General Introduction

This blog is part of my Differentiation and Adaptive Teaching Knowledge Base.

I use the terms differentiation and adaptive teaching synonymously. To me, they are the same, as genuine differentiation has always involved adapting your planning and your teaching to meet the needs of the learners in front of you.

For me, differentiation is all the practical strategies, activities and techniques teachers use to personalise learning.

For ease, we can break that down into my five categories of differentiation: Activities, Questioning, Words and Writing, Things the Teacher Can Do and Things You Can Ask Learners to Do or Use.

This blog falls into the category of activities.

Activity One: Design Brief

I love this activity and have used it with learners of all different ages, including adults.

It uses the real-world idea of a design brief to help learners target their efforts and work successfully as a pair or group.

In my experience, it’s a great activity for generating engagement and helping all learners to make good progress.

It works as follows.

Learners work in pairs or groups.

The teacher shares a design brief.

They then explain that it’s up to the learners how they respond.

A design brief should have a clear goal, accompanied by a series of success criteria that learners must fulfil as part of the brief.

Here’s an example.

Design Brief:

• Create a display that could be used to advertise the upcoming swimming gala.

Success Criteria:

• Your display should be no more than two metres square in size and should include all the practical information concerning the event.
• It should be designed to attract people’s attention.
• In addition, the display should have clear branding (in terms of colour, logo and design) running throughout.

The brief indicates several success criteria that must be met if learners are to complete the task successfully.

However, the task is also open. It is not specified how learners must meet the success criteria. That is up to them.

The brief has been constructed to direct learners but not constrain them.

The emphasis is on a structure in which learners can make their own choices and take advantage of their own strengths.

This is the creative, independent centre of the activity.

Like how a design brief works in the real world.

Design briefs need not be constrained to design-led subjects.

Here is an example from a geography lesson.

Design Brief:

• Create a presentation that evaluates the United Kingdom’s current energy-mix.

Success Criteria:

• Your presentation should look at the different elements of the energy-mix and consider the strengths and weaknesses of the overall combination.
• You should include an interactive element, a drama element and a hand-out.
• You must reach a final judgement about the present state of the United Kingdom’s energy-mix.

Again, the emphasis is on providing a structure but not over-specifying.

Learners are directed as to what is expected, but it is left up to them how they go about meeting the criteria.

This is the beauty of Design Brief. It sets the guidelines, then gives learners the freedom to be creative and independent.

Here’s a final example, from primary maths.

Design Brief:

• Create a leaflet explaining fractions to someone who’s never come across them before.

Success Criteria:

• Your audience don’t know anything about fractions, so you will need to start from the very beginning.
• Your leaflet should include at least three worked examples and at least one explanatory diagram.
• You should also include a section giving your audience hints and tips on how to be successful with fractions.

How does Design Brief differentiate?

The activity’s openness gives learners the opportunity to decide how they will go about completing it.

This means that learners can engage with the task in ways that are suited to where they are currently at.

The activity structure gives clarity.

While learners can access the task at their own level, this is achieved without recourse to ambiguity or vagueness (which would lead to problems of its own).

Learners can use the separate things specified in the brief to structure their work.

This can create their own staging posts, ensuring they do not get lost in what might seem at first glance to be a lengthy or complex task.

Activity Two: Case Studies

Case studies provide learners with concrete examples of what they are studying.

They contextualise abstract ideas and provide a tangible demonstration of concepts in action.

Many things can form the basis of a case study, for example:

• A person
• A group
• An event
• A decision
• An organisation

Two things remain common throughout.

First, a single focus is retained.

Second, that which forms the basis of the case study offers scope for analysis.

Here are five examples, three secondary and two primary, to illustrate.

A person

While studying pacifism in Religious Studies, learners could look at Gandhi as a case study.

This would contextualise pacifism and the associated concepts through the example of Gandhi’s life, actions and beliefs.

A group

While studying the sociology of youth subcultures, learners could look at the group of Marxist sociologists who worked at the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS).

This would contextualise many of the key concepts used throughout the topic.

An event

While studying the history of William Gladstone’s various periods as Prime Minister, learners could look at his election campaign centred on the ‘Bulgarian Horrors’.

This would serve to highlight some of the key aspects of Gladstone’s thought, character and political attributes.

A decision

While studying habitats, learners could look at the decision made by the school to create a wildflower meadow on part of the playing fields.

The teacher can use this to help learners contextualise and make sense of key concepts connected to habitats, as well as some of the conceptual ideas around education for sustainable development.

An organisation

While studying how to change their local community, learners could look at a local charity as a case study.

This provides a real-world example of how people have achieved what it is that learners are thinking about in their lessons.

How do case studies differentiate?

Case studies offer a concrete experience of an abstract idea.

They bring concepts to life, making them more accessible to learners.

Learners are given the opportunity of looking at something small (the case study) to understand something big (the concepts and ideas).

This gives a simple, accessible means by which all learners can come to terms with notions that are complex or challenging.

If the case study focuses on a person, or if it has a human element, learners then have something to which they can relate.

In turn, this makes the work more accessible – learners have the kind of concrete purchase that can be hard to attain through a more abstract approach.