Differentiated Instruction: Definition and Challenging Factors Perceived by Teachers

Keywords

challenges, definition, differentiated instruction, inclusive education, special education needs

Abstract

Differentiated Instruction (DI) is a teaching strategy teachers adopt to attend to student diversity in inclusive classrooms. The aim of this paper is to explore teachers’ definition of DI while identifying the challenges experienced in implementing DI strategies. Data for the study were collected from both mainstream teachers and Special Education Needs (SEN) teachers selected from 30 Maldivian schools in which inclusive education is practiced. A total of 368 mainstream teachers and 32 SEN teachers were surveyed with an open-ended questionnaire, and a semi-structured interview was conducted for 8 teachers purposively selected from survey participants. To analyse the data of both the survey and interviews, the open coding strategy (Rossman & Rallis, 2011) was used. Findings revealed that definition of DI can be explained by associating three major facets: (1) use of different strategies (2) addressing student diversity, and (3) advancement of student learning. Six major categories pertaining to challenges were also identified: (1) time, (2) resources, (3) knowledge, (4) class size, (5) support, and (6) workload. These findings are discussed in depth, and implications for practice are suggested.

Copyright

© 2019, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Mariyam Shareefa
AU  - Rohani Hj Awg Mat Zin
AU  - Nor Zaiham Midawati Abdullah
AU  - Rosmawijah Jawawi
PY  - 2019/12
DA  - 2019/12
TI  - Differentiated Instruction: Definition and Challenging Factors Perceived by Teachers
BT  - Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Special Education (ICSE 2019)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 44
EP  - 49
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://www.atlantis-press.com/article/125928885
ID  - Shareefa2019/12
ER  -