success of student learning. “To say that teachers don’t have time to attend to student
differences is akin to a physician telling a patient that his case is taking too much time to figure
out and should therefore be dismissed” (Tomlinson, 2017, Introduction). There is no one
approach to teaching students and it does take time to understand how students learn with
continual reflection and assessments as they progress through their understanding and cognitive
development.
Children of the same age differ not only in terms of size, hobbies, personality, or food
preferences but also in how they approach and engage in learning (Tomlinson, 2017). Paying
attention to these differences will help with planning for instruction to meet the needs of all
learners. Differentiation is an approach to learning where students show their understanding of a
learning target through various types of activities, assignments, or products. For instance, a
student can dictate the process of fossilization as opposed to writing a summary of the process of
fossilization after completing a project or lab. Differentiation does not entail providing a separate
assignment, it simply provides a modified task for students to show an understanding of the
learning goal that meets the ability of the learner. Differentiation involves a lot of scaffolding
and classroom management. Differentiation works for both heterogeneous and homogenous
groups depending on the learning objective. Heterogenous grouping assists with choice and
allows students to collaborate with students with various strengths and weaknesses (grouping
strong readers or writers with students who struggle in reading). Homogenous grouping works if
the learning objective is tailored to specific student needs (Tomlinson, 2017).
In my diverse classroom of low readers and gifted students, I can see differentiation
being used as a tool to meet all my students where they are and guide them to where I expect
them to be. Tailoring lesson objectives and tasks to my students’ abilities will ensure that
learning is attainable and enjoyable which fosters engagement and retention of the subject
matter. For this approach to be successful in my classroom, I need to make some adjustments to
my teaching style. Using assessments as a guide to drive instruction is a necessary component.
These preliminary assessments can be informal or formal but should give some insight into the
whole learner and help guide how I differentiate projects and lessons for individual students.
Focusing my lesson planning on multiple approaches to content, process, and product will
promote significant progress among all students who have set learning objectives, while also
paying attention to pacing and providing the necessary support to enhance the learning of both
the entire class and individual learners (Tomlinson, 2017).
I also need to let loose the reigns and allow learning to be more student-centered. If I can
provide a structured process for rules and expectations, I can allow students to take ownership of
their learning and the process of learning while I guide them to the solutions they seek. I need to
provide a balance of whole-group instruction followed by small-group/individual exploration,
extension, and production (Tomlinson, 2017). This process will be a learning process for myself
and my students; my students will be in control of learning the content while I, in turn, will
continuously learn HOW my students are learning. I must be proactive in my approaches to
teaching and learning to support all learners in my classroom.
References
Tomlinson, C.A. (2017, March) How to Differentiate Instruction in Academically Diverse
Classrooms, Third Edition ASCD Alexandria, VA Retrieved from
http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/siteASCD/publications/books/HowtoDifferentiateInstruc
tioninAcademicallyDiverseClassrooms-3rdEd.pdf
