Meeting the needs of diverse learners

Every teacher in any learning institution must be aware of the existence of students with different abilities. It is the responsibility of the teacher to make sure that they embrace this diversity and ensure that all the students have an equal platform to fulfill their needs. Failure to address the diversity issues may also be of concern to the parents whom may feel that their kids are not at the same level with their fellow learners. Consequently, differentiation has become an important aspect to the teaching fraternity in the attempts to ensure all the learners get the desired content and attention (Chinelo, 2014). For a long time, differentiation has been used in learning facilities to help tutors and teachers meet all students’ need in a mixed ability classroom.  This differentiation can be through content, process, and product depending on the student’s readiness, interests and learning profile. Nevertheless, the teacher has a significant role to play in ensuring an effective differentiation. Parents must also play a role in ensuring that the differentiation process is a success. Although the process is aimed at providing a level playing ground for learners of diverse abilities, there are pros and cons of the process as discussed in the chapter.

To start with, one of the benefits associated with differentiation is the fact that every child is taught to their learning style.  As aforementioned, the primary objective of differentiation is ensuring that all the learners’ needs are adequately addressed. Teachers are therefore supposed to understand the learning gaps between the different students and adopt a style that fits every student. Slow learners will have a different style from those with higher education ability. On the same note, each student will have an individualized learning plan. This implies that a student with higher understanding can be engaged in six lessons per day while a slow learner may be subjected to three or four lessons per day (Chinelo, 2014). A slow learning student will require more time to comprehend a topic as compared to fast learners, and thus a different learning plan becomes of great significance.

Another advantage associated with differentiation is that teachers’ creativity is inevitable.  As aforementioned, differentiation can be in the form of content, process or product, depending on interests and capabilities of the learners. For instance, if a student has interests in sports, a teacher can use a process that entails sporting activities to help his students understand. This calls for great creativity on the side of the teacher. Such a process will ensure that no student is left behind by the rest despite their diverse skills and capabilities. Different methods and contents adopted in differentiation exercise make information retention easier for the various classes of learners. The adoption of various contents and processes in differentiated instructions enhance students’ level of engagement (Chinelo, 2014).  It is also interesting to note that differentiation leads to improved flexibility in the learning schedule. A flexible learning schedule is essential for both the teachers and learners. It is interesting to note that such flexibility will help eliminate the boredom that is associated with the regular class work. Also, the flexibility will enhance the level of concentration and understanding thereby improving the learning standards of the institution.

Despite the major benefits associated with differentiated instructions, parents and teachers must be wary of some of the criticism relating to the process. For instance, it is evident that teachers must be ready for tougher workload as compared to the common teaching. For differentiated instructions, it is the responsibility of the teacher to identify the different needs of the learners and design the best approach to use. Although it is necessary, the process seems to create another full-time job for the teacher (Chinelo, 2014). Identifying the unique need and a plan for every student is a tough job for the teacher as opposed to the traditional learning.

Time constraints are another demerit associated with differentiated instructions. From the definition, it is evident differentiation calls for different content, style, and process that meet the different interests of the learners. This implies that there are high chances that teachers will have to spend a substantial amount of time designing different contents and processes for the various categories of students (Chinelo, 2014). On this note, it is essential to point out that some kids could prevent classes from moving on. As teachers try to ensure that no student is left behind, there may instances where a class may not move on. Different processes and contents may consume a lot of time and hence lead to delays in completion of the syllabus.

Also, it is critical to the point that differentiation is aimed at ensuring that no student is left behind in covering of the curriculum. On this note, different learners will learn at different paces thus making it difficult to have a definite schedule to follow. This implies that it will be difficult for the teachers and students to set timelines for them to achieve their objectives. Lack of distinct program for the learning process also makes it difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of a teacher (Chinelo, 2014). Although teachers have a huge burden already, it is critical for them to embrace differentiated instructions to achieve the many gains of mixing up things in the classrooms. Parents must also be actively involved and help the teachers in assisting the children to get the desired levels of learning. It is prudent to note that every single classroom has learners of different skills and capabilities and it is essential to make sure that all their learning needs are adequately addressed.

References

Chinelo, O. (2014). Meeting the Educational Needs of Gifted Science Students by Differentiating Instruction. British Journal Of Education, Society & Behavioural Science, 4(3), 392-402. http://dx.doi.org/10.9734/bjesbs/2014/5880

 
Do you need an Original High Quality Academic Custom Essay?