This qualitative case study was designed to identify and analyze instructional strategies used by fifth grade teachers to meet the needs of students with disabilities receiving reading instruction in inclusive settings. Seven participants in a large suburban school system were chosen through purposeful, criterion-based sampling. Semi-structured interviews were used to gain information about how teachers use data related to student readiness, interests, and learning profiles to design differentiated instruction. Observations were used to gain information about how the teachers implemented differentiated content, process, and products in the classroom. As more students with disabilities are served in inclusive settings, teachers are finding they need to differentiate instruction to meet the varied needs of their students. Previous studies have found that adjusting one of the components of differentiated instruction (readiness levels, interest levels, learning profiles, content, process, or product) to meet individual needs increases the opportunities for students to be successful in the classroom. However, there is limited research on the impact of combining all of these components into the framework of differentiated instruction on achievement levels. There is also limited research on how teachers actually plan and implement differentiated lessons. The results of this study indicate that general and special education teachers can work collaboratively to meet the diverse needs of all students in an inclusive classroom. By using data to analyze the readiness levels, interest levels, and learning profiles of all students and planning lessons to address student needs, teachers were able to successfully teach the required curriculum to their students in an inclusive setting. The teachers that demonstrated the greatest amount of differentiated instruction had the strongest collaborative relationships. These were the teachers that described their relationship as a partnership. They analyzed student data and planned lessons together, felt a shared responsibility for all students in the class, and, as a result, provided a supportive learning environment. Administrative support, shared planning time, on-going professional development, and appropriate materials were identified by the teachers as key ingredients for a successful inclusive classrooms.

In 2007, the state of Georgia answered the call of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 with training that introduced differentiation instruction in the classroom. However, to date, few studies have investigated whether differentiated instruction in Georgia high school classrooms are associated with student success. The purpose of this quantitative study was to fill this gap in the literature by determining whether a significant relationship existed between levels of differentiated instruction and 11th-grade student scores on the standardized End-of-Course Tests (EOCTs) in a Georgia high school. The modern concept of differentiated instruction to improve pedagogy and erudition constituted the theoretical foundation for this study. The purposeful sample for the study included 15 teachers and 323 EOCT scores. Classroom differentiated instruction was assessed using 3 months of archival data from the Georgia Teacher Assessment Performance Standards (TAPS) rubric, such that each teacher received a differentiated instruction score based on each classroom of students (independent variable). Student success on standardized tests was operationalized as 11th-grade student scores in each classroom on the EOCT (dependent variable). Teacher TAPS scores and corresponding student EOCT scores were high, but due to a lack of variability in the data, a significant positive relationship could not be shown. Teachers indicated positive attitudes toward differentiated instruction in the classroom and reported that areas of need for implementing differentiated instruction were resources and administrator support. The implications for positive social change include the potential to create stronger support systems (consisting of educators, students, parents, administrators, and the community) for differentiated education, in order to enhance student academic achievement.

Differentiated instruction (DI) research has shown many benefits of implementing instructional practices within an inclusive classroom. However, many teachers do not utilize this instructional practice regularly. An instrumental qualitative case study design that included teachers from one middle school in a rural school district in a southeastern state was used in this study to explore rural middle school teachers' experiences with incorporating the components of DI to support special education students in an inclusion classroom. The challenges faced when incorporating DI were also examined. Tomlinson's model of differentiated instruction framed this study, as it explores the need for teachers to provide responsive instruction to meet the needs of each of their students, regardless of a student's ability. A purposeful sample of 10 middle school teachers' Grades 6–8 from various content areas participated in an interview, an instructional observation, and submitted documents for review. Inductive analysis was used to analyze data of teacher use of DI components, and hand-coding was used to identify emerging thematic relationships and patterns. When asked about incorporating the components of DI to support special education students within an inclusion-based classroom, participants revealed concerns with class size, lack of resources, knowledge/preparation, and professional development. Based on the results, a 3 full day program was created as a project to incorporate DI into improve middle school inclusion-based classrooms for all content teachers. The program may contribute to positive social change by helping middle school teachers use the components of DI in their inclusion-based classes providing support to increase academic success for special education students.

