Abstract
<p style="text-align:justify">This article presents the findings of an action research study that evaluated the effectiveness of differentiated instruction in the subject of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in primary education in Greek primary schools. Effective teaching poses a challenge to all educators in all educational levels. The subject of ICT poses multiple challenges to educators due to its applied nature, the limited allocated time and the diverse needs of the students. A differentiated teaching intervention was designed and applied from January to March 2020 to 113 upper elementary students from two elementary schools in Athens. The findings of the research highlight the improvement of the quality of the students’ assessment and the level of students’ active participation due to differentiated instruction. Furthermore, the strategy of flexible grouping, the technique of “thumb it up” cards and the applied differentiated working routine proved to be highly effective. Lastly, the implementation of asynchronous working combined with hierarchical learning activities proved to be challenging to the educator due to its complexity. Based on these findings, the article discusses the importance of further research in the systematic implementation of differentiated instruction in mixed ability classrooms and in multiple subjects.</p>
Highlights
Definition of differentiated instruction and principlesThe term differentiated instruction (DI) was originally applied to a flexible and adjustable teaching methodology which aimed to respond to the different educational students’ needs (Valiandes, 2013).Tomlinson (1999)defined differentiated instruction as a teaching method in which the content, the procedure and the learning product can be differentiated so as to respond to students’ needs and personal characteristics
This article presents the findings of an action research study that evaluated the effectiveness of differentiated instruction in the subject of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in primary education in Greek primary schools
The main goal of the present study is to examine the improvement of effective teaching through the implementation of differentiated instruction in the ICT subject in primary education
Summary
The term differentiated instruction (DI) was originally applied to a flexible and adjustable teaching methodology which aimed to respond to the different educational students’ needs (Valiandes, 2013).Tomlinson (1999)defined differentiated instruction as a teaching method in which the content, the procedure and the learning product can be differentiated so as to respond to students’ needs and personal characteristics. As classroom’ populations steadily become more diverse in terms of ethnicity, language, culture, customs, socioeconomical status, student motivation and educational readiness, differentiated instruction appears to be a practical and effective solution, as is shown by the increase in publications and citations in the field of differentiated instruction. The implementation of differentiated instruction aims to ensure that each student is given equal opportunities to an effective education and that no one is excluded (Hall et al, 2003)
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