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Re: [Phys-l] differentiated instruction



On 09/25/09 10:21, Philip Keller wrote:

1. If I say "I am going to use differentiated instruction in my high
school physics class," what exactly am I planning to do?

The interesting question is not "what is differentiated
instruction"; the only question is how to make it work
in the highly regimented HS environment.

The idea behind "differentiated instruction" has been
around for thousands of years. In the limiting case,
it reduces to one-on-one instruction. Familiar examples
include:
-- Tutoring is often one-on-one.
-- Music lessons are often one-on-one.
-- Flight instruction is often one-on-one.
-- Grade-school students receive one-on-one instruction from
time to time.
-- Blue-collar apprentices receive lots of one-on-one
instruction.
-- Undergraduate students can visit the instructor during
"office hours".
-- Graduate students receive one-on-one instruction from
time to time.

2. Once I know what it is that I am planning on doing, how do I
answer if I am asked: "Do you have evidence that shows that this is
a good idea?"

It is a great idea. It is far and away the most effective
type of instruction. Anything else must be considered a
compromise, usually a cost-saving compromise.

In my capacity as flight instructor, I have lots of
experience extemporizing lesson plans "on the fly"
as the saying goes.
-- Sometimes the student is ready for crosswind landing
practice, but there's no wind, so we do something else.
-- Sometimes a supposedly routine checkout exposes a
weakness, so we go off to the practice area and review
the basics.
-- Conversely, sometimes on a checkout it is obvious that
the student is grossly overqualified, so I ask: "do you
want a routine basic checkout, or would you like to
spend the time doing something really advanced instead?"
I've never had anybody request the easy option.
-- I always start the lesson by asking if the student
has any questions based on the reading or based on
what we did last time or whatever ... and often they
do ... so I tweak the lesson plan to address those
questions.
-- Et cetera.

The list is endless. I don't call it "differentiated
instruction"; I just call it customizing the lesson
plan. I cannot imagine doing it any other way.

================

Obviously in the high-school setting, where you see
a couple hundred students in a day, this sort of
customization is a couple hundred times harder.

That can be done in a HS setting was discussed
yesterday: differentiate the students into regular,
honors, and AP classes. That's a first baby step
in the direction of differentiation. If the
administration is not willing to do this, they are
not serious about differentiation.

Another common example of differentiation is any sort
of project or paper. In contrast to a quiz, where
you hope to get back N quizzes all alike, or mostly
alike, when you assign a paper you hope to get back
N papers all different.