Measuring differentiated instruction in The Netherlands and South Korea: factor structure equivalence, correlates, and complexity level

Ridwan Maulana,Okhwa Lee,Annemieke Smale-Jacobse,Michelle Helms-Lorenz,Seyeoung Chun

doi:10.1007/s10212-019-00446-4

Abstract

Differentiated instruction is considered to be an important teaching quality domain to address the needs of individual students in daily classroom practices. However, little is known about whether differentiated instruction is empirically distinguishable from other teaching quality domains in different national contexts. Additionally, little is known about how the complex skill of differentiated instruction compares with other teaching quality domains across national contexts. To gain empirical insight in differentiated instruction and other related teaching quality domains, cross-cultural comparisons provide valuable insights. In this study, teacher classroom practices of two high-performing educational systems, The Netherlands and South Korea, were observed focusing on differentiated instruction and other related teaching quality domains using an existing observation instrument. Variable-centred and person-centred approaches were applied to analyze the data. The study provides evidence that differentiated instruction can be viewed as a distinct domain of teaching quality in both national contexts, while at the same time being related to other teaching domains. In both countries, differentiated instruction was the most difficult domain of teaching quality. However, differential relationships between teaching quality domains were visible across teacher profiles and across countries.

Highlights

Contemporary classrooms throughout the world are filled with students who have varying learning needs because of differences in prior knowledge or readiness, background, and motivation, to name a few
Is there evidence to support that differentiated instruction is shown to be the most demanding domain compared with other teaching quality domains in both countries?
Items measuring differentiated instruction have high factor loadings in both country data, ranging from 0.73 to 0.87. These results suggest that the hypothesized six domains of teaching behaviour, which distinguishes differentiated instruction from other teaching quality domains, is confirmed for both Dutch and South Korean samples

Summary

Introduction

Contemporary classrooms throughout the world are filled with students who have varying learning needs because of differences in prior knowledge or readiness, background, and motivation, to name a few. Such policy trends have increased the demand for differentiated instruction practices with a focus on supporting underperforming students as well as on stimulating talented students (Ministry of Education, Culture and Science 2014, 2016) It is even taken up in national law that schools must align teaching to the learning needs of different students. It is apparent that in both educational systems, teachers in general are competent, and students’ academic performance level is high Teachers in both countries struggle to implement differentiated instruction, because of both practical reasons (both countries) and balancing cultural values ( Korea). One step forward to support differentiated instruction in both countries is to test the usefulness and relevance of an instrument measuring differentiated instruction and its correlates to enable cross-country comparisons

Aims and research questions

Participants and procedure

Results

Conclusions and discussion

Limitations