Differentiation, Together

Teaching tools for inspiring our students’ learning

For decades, good educators have known that each of us learns and processes new information in a different way. Advances in fields such as neuroscience, psychology, and education have led to the development of new teaching approaches and techniques aimed at addressing those differences.

Among the many approaches our teaching staff have explored through professional development is one called differentiation. Established around 2000 by Carol Tomlinson, a professor at the University of Virginia, differentiation aims to provide dynamic instruction with intentionally different options for content, delivery, and demonstration. While several of our staff have pursued training in this method, including a presentation to all staff, only six have engaged in the multi-day workshop with Carol Tomlinson at the Curry School. By the end of this year, that number should be closer to 25 staff.

As part of the strategic vision, with support from Head Teachers and the Assistant Head for Teaching and Learning, we hope that our Learning Specialists will be able to lead and encourage our entire staff in this training. We currently have two staff in these positions — Caitlin Cameron (Early and Lower Schools) and Kerry Howard (Middle School). While our Upper School Counselor, Deepa Bhatt-Mackin, currently attends to learning needs, in the coming year, a dedicated Learning Specialist will join the Upper School staff. Caitlin, Kerry, and Deepa recently sat down to further explain and weigh in on the potential for differentiation.

Caitlin: Differentiation is philosophically aligned with our mission, to see the Light in everyone, and to provide a holistic education. It should further equity in the classroom, to make not an equal classroom, but an equitable classroom; not every child will need the same situation.

“Differentiation benefits everyone, while accommodations benefit an individual. You could think of it this way: everyone can use a ramp, but not everyone can use stairs.”

— Deepa Bhatt- Mackin

Deepa: Differentiation benefits everyone, while accommodations benefit an individual. You could think of it this way: everyone can use a ramp, but not everyone can use stairs.

Kerry: The entire educational field is moving away from a one-size fits all approach to transferring information. One aspect of differentiation is that it gives children the option to demonstrate what they learned in a number of different ways, which might include an oral presentation, a song, a visual format. One of the arguments for differentiation is that it better enables a mixed ability grouping of students. If two students are both struggling in a particular concept, there is nothing to aspire to — their assumption is that struggle is just how it is. In a mixed ability classroom, students have inspiration to improve. The challenge there is providing the social emotional support to prevent students from feeling uncomfortable in their difference.

Differentiation can be hard to put your finger on, and for that reason it is actually controversial in the world of education.

Caitlin: New literature is starting to question differentiation’s effectiveness, and the question is do teachers just need appropriate training to implement it well? Differentiating instruction is a complex task, an art, and a skill that needs to be honed.

Kerry: What is equally true for differentiation or any program we can implement is that if you don’t implement it with fidelity, there is no promise it will work.