Despite various instructional efforts, the second grade students in a mid-sized Southwestern school district failed to progress in reading. Although differentiated instruction has been shown to improve literacy skills for young readers, many teachers at the study site did not differentiate instruction for all students. Grounded in theories of social constructivism and differentiated instruction, the purpose of this study was to investigate second grade teachers' perspectives about using differentiated literacy instruction and the effect of their teaching experience and participation in professional development on those perspectives. Data for this nonexperimental, causal-comparative study were collected from 93 second grade teachers via an anonymous, online survey and were analyzed using ANOVA and t tests. No significant differences in perspectives were found among teachers based on years of experience nor participation in professional development tailored to instructing English language learners or gifted and talented students. However, teachers who took part in Response to Intervention professional development were more positive about using differentiated literacy instruction. Based on these findings, a professional development series was designed to provide second grade teachers with specific differentiated instruction strategies to raise all students' reading achievement. Teachers' effective application of differentiated literacy instruction strategies in the classroom at this study site will contribute to positive social change by providing educational opportunities for all students to learn to read. As students succeed in reading, they will succeed in the upper grades, in secondary school, and beyond.

Education is the foundation for the future, and a successful education begins with strong literacy skills. The 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress reported that only 36% of eighth-grade students in the United States were classified as reading on a proficient level, and 22% of eighth-grade students were unable to read and comprehend text at the basic level. The purpose of this quantitative, quasi-experimental, post hoc analysis was to determine whether a difference existed in the change in test scores of the reading portion of the Criterion Referenced Competency Test from the 2011-2012 academic year to the 2012-2013 academic year for eighth-grade students who received differentiated instruction compared with those who received direct instruction. Using Vygotsky's constructivist learning theory as the framework, this study was built on existing research regarding adolescence and literacy, cooperative learning, scaffolding, direct instruction, and differentiated instruction. Archival CRCT data was collected for sixty-four students. 32 that were instructed with differentiated instruction and thirty-two that were instructed with direct instruction for the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 academic years. A one-way ANOVA was conducted to determine which instructional pedagogy yielded higher academic results. Overall results revealed no significant difference in academic achievement when differentiated instructional pedagogy or direct instructional pedagogy was used for instruction. Implications for positive social change include providing research results to administrators at the local site to better inform pedagogical decisions at the school level. Recommendations to the local site include further research on other strategies to improve literacy achievement in secondary classrooms.

No description available.

This paper aimed to investigate how English teachers in junior high school help and motivate high-ability students to develop their potentials in mixed-ability English classrooms. Five junior high school English teachers from two different schools in Southern Sweden participated in this study. The method used to carry out the investigation was qualitative, with in–depth, semi-structured interviews. Results showed that the participants found that it was difficult to focus their attention on high-ability students in a mixed-ability setting. However, the participants have been positive to have high-ability students in a classroom because they serve as good role models to inspire their classmates. In addition, it was found that teachers prepare various materials with different levels of difficulty to suit to the differing needs of their students. Although the term differentiated instruction was not used by the participants of the study, it was, in fact, the approach they used to motivate their students. It is not possible to recommend best practices for dealing with high-ability students because what works with one student does not automatically work with other students. Furthermore, teachers reported that many high-ability students do not want to have differentiated instruction. This appears to be one of the hindrances to helping high-ability students develop their potentials.

Implementing differentiated instruction in classrooms with students who have mixed skill levels often results in teachers facing many challenges. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore social studies teachers' perceptions of the challenges they faced when implementing differentiated instruction in classrooms with mixed skill levels and what teachers perceived they needed to help overcome these challenges. This project study was guided by the conceptual frameworks of constructivism from Piaget and Bruner along with the theoretical framework of Vygotsky's zone of proximal development. The research questions focused on the viewpoints of teachers on implementing differentiated instruction in their classrooms, what challenges they faced when implementing differentiated instruction in a social studies classroom with mixed skill levels, and what support teachers need to overcome these challenges. Data were gathered using structured interviews of the 10 individual teachers chosen through purposeful sampling from a school in metro-Atlanta, Georgia. Data were transcribed and analyzed using coding by highlighting common words to identify themes to answer the research questions. Data analyses revealed that teachers needed professional development that defined what differentiated instruction is, how to implement it, and how to get to know their students better, as well as time to observe other teachers implementing differentiated instruction. A professional development plan was developed to help meet these needs for teachers. Implications for social change include an improved understanding of differentiated instruction and how to support teachers to overcome the challenges of implementing differentiated instruction. This may lead to better instruction and more academic success for all students which may lead to better assessment scores.

本研究以問卷調查法，針對桃園縣公立國中的342位英語教師進行問卷發放，回收後的問卷透過描述性統計、獨立樣本T檢定、單因子變異數分析及相關係數進行統計分析。以瞭解英語教師對於區分性教學的信念與課室教學現況、區分性教學信念與教學行為之間的關連性、以及影響區分性教學信念與教學行為的背景因素為何。 根據統計結果顯示：大部分國中英語教師對於區分性教學抱持正向的信念，也會將區分性教學原則應用於英語教學。而雖然統計結果顯示教師尚未能將對區分性教學的信念完全實踐在課室教學中，但教師信念對於教學實踐具有正相關，因此教師若對區分性教學有較高的認同度，那麼教師對於對於區分性教學也會有更高的實踐度。此外，本研究也發現區分性教學的研習經驗，與閱讀相關文獻均可提升教師對於區分性教學的正向信念；而閱讀相關文獻及課室學生人數的多寡則會影響教師採用區分性教學的意願。最後，亦希望本研究結果能協助教師與相關教學單位提升普通班英語課室中區分性教學的實施。 / This study aimed to investigate junior high school English teachers’ beliefs and practices on differentiated instruction (DI), the correlation between their beliefs and practices, and the influential factors in their beliefs and practices. The statistical analyses of data from the questionnaire survey of 342 English teachers in Taoyuan County public junior high schools were performed with the SPSS statistic program. The data obtained were subjected to descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, product-moment correlation, and ANOVA along with Scheffe’s post hoc test if necessary. The findings of the current study can be summed up as follows: Junior high school English teachers held positive attitude toward DI and they implemented several DI principles in their classrooms. Also, positive correlation existed between teachers’ beliefs and practices on DI. The more teachers agreed with DI, the more often they would implement DI in their classrooms. Nevertheless, the results also indicated teachers did not carry out their entire beliefs on DI into their instructional practices. Besides, attendance of workshops and reading DI-related literature could lead to teachers’ positive attitude toward DI while reading related literature and minimizing class size could motivate teachers to implement DI in their classrooms. Based on the findings, pedagogical implications and suggestions were presented for educators and the authorities concerned to make implementation of differentiated instruction more common and efficient in junior high school English classrooms.

Inquiry-based learning (IBL) has existed since the early 1500’s and research points to it being a successful pedagogy, so why do so few educators use it? One reason may be the confusion found in the literature encountered by educators. In light of this confusion, how teachers defined and implemented IBL in diverse, 21st Century classrooms was investigated. Looking at whether IBL was, or could be, an inclusive practice was also researched. Furthermore, the possibility that inquiry-based learning (IBL) encompassed differentiated instruction (DI) in its implementation and could therefore be used as a process to incorporate both was explored. To investigate these ideas, current literature was reviewed; including the works of John Dewey and Lev Vygotsky, and a qualitative research project was conducted using a phenomenological method. The research consisted of observations and interviews in the natural setting, of an inclusive elementary classroom.