Differentiated teaching and learning

Differentiated
teaching and
learning

Differentiated

teaching and

learning

The school places a high priority on ensuring that, in their day-to-day teaching,
classroom teachers identify and address the learning needs of individual students,
including high-achieving students. Teachers are encouraged and supported to
monitor closely the progress of individuals, identify learning difficulties and tailor
classroom activities to levels of readiness and need.
The assessment of this domain includes
consideration of the extent to which:
§§ teaching practices across the school
reflect the belief that, although students
are at different stages in their learning
and may be progressing at different
rates, all students are capable of learning
successfully if motivated and given
appropriate learning opportunities and
necessary support;
§§ teachers work at understanding where
students are in their learning – including
their current knowledge, skills, learning
difficulties and misunderstandings – to
identify starting points for teaching;
§§ teachers work to ensure that all students
– including high-achieving students – are
appropriately engaged, challenged and
extended by designing classroom activities
to meet students’ learning needs, levels
of readiness, interests, aspirations and
motivations;
§§ teachers consult with parents and with
students themselves to ensure that
reasonable adjustments are made to meet
the needs of students with disabilities,
including through the development of
individual learning plans;
§§ teachers closely monitor the progress of
individual students and continually adjust
their teaching in response to the progress
that individuals are making;
§§ teachers encourage and assist students
to monitor their own learning and to set
goals for future learning;
§§ communication with parents and
families provides information about
where students are in their learning,
what progress they have made over time,
and what they might do to support their
children’s further learning; and
§§ tailored, early and sustained interventions
are in place for students identified as
requiring additional support, including
students returning to school after a period
of absence/disengagement.
7

Outstanding

The school leadership team actively promotes the use of differentiated teaching as a strategy for ensuring that every
student is engaged and learning successfully. It is recognised throughout the school that some students require significant
adjustments to their learning programs (eg, accelerated programs, special support) if they are to be optimally engaged
and challenged, and individual learning plans have been developed for those students requiring them. Differentiation is a
priority of the school and a feature of every teacher’s practice.
Regular data on the achievements, progress, strengths and weaknesses of individual students are used in all classrooms to
make judgements about individual needs, to identify appropriate starting points for teaching and to personalise teaching
and learning activities. Reports to parents and carers include details of how learning opportunities have been tailored to
individual needs and of the progress individuals have made.

High

School leaders explicitly encourage teachers to tailor their teaching to student needs and readiness. This includes the
systematic use of assessment instruments (standardised assessment tasks and teacher developed assessment tools) to
establish where individuals are in their learning and to identify skill gaps and misunderstandings. Teachers also are
encouraged to respond to differences in cultural knowledge and experiences and to cater for individual differences by
offering multiple means of representation, engagement and expression.
Planning shows how the different needs of students are addressed, and how multiple opportunities to learn are provided,
including multiple pathways for transition to external studies (eg, apprenticeships) for students in Years 10-12. Students’
workbooks also illustrate differentiated tasks and feedback.
Reports to parents show progress over time and include suggestions for ways in which parents can support their
children’s learning.
Medium
School leaders are committed to success for all, but do not drive a strong classroom agenda to assess and identify
individual learning needs or to differentiate teaching according to students’ needs.
Some use is made of assessment instruments to identify individual strengths and weaknesses and starting points for
teaching, but this appears to be at the initiative of individual teachers rather than a school-wide expectation.
Some use is made of differentiated teaching (eg, differentiated reading groups in the early primary years), but in most
classes teachers teach the same curriculum to all students with similar levels of individual support.
Regular assessments of student learning are undertaken, but these often are summative and disconnected (eg, relating to
different topics) rather than exploring long-term progress in students’ knowledge, skills and understandings over time.
Reports to parents generally do not show progress or provide guidance to parents on actions they might take.
Low
School leaders do not place a high priority on teachers identifying and addressing individual learning needs, but are
more focused on ensuring that all teachers are teaching the core year level curriculum.
Little or no classroom use is made of assessment instruments to establish starting points for teaching. Assessments tend
to be used only to establish summatively how much of the taught content students have learnt.
Teachers tend to teach to the middle of the class, with the expectation that some students will not master the content,
and finding ways to occupy more able students who finish work early.
Reports to parents tend to be summative reports of how students have performed, with little guidance on what parents
might do to assist in their children’s learning.