Summary: The Importance Of Differentiation In Education

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Differentiation and inclusion play an important role in creating a best-practice learning environment. There is no error-proof way to teach. However given the diverse range of individual needs in today’s classrooms, differentiation is a vital concept to effective teaching. It is imperative that teachers are aware of and are meeting the standards outlined in the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (APST), QLD code of ethics and other relevant policy-based and legal responsibilities in their teaching practices. An example of differentiation can be seen in the above lesson plan and will be discussed explicitly in this essay in conjunction with the importance of inclusion, diversity and professional conduct.

In accordance with the four concepts of differentiation, this lesson plan has been adapted to suit the needs of two
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Only minor adaptions needed to be made to this lesson plan as many of the learning activities already catered for whole class learning. For example the process for the warm up phase asks a variety of questions to encourage higher order thinking, challenging exceptional learners. Cavanagh and Prescott (2015) suggest providing opportunities for these learners to engage in forms of higher order thinking because this allows the learner to extend themselves intellectually. This method was again used in closing the lesson, removing the visual aid and stimulating critical thinking by asking the child to think for themselves and share multiple answers with the class. During the body of the lesson the process has again been differentiated by implementing the use of an interactive whiteboard to engage the whole class in learning. Research conducted by Kearney and Schuck (2008) found that the interactive whiteboard really engaged students with learning difficulties by providing them with different ways to engage with the learning

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