Today's classrooms are diverse places and require teachers to tailor learning to suit the needs of the learner. Differentiation is a strategy for doing this but how is it done?

Studies by Van Tassel-Baska and Stamburgh, (2005) and West and West, (2016) show that often teachers are ill-equipped to differentiate or are overtaken by classroom organisational issues. Instead, many teachers when planning, aim their lessons at the 'middle group' and in doing so, differentiation is often seen as a support for weaker learners which does not challenge the more able.

Carol Ann Tomlinson said,

'The differentiation philosophy indicates that students become stronger learners when they can accept more responsibility for their own learning and when they become more proficient in understanding their goals, their status relative to those goals, and how to adjust their approach to learning in order to achieve the goals.'