Differentiation is the educational catchphrase of the 2010s – or it seems that way to me.  It is possible for me to go back through my teaching career and track by decade key “movements” in professional development initiatives and  understandings about how our students’ learning might best be supported. In the 1980’s my school was trialling a “new curriculum” and structuring the junior timetable to allow junior students to experience breadth in their curriculum. In the 1990’s we moved on to accelerated learning strategies and ” learning styles” – the aural, the visual and the kinaesthetic. This saw attention being paid to the classroom’s physical environment and we all became concerned with thirst as a new generation of students were encouraged to bring water bottles to class.  By the 2000’s we were looking for ways to “move the middle” and the idea of students working together was formalised under the label “co-operative learning”. And here we are now grappling with “differentiation” in the classrooms of the 2010’s.  The thing about differentiation is, that in fact it provides the umbrella under which we can  shelter myriad elements of effective pedagogy – including those that have gone before.  if we get to know our learners as individuals; by analysing data, by forming good relationships with our students, by learning about their diverse cultural  contexts, then we are well positioned to effectively ‘differentiate’ our teaching.  If we add to that, professional development and learning about strategies we can use in our classrooms to better meet the diverse needs of these students we have come to know, then we are well down the road to providing differentiated instruction.  These are the elements which allow us to provide the quality of dialogue and feedback which will enable us to move all our students from where they are now in their learning to the next place(s) they need to get to.  High quality formative assessment practices are enablers to effective differentiation.  At least, this is how it seems to me.

To be honest, if you look beyond the jargon and don’t get sidetracked by the cynicism of,  “Haven’t we tried this before?”  “Isn’t this just the latest fad?” we can find power in the idea that in one word we can bring all of these powerful learning approaches, as well as others together, and take the best of well-established research evidence to glean the most effective and relevant tools to enhance our teaching, build on the toolbox of pedagogical knowledge at our disposal and continue a cycle of improvement which can only be of benefit to our students.  Most of us teach because we are passionate about learning; our own as well as that of our students.