Differentiated Instructions
Differentiated instruction has been widely elaborated to various institutions since the past decade. Basically, this involves the process of helping the students in acquiring knowledge: understanding, processing, and making sense of knowledge. This also covers the practice of developing teaching materials and methods which will allow students of different abilities and capabilities to learn effectively. It is acknowledged that without considering the learner and the desired outcome, no instructional strategy will be better than the other (O’Meara, 2010). That is, there will be no development of effective instructional system is the strategy will not be learner-oriented. Thus, in making a differentiated instructional strategy, the instructor makes ways to make a strategy that reinforces the knowledge within a learning group and that foster a professional learning community (Gregory, 2003).
The ideas about differentiated instructions will be very useful in the future profession. Having it implemented in the classrooms and in professional settings will greatly benefit everyone. Everybody’s different and we must always have it in mind. Whether in the academic context or in professional one, we must instruct according to how our learners accumulate and process knowledge. For instance, if the learners are more interested in active and energetic way of learning, then the instructor should make his/her teaching that way. If the learners are more tend to process ideas through a lot of visual presentations, then the instructor must act on it. Nevertheless, such consideration cannot be accomplished without assessments of the learners. Then in so doing, the instructor should always make the most effort – not being lazy instructors – to develop and implement instructional strategies according to those assessments. We should not be just stuck to just one or two form of teaching, for it will not make our learners grow. It will just not benefit everyone, including the schools and organizations that we work for.
References
Gregory, G. H. (2003). Differentiated instructional strategies in practice: Training,
implementation, and supervision. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press Inc.
O’Meara, J. (2010). Beyond differentiated instruction. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press Inc.
