Differentiated Instruction and Technology

Abstract

The variety of students’ needs and backgrounds in classrooms include students with special needs, gifted, and typical students who have grown up in differing socio-economic levels and diverse cultures. Differentiated instruction is based on the premise that instructional approaches should vary and should be adapted in relation to individual and diverse students in classrooms (Tomlinson, 2001). When teachers engage in differentiated instruction, they address every student’s interests, ability levels, and learning profiles. The instructor plans both curriculum and instruction that honor the individual student’s strengths and needs in order to benefit the learning of all the students (Tomlinson, 1999; Tomlinson & Eidson, 2003). Teachers adapt their content (what will be taught), process (how it will be taught), and product (the assessment of the content through culminating projects) in order to differentiate instruction (Hipsky, 2006a). The reality of why instructors should be differentiating instruction goes beyond theory into the reality of today’s classrooms. Teacher Patricia Holliday expressed “Even though it takes a lot of time upfront to plan for a differentiated classroom, the benefits have been proven. Each year that I get better at planning for differentiation, I can see an improvement in the outcomes of my students” (Lewis & Batts, 2005, p. 32).