Exploring Hungarian secondary school English teachers’ beliefs about differentiated instruction

Abstract

Differentiated instruction (DI) has shown positive effects on the success of language learning as compared to traditional teaching. Examining teachers’ beliefs pertaining to differentiation is important owing to the fact that teachers’ beliefs shape their pedagogical practices. Therefore, this study is aimed at exploring English teachers’ beliefs on DI and their reported strategies in the Hungarian secondary school context. Altogether 28 English teachers were interviewed between 2019 and 2021 using a semi-structured interview guide, and the constant comparative method was employed to analyse the data. The findings indicate that teachers mostly differentiate based on students’ readiness levels, while a focus on learners’ profiles was scarcely mentioned. The teachers perceived differentiation as an important yet challenging task; additionally, several of them showed low self-efficacy beliefs in DI. A novel DI tool, gamification, was also mentioned. This study concludes that raising the awareness of English teachers about DI with regard to its conceptualisation as well as its possible applications would be imperative in enhancing the effectiveness of language learning and maximising the capacities of each individual.