Summary
Differentiation is a teaching approach that is adapted to take into account the wide range of individual differences and needs of students in any one classroom. It is considered an important 21st century teacher skill. This is because every student is an individual with varying individual learning needs and differentiation caters for every student irrespective of their abilities, goals, strengths or interests. Differentiation can be used in any type of class, big or small regardless of year level, culture or school.The teacher pro-actively plans varied approaches to what students learn, how they will learn it, and/or how they can express what they have learned in order to enable each student to learn as much and as effectively as possible. As discussed, there are 3 categories of differentiation: differentiation by task; differentiation by support and differentiation by outcome. There are 3 key aspects that teachers in to consider while planning, and also that differentiation works on: student readiness to learn, student learning needs and student interests. There are various methods of differentiation (differentiation by task, grouping, resources, pace, outcome, dialogue and support, and assessment) but this website's primary focus was on differentiation by 'open-ended tasks'.
Open-ended tasks are tasks that are engaging and allows students construct answers from their understanding of the question or the meaning of the topic. Though there are few concerns in regards to open-ended tasks, this can be fixed by assessing the students before teaching the topic, then the lessons will be about the student than the subject. As there is not much information on open-ended tasks in regards to location and transformation this website was created to assist initial teachers in their placement or new jobs. The information on this website relates to the Australian Curriculum: years 3 - 4, in regards to location and transformation.
Open-ended tasks are tasks that are engaging and allows students construct answers from their understanding of the question or the meaning of the topic. Though there are few concerns in regards to open-ended tasks, this can be fixed by assessing the students before teaching the topic, then the lessons will be about the student than the subject. As there is not much information on open-ended tasks in regards to location and transformation this website was created to assist initial teachers in their placement or new jobs. The information on this website relates to the Australian Curriculum: years 3 - 4, in regards to location and transformation.