Annamária Kótay-Nagy: DIFFERENTIATING INSTRUCTION WITH TECHNOLOGY IN THE HUNGARIAN EFL CLASSROOM
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4 Results and Discussion
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4.1 Phase 1: Exploring Hungarian Primary and Secondary School EFL Teachers’ Beliefs and Self-Reported Practices of DI and TEDI (Studies 1 and 2)
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4.1.1 Results of the Interview Study (Study 1)

4.1.1 Results of the Interview Study (Study 1)

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The aim of Study 1 was to explore qualitatively with a small sample what EFL teachers think about DI and TEDI (RQ 1) and how they describe their practices of these approaches (RQ 2). Conducted within an exploratory sequential design, this study sought to identify themes that could then be tested in terms of their distribution in the population (Dörnyei, 2007). A detailed description of the methods of data collection and analysis, including the background data of the participants, is provided in Section 3.2.1.

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The present section builds on a previously published article (Kótay-Nagy, 2023a), parts of which are presented here in their original form, with some new data and additional interpretations. First, it presents the beliefs that Hungarian primary and secondary school EFL teachers hold about DI and TEDI, followed by a description of their practices of these approaches, with special regard to the strategies they use, the challenges they encounter, and the factors they consider as enablers of DI. The main themes for each research question are illustrated with the relevant parts of the thematic map of the findings (refer to Appendix E for the full thematic map). A detailed numerical overview of the number, frequency, and distribution of the themes is presented in Table 7 in Section 3.2.1.4
 

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4.1.1.1 Teachers’ Beliefs about DI and TEDI .

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4.1.1.1.1 Understanding DI as Responding to Student Needs. Participants defined the concept of DI in a similar way as they all construed it as a teaching approach that aims to cater for learners’ individual needs. While they used words with slightly different meaning, such as “taking into account” (Patrik), “responding to” (Anett) or “attending to” (Lilla), these formulations converge in identifying learner differences as the starting point of DI, i.e., that “teachers begin where students are” (Tomlinson, 1999, p. 2).

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The responses included all three types of learner differences identified in Tomlinson’s (1999, 2014) model, i.e., students’ readiness levels, learning profiles, and interests. As for readiness, students’ English proficiency levels emerged as the most distinct category, mentioned by Bella, Patrik, Gellért and Cecília. All the participants agreed that the heterogeneity of their classes made students’ English proficiency the prime focus of attention within DI. As Patrik pointed out: “on paper, we have completely homogeneous groups, yet in practice, we encounter a wide range of abilities, with students’ levels spanning from A2 to B2”. Cecília’s description was very similar; as she put it, “within the same group, there can be both beginners and advanced learners, with some students speaking English better than their teachers”. It may not be surprising, then, that within such contexts, students’ varied levels of English appeared as the most defining dimension of learner differences.

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Other factors closely related to the concept of readiness, such as motivation, mentioned by Gellért, students’ emotional state, highlighted by Cintia, Gellért, and Lilla, and special education needs and learning and behavioural difficulties, mentioned by Gréta, were also emphasised. As for students’ learning profiles, various dimensions were listed, including learning styles (Cintia, Cecília, Gellért), gender (Anett, Bella), and socio-cultural background (Cecília). Anett and Lilla raised the importance of attending to learners’ interests, too. The main themes and sub-themes are presented in Figure 2.
 
Figure 2 Participants’ Understanding of DI in Study 1
 

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4.1.1.1.2 Ambivalent Attitude towards DI. The interviewees’ responses revealed an ambivalent attitude towards the concept of DI (see Figure 3). On the one hand, participants acknowledged that DI is part and parcel of the contemporary discourse on language pedagogy. Except for Cecília and Gréta, who got their teaching degree in 1989 and 1990, respectively, all participants learned about the concept during their pre-service training, although mainly from a theoretical perspective. Several interviewees reported to have come across the concept at conferences too. They agreed that DI has secured a firm place in professional discourse; it is “part of common knowledge” (Gréta), a “buzzword” (Gellért) “floating around” (Lilla).
 
Figure 3 Participants’ Attitudes Towards DI in Study 1
Note. Solid lines indicate hierarchical relationships, dotted lines show lateral relationships.
 

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Most teachers were appreciative of the benefits of the approach, too. As they pointed out, if implemented the right way, DI can increase students’ engagement (Anett, Bella, Gréta, Patrik), motivation (Bella, Cintia), and self-confidence (Bella, Zsuzsanna), and provide more equal access to education (Gellért, Lilla, Patrik), which are benefits mentioned in the literature as well (e.g., Lewis & Batts, 2005; McAdamis, 2001; McQuarrie & McRae, 2010).

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On the other hand, the teachers elaborated on certain negative aspects as well. Gellért pointed out the methodological uncertainties: “I hear it all the time, but I am never sure how it should be done or whether I am doing it the right way”. Besides, the practical difficulties of implementation also appeared as a factor causing mixed feelings among the participants, as they considered the implementation of DI to be rather difficult or in some cases even “impossible” (Gellért). As Bella put it, “it is a nice concept, but it is really difficult to implement in practice”. Cecília was of the same opinion: “teachers would practice it, but they simply don’t have the time and the means to do so”. Zsuzsanna voiced similar concerns:

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“The extent to which I can pay attention to every single student during a lesson, or how well I can prepare to bring in two types of tasks, or bring in things with which I can specifically help struggling or talented students... Well, these energies are finite. So, things don’t always go the way I’d like them to.”
 

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Moreover, Cintia and Gréta, two teachers with considerable experience in teaching, expressed some uneasiness over being pressured to use DI. Cintia said that the concept of DI “annoys” her because it is being forced upon teachers. As she put it, “there is nothing wrong with the underlying idea of DI” but the way it is often put into practice and added that “DI should be taught more seriously” because “if we just read a couple of things and say that DI is very important well … a lot of damage can be done if teachers don’t know what it really is”. This was in line with the opinion of Gréta, who looked upon DI as a “forced trend”, a necessity that was born out of the reality of having mixed-level FL classes in Hungarian public education, and said she was “very pessimistic” whether DI can be put into practice meaningfully.
 

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4.1.1.1.3 TEDI: Embraced by Some, Rejected by Others. Attitudes towards TEDI appeared to be varied, with some participants expressing acceptance, others showing reluctance towards the concept. The main themes are summarised in Figure 4 below.
 
Figure 4 Participants’ Attitudes Towards TEDI in Study 1
Note. Solid lines indicate hierarchical relationships, dotted lines show lateral relationships.
 

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On the one hand, Anett, Bella, Cecília, Gellért, Patrik and Lilla saw the potential of ICT tools in facilitating DI practices. As Patrik pointed out, “every ICT tool can be used for differentiation purposes”, which reflects a generally positive approach towards TEDI. Cecília was of the opinion that “ICT tools can be fantastic for assigning tasks at varied levels of proficiency”, thereby making content differentiation easier. Anett and Gellért mentioned that allowing students to work on tasks and have those tasks automatically completed on their devices facilitates self-paced learning, which makes multitasking easier and thus differentiation more manageable for the teacher. As Anett put it, “it is certain that it is a very big advantage” that with mobile learning students go online and do different things right away and regulate their learning process. Self-regulation was a term mentioned by Bella, too, who appreciated that she’s “not even needed” and students know “how these work”.

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On the other hand, some participants, such as Cintia and Zsuzsanna, were less advocative about the potential of ICT for DI. In Cintia’s case, the reason for that, as she put it, was that she is “not familiar enough with it to know what it could be used for”. Zsuzsanna has much experience in using ICT but felt that she doesn’t like using these tools in teaching so much in the first place. As she put it:

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“Honestly, I don’t like it. … It failed to impress me. There was a time when I used it a lot; we have smart boards. ... I spent a lot of time creating tasks for those. Then I felt that we had to go back to paper because we spend so much time in front of screens that the kids often don’t even know what paper looks like, or what a book looks like. So, I don’t really use ICT tools as much anymore.”
 

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4.1.1.2 Teachers’ Self-Reported Practices of DI and TEDI

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4.1.1.2.1 A Variety of Intuitive DI Strategies. Although most of the participants expressed a degree of methodological uncertainty concerning the implementation of DI, they reported to be differentiating in a variety of forms. The way they described their practices was in line with how they construed the concept of DI, i.e., they focused primarily on the dimensions of learner differences that they reported to be attending to. The related themes and sub-themes are shown in Figure 5.
 
Figure 5 Participants’ Self-Reported Practices of DI in Study 1
 

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The most distinct individual difference participants reported to be addressing was learners’ readiness level, more specifically, learners’ English proficiency. Several strategies were mentioned among which the use of supplementary tasks emerged as the most popular one. Fast finishers often read an English magazine or graded reader (Anett, Cintia, Gellért), play vocabulary games on paper (Zsuzsanna) or on their phones (Bella), or work as the teacher’s assistant (Gellért). Learners who struggle with a certain material are given explanation in the lesson or during the breaks, or are assigned practice tasks as homework (Bella, Lilla, Gréta). Gellért reported using the strategy of tiering too, i.e., creating multiple versions of a task pitched at different levels of difficulty. Usually, he determines who works on which version, but sometimes he lets students decide which task to complete.

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Attending to learners’ levels of English appeared in some assessment practices as well. These included giving students personalised oral or written feedback (Anett, Bella, Cintia) and gamifying assessment with a point-collection system (Anett, Cintia, Patrik). As Anett explained, gamification gives room for meaningful feedback as each student can be evaluated against their own progress. Patrik was of a similar opinion as he said that gamification “places much more emphasis on attitude than on lexical knowledge” and creates a transparent system that encourages students to take responsibility for their progress.

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Finally, almost all teachers mentioned grouping as a means of differentiating by readiness. Anett changes the seating arrangement every week, which she considers as “a type of differentiation because students have to work with different partners”. Bella, Cintia, Cecília, Gellért, Gréta, and Patrik also reported using grouping for DI purposes. These suggest that the participants acknowledge the importance of flexible grouping, i.e., letting students be part of many different groups, which is in fact one of the essential components of DI (Blaz, 2016).

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Differentiation by students’ interest was also identified in some responses. Personalised discussion questions (Anett, Cintia) and student presentations (Anett, Cintia, Patrik) emerged as two options that can give room for learners to engage with topics that they are genuinely interested in. Such tasks can make students “much more enthusiastic” (Anett); “their eyes light up” (Cintia) and “they are happy to hold the entire lesson” (Patrik).

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Some teachers reported to be differentiating by students’ learning profile too. Gellért, for example, strives to present the content and instructions through multiple modalities to cater for the needs of “both visual and auditory learners”. Cecília mentioned the importance of letting her students choose the grouping arrangement. As she explained:

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“I ask them if anyone would like to work alone. And then there will be students who would like to work in groups of three and others will prefer to work alone. I have never been asked this question. Does differentiation happen this way? Yes, it does.”
 

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Cecília considered her students’ socio-economic background to be another important factor. As she explained, she cannot expect all her students to complete their homework digitally, for example, as some of them may not have the equipment to be able to do so. Therefore, her strategy in such cases is to give students various options for task completion:

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“So, I tell them that they can choose and then it’s not awkward and it’s not like “well, you are not able to do this so let’s figure out something else”. Instead, there are three tasks, and I ask them to choose one. And then it’s not embarrassing. Some students will write the composition by hand, and it will be just as fine as doing a digital storytelling.”
 

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Inviting students to choose either the grouping arrangement or the mode of task completion is part of an essential element of DI: sharing responsibility with students in terms of decision-making, i.e., letting students “tailor-make tasks” for themselves (Benson, 2012, p. 34). Gellért and Patrik also mentioned the importance of involving students in the decision-making process, for example, by negotiating what extra assignments advanced students could take on. As Blaz (2016) argues, explaining to students what is happening in terms of DI and asking for their input is an important aspect of differentiation, since “students are usually responsive to a classroom that they know has been designed for them” (p. 26).
 

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4.1.1.2.2 Occasional use of TEDI. As was seen earlier, attitudes towards TEDI were varied, with some participants not being supportive of the role of ICT for DI at all, while others seeing certain potential benefits for it. Those who were appreciative of the role of TEDI mentioned various ways of using ICT for DI, which is summarised in Figure 6.
 
Figure 6 Participants’ Self-Reported Practices of TEDI in Study 1
 

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Five of the nine participants mentioned practices where ICT is used for DI purposes, although these seemed to be more occasional instances rather than systematic usage of TEDI. Anett and Cecília described practices that cater for their students’ interests in different ways. Anett, for example, asks her students to present on topics they are interested in, using digital tools to create slides for their presentations. Cecília said that she mainly uses ICT to create a selection of digital activities tailored to her students’ different study goals. One example she mentioned was when students preparing for the Matura examination work on specific tasks, while others who do not need to take the Matura work on different tasks using their mobile devices. As she put it, “It’s like in a rural school, where they split into three groups and then I walk around,” with some students practicing vocabulary on Quizlet, while others prepare for the Matura examination.

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In Gellért’s, Bella’s, and Lilla’s classes, ICT is mainly used for readiness-based differentiation. Gellért uses apps such as LearningApps to prepare tasks at different levels of complexity, allowing students to choose and complete the tasks that match their level. In Bella’s and Lilla’s classes, ICT tools are primarily used to give supplementary tasks to fast finishers. Lilla, for example, mentioned using Google Classroom to assign extra homework for those aiming for further challenges, and Bella uses vocabulary apps such as Quiz42, where students first fill in a placement test and are then given personalised vocabulary quizzes that they can do in pairs.
 

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4.1.1.2.3 Challenges of DI. The participants mentioned various concerns related to the planning and delivery of differentiated lessons. Besides these two a priori themes, the challenge of acquainting students with DI was also identified as an issue that teachers find important to address. The themes and sub-themes are presented in Figure 7.
 
Figure 7 Participants’ Perceived Challenges of DI in Study 1
Note. Solid lines indicate hierarchical relationships, dotted lines show lateral relationships.
 

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There was unanimous agreement among the participants, irrespective of their years of teaching experience, that devising lessons with DI in mind increases preparation time to a great extent. As the interviewees put it, planning DI requires “a lot of extra work and preparation” (Bella) which is “a bit tiring sometimes” (Anett) and “awfully time-consuming” (Gellért), with “finite energies” (Zsuzsanna). The workload is further increased by the cognitive challenge of having to think about the lesson in multiple yet converging dimensions. In Bella’s words:

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“I need to think about the lesson in as many dimensions as I would like to differentiate in. And I need to prepare activities for the children in a way that these ultimately come together in terms of the topic or the grammar we are focusing on.”
 

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Two interrelated difficulties were mentioned in terms of the delivery of differentiated lessons: the multitasking nature of in-class work and the challenges of time-management. Novice and experienced teachers alike believe that managing a differentiated class is “very tiring” (Bella) as it means “continuous multitasking” and “jumping between different tasks” (Gréta), with teachers “having to divide their attention” (Lilla, Gellért) and time management being “turned upside down” (Patrik). In such circumstances DI may easily result in “losing some students” (Gréta) or even cause discipline issues (Bella).

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An additional concern pertains to the challenge of acquainting students with differentiated learning. Most teachers agreed that advanced learners see it positively if they are given extra attention, but those who work more slowly “will not necessarily know that this is because of differentiation, and they may perceive it as if the teacher liked those students [who work faster] more” (Lilla). Gréta said that students sometimes are just simply not tolerant towards each other, and this is the main reason she does not believe in the concept of DI. Some participants were of the opinion that giving different tasks to students is a “sensitive issue” (Bella), one that may generate “exclusion” (Patrik), which is, in fact, what Tennant (2017) identified as one of the biggest dangers of differentiation. Zsuzsanna also raised this issue when recalling her experiences with her first class. She highlighted how her otherwise positive approach towards differentiation was put in a different light seeing her students’ reactions. As she explained:

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“I didn’t want to let go of the top students because I felt responsible for them. At the same time, I didn’t want to let go of the students who struggled the most because I also felt fundamentally responsible for them. As a result, I found myself in constant inner conflict when trying to implement differentiation. To be honest, the biggest problem wasn’t the effort it took, like having to prepare the worksheets twice. That wasn’t the main issue because I was very enthusiastic. I thought it was great—I was not only helping the kids but also developing myself. But somehow, my feeling was that the kids were confused. I felt they couldn’t handle the differences within the group. Maybe they are too accustomed to being expected to do the same thing. I saw that the children found it very difficult to cope with differentiation.”
 

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The above indicates that investing time and energy in building trust among students in the concept of DI and in each other, which is one of the main pillars of differentiated teaching (Blaz, 2016), was a challenge that several teachers seemed to be preoccupied with.
 

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4.1.1.2.4 Enablers of DI. Besides discussing their challenges, participants shared ideas on what they perceived as enablers of DI. All of the pre-defined themes were identified in their answers, with some of these themes being narrowed down or broadened with additional sub-themes to better reflect the patterns observed in the responses. Figure 8 shows the related themes and sub-themes.
 
Figure 8 Participants’ Perceived Enablers of DI in Study 1
Note. Solid lines indicate hierarchical relationships, dotted lines show lateral relationships.
 

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The most apparent theme pertained to professional preparedness, including various sub-themes. Cecília, who showed dissatisfaction with how DI is practiced currently, said that DI methodology should be taught in greater depth in pre-service teacher training. Besides, Cintia, Lilla, Patrik and Zsuzsanna would appreciate more in-service training, especially workshops where teachers can learn “small hands-on ideas” (Cintia). As Zsuzsanna pointed out, “in most trainings, we can learn great theoretical things, but as for how to implement these in practice, there is no guidance whatsoever”. Having coursebooks that are “multifaceted” (Cintia) and provide “more options for staging” (Cecília) emerged as another sub-theme. Anett would appreciate it if “not everything had to be devised by the teacher, everything that is creative, everything that is differentiated, everything that is exciting”.

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The second theme concerned the importance of cooperