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
This book will answer questions such as the following.
• What kind of model can teachers use as a basis for setting up a differentiated and brain-friendly classroom?
• How do the mindsets of teachers and students affect differentiation?
• What kind of learning environment is most conducive to learning and differentiation?
• What are the five major components of a brain-friendly quality curriculum?
• What are effective practices for assessing student achievement to inform teaching and learning?
• What does student readiness mean, and how do teachers respond to it?
• How important are student interests in the differentiated classroom, and how are they handled?
• What are the components of learning profiles, and how do teachers plan for them?
• What are some strategies for effectively leading students and managing the routines in a differentiated classroom?
In this edition, we updated references and added the findings from new educational neuroscience research that support the elements of differentiated instruction. We have included new instructional strategies and teacher-tested examples related to implementing differentiated instruction components, as well as offered new guidance on working with issues related to learning profiles.
Chapter Contents
This book contains the following eight chapters that explore differentiation and the brain.
• Chapter 1: The Nonnegotiables of Effective Differentiation—In this chapter, we describe differentiation and its research base. We present a model that incorporates the basic elements of a differentiated classroom and give a brief overview of the model’s parts we discuss in greater detail in succeeding chapters.
• Chapter 2: Mindset, Learning Environment, and Differentiation—Here we explore different teacher and student mindsets and how they may affect teaching and learning. We describe the impact of the classroom and school environment on body chemistry, as well as on social needs and other factors that affect student learning.
• Chapter 3: Curriculum and Differentiation—This chapter deals primarily with the five important components of a brain-friendly quality curriculum. We discuss each component and suggest ways to implement it in a differentiated classroom.
• Chapter 4: Classroom Assessment and Differentiation—Because assessment is such an integral part of teaching and learning, we devote this chapter to examining the nature and purposes of assessment. We focus particularly on those assessment strategies more likely to be effective because they guide teachers in addressing the diversity among learners.
• Chapter 5: Differentiating in Response to Student Readiness—Student readiness is often equated with student ability, but they are not the same. In this chapter, we explain the differences, discuss why readiness matters, and offer suggestions for responding to student readiness through the learning environment as well as through curriculum, assessment, and management strategies.
• Chapter 6: Differentiating in Response to Student Interest—How much interest a person has in learning something is a key factor in that person’s
