Differentiation and the Brain. David A. Sousa

       Introduction

      With so many books available on differentiation, why do we need this one? That is a fair question, and here is our answer. To our knowledge, this book is different from all the others in that it combines two imperatives facing nearly all educators.

      1. Research is revealing so much about how the brain learns that educators can no longer ignore the implications of these discoveries for educational practice.

      2. Teachers need to find ways to use this brain research to develop strategies that will allow students to succeed in classrooms with a diverse mix of abilities, cultures, and languages—hallmarks of contemporary schools.

      The neuroscientific research discoveries that can affect educational practice have accumulated since the 1980s, leading to a whole new exciting discipline called educational neuroscience, which brings together related research from cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and pedagogy. This research pool offers information and insights that can help educators decide whether certain curricular, instructional, and assessment choices are likely to be more effective than others. In this book, we examine the basic components of differentiation in light of what current research reveals, and the result is surprisingly positive, indeed. We want to share those surprises with the reader.

      In this book, we examine the basic components of differentiation in light of current research, and the result is surprisingly positive, indeed.

How Brain Friendly Is Differentiation?

      As authors and longtime educators, we focus on somewhat different areas of educational practice. Carol has been intimately involved in developing frameworks for establishing differentiated classrooms at all grade levels and in all subject areas—and teaching in them. David has investigated how the findings from cognitive and neuroscientific research could be translated into what educators do in schools and classrooms. When we discussed the possibilities for this book, we recognized that the processes for differentiating curriculum, instruction, and assessment are supported in many ways by what researchers in cognitive psychology and neuroscience are revealing about how the brain learns. In other words, differentiation is brain friendly and brain compatible.

The Rise, Fall, and Rise of Differentiation

      Differentiation is not a new idea. Think back to the one-room schoolhouse of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, where one teacher had to educate students of varying ages and grade levels at the same time in a single classroom. That teacher had to be an expert in differentiating curriculum, instructional strategies, and assessment techniques. Using only a few resources—chalk, slates, and some books—the students learned literacy, arithmetic, penmanship, and good manners. In this environment, the students and teacher were often together for several years in a row, so they got to know each other very well. This close relationship allowed the teacher to tailor instruction for an individual student. No doubt, the seeds of cooperative learning sprouted here, too, as older students helped the younger ones. In these settings, teaching the class as a whole made little practical sense given the range of student needs in the classroom.

      As the population grew, public schools got bigger. Students were separated into single grade levels, according to their age. Class size was small, and John Dewey’s (1938) notion of a school as a caring community encouraged teachers to address the needs of individual students. Curriculum decisions were made locally and reflected the community’s needs. Some towns wanted their students to have more academic subjects, while others focused on developing their students’ vocational and agricultural skills. Differentiated classrooms were still quite common.

      Although students within a grade level still demonstrated varying degrees of readiness and maturity, the prevailing and powerful industrial model began to shape educational philosophy and school operations in the 1930s. Within this organizational structure, differentiation in the classroom yielded to the seemingly more efficient middle-of-the-road approach to teaching. Academic subjects were departmentalized, class sizes grew even larger, and secondary-level teachers became content specialists. Differentiation waned as the one-size-fits-all curriculum emerged as the common basis for instruction.

      While school districts were becoming more alike in their curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices, the school population was becoming more diverse.

      Because of fears that local U.S. school districts still had too much autonomy and variation, in the 1960s, states began to exert more control over their operations. State departments of education generated curriculum standards and developed standardized tests that nearly all students had to take to graduate high school. Meanwhile, the immigrant population mushroomed, bringing more languages and cultures into the society, and urban flight widened the economic gap between neighboring communities. So, while school districts across the United States were becoming more alike in their curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices, the school population was becoming more diverse.

      Since 2007, nationwide and international test results, such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), show only modest—if any—gains in student achievement across the grades. Secondary students in the United States continued to score lower than students in most other developed countries. In an attempt to improve performance, policymakers called for reforms that put even more emphasis on standards and testing (for example, the No Child Left Behind Act, 2002). In the face of these pressures to standardize, educators came to realize that the one-size-fits-all approach does not succeed with many students in today’s classrooms. It became evident that the broad range of abilities, languages, and cultures in U.S. schools requires teachers to incorporate different approaches to instruction within the same classroom—a return, to some degree, to the diverse strategies of the one-room school. The idea of differentiation was reborn.

About This Book

      Some school districts have long sought ways to maintain differentiation in their classrooms despite the driving forces of unreasonable amounts of content to cover and the accompanying high-stakes testing. As policymakers and communities continue to recognize the growing diversity of their student population, more schools will turn to differentiation to help this broad mix of students succeed. In this book, we offer suggestions on how to establish and manage differentiated classrooms without imposing additional heavy burdens on teachers. We talk about teaching differently and smarter, not harder. In fact, when properly implemented, differentiation emphasizes shared responsibility between teacher and student—a desirable outcome, because the brain that does the work is the brain that learns.

      Differentiation emphasizes shared responsibility between teacher and student, because the brain that does the work is the brain that learns.

Questions This Book Will Answer