Differentiation and the Brain. David A. Sousa
or non-negotiables, and the general support for them in brain research. The rest of the book explores, in greater detail, the nonnegotiables and the brain research that relates to them.
The model begins with the assertion that differentiation is a teacher’s response to learner needs. We are well aware that many teachers are very concerned about the impact of state, provincial, and curriculum standards; advanced placement or International Baccalaureate course requirements; and high-stakes testing on their instructional decisions and time. They worry about how they can address these concerns and still respond to the needs of diverse learners through differentiation. Many of the suggestions we offer do not require much additional time in planning and preparation because they should often replace rather than add to current instructional practices. In the end, instructional practices that promote greater learning for more students will both improve achievement scores and benefit the learners who take the tests.
Further, the model we discuss in this book asserts that a teacher’s belief about the capacity of each student to succeed with essential content affects everything in the classroom. Teachers who believe that some students are smart and some are not have little difficulty with the outcome when some students succeed academically and others do not. After all, they conclude, that’s just the way the world works. By contrast, teachers who believe that virtually all students can master important content as long as teachers support them and the students are willing to work hard enough draw a different conclusion. For those teachers, success is really the only acceptable outcome. Carol Dweck (2006) calls the first perspective a fixed mindset and the second a fluid or growth mindset. Teachers with a growth mindset believe it is their role to do what is necessary to be a catalyst for student success and also to enlist the student effort necessary for success. Differentiation calls on teachers to develop a growth mindset and ensure their students do so as well. We discuss teacher mindsets at length in chapter 2 (page 19).
Source: Adapted from The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners (2nd ed.), by Carol Ann Tomlinson. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. © 2014 by ASCD. Used with permission. Learn more about ASCD at www.ascd.org.
Figure 1.1: A model of differentiation.
The model delineates five key components that guide effective differentiation: (1) an invitational learning environment, (2) quality curriculum, (3) persistent formative assessment, (4) responsive instruction, and (5) leading students and managing flexible classroom routines. These components are integral to a classroom system in which all the parts work together to create peak learning and align with the core tenets of differentiation—each student is worthy of dignity and respect and should have access to the best learning opportunities a school can offer.
1. An invitational learning environment: The learning environment in a differentiated classroom needs to invite all kinds of learners to invest their best efforts to learn fully and deeply. This sort of learning environment requires teachers who see each of their students optimistically, understanding that all learners can, with appropriate support, achieve much more than they believe they can; foster meaningful teacher-student relationships; and have a sense of community in which every member is valued and supported in contributing to the success of individuals and the group as a whole.
2. Quality curriculum: What students are asked to learn (the curriculum) is rooted in the critical ideas of a topic or discipline. The curriculum itself reflects the teacher’s belief that everyone in the class is capable. It is designed to support student understanding rather than only recall. Goals for each step of the teaching-learning process are absolutely clear to teachers and students alike. Teachers plan lessons with high relevance to students and for high student engagement.
3. Persistent formative assessment to inform teaching and learning: Teachers use ongoing assessment to inform their instruction. With clarity at each stage of the learning process about what students should know, understand, and be able to do as a result of that segment, teachers use preassessment to understand where students are relative to essential goals as a unit begins. This allows the teacher to match instruction to student needs from the outset, including attending to gaps in prerequisite knowledge. Throughout a unit of study, the teacher persistently uses formative assessment to understand and help students understand who is progressing as he or she should be, who is confused or falling behind, and who is ready to move beyond the fundamental expectations for achievement. Using this continual and unfolding sense of each student’s relationship to critical outcomes, the teacher modifies instructional plans to attend to students’ varied strengths and needs with the goal of helping each student grow academically as effectively and efficiently as possible. The teacher also involves students in understanding their formative assessment outcomes so they can plan their own successful next steps.
4. Responsive instruction: Teachers use preassessment and formative assessment results to finalize instructional plans for the days ahead. It becomes clearer which students may be ready to work with more complex tasks, and which may need scaffolding or clarification in some aspect of the content. This is also a time when teachers can plan to link content to students’ interests so learning is more engaging, and to provide varied approaches to learning so students find learning more accessible and efficient.
5. Leading students and managing flexible classroom routines: In a classroom where teachers intend to work with individuals and small groups as well as with the class as a whole, it’s necessary to work together with students to design and implement classroom routines that provide both predictability and flexibility. Central in this process is helping students develop an understanding of what it means to design and create a class to work for each student—in other words, an understanding of differentiation. From that point, the teacher, with his or her student partners, can develop and implement routines that enable students to work successfully individually, in a variety of groupings, and as part of the class as a whole. It’s useful to think about the process of guiding a student-focused classroom in two parts: (1) leading students to understand the purpose and nature of differentiation, and (2) managing classroom routines.
The model of differentiation highlights four classroom elements teachers can modify in response to three categories of student need. Teachers can modify (1) content (what students will learn or how they will gain access to what they must learn), (2) process (activities students use to make sense of or come to own essential content), (3) product (how students demonstrate what they know, understand, and can do after extended periods of learning), and (4) affect (attention to students’ feelings and emotional needs) and learning environment (including both physical and affective contexts). Modifying these four elements makes room for student variance in the three areas of need: (1) readiness (proximity to learning goals), (2) interest (proclivities for particular ideas, topics, or skills), and (3) learning profile (preferences for approaches to or modes of learning). As teachers become more competent and confident in adapting content, process, product, and affect in response to student readiness, interest, and learning profile, the likelihood of academic success and maximum student achievement grows exponentially (Tomlinson, 2017).
Finally, the model presents a variety of instructional strategies for teachers to address student variance. These approaches extend the capacity of the teacher to reach out to students differently when warranted, yet still keep virtually all learners focused on essential outcomes. Such strategies include small-group instruction, varying materials, learning contracts, tiers, expert groups, jigsaws, RAFTs, and many, many other methods. When teachers are comfortable with a wide range of instructional strategies, addressing students’ varied readiness levels, interests, and learning profiles is easier—just as building a house or a piece of furniture is easier with the right tools at hand.
Brain Research and Differentiation
We note earlier that some discoveries regarding how the brain learns substantially support the components of differentiation. Although we will