Differentiation’ as a strategy for inclusive classroom practice: Some difficulties identified

Abstract

Effective inclusion of students with special needs in the mainstream curriculum is said to depend on adequate differentiation of the teaching approach to match individual learning characteristics of the students. This article examines some of the ways in which teachers might differentiate curriculum content, teaching approaches, and assessment methods. The writer is critical of some of the strategies commonly recommended for differentiation, and reports on the difficulties many teachers experience in attempting to implement differentiated instruction. He questions whether complex systems of differentiation in the classroom are a help or a hindrance to the progress of students with learning difficulties or disabilities in inclusive classrooms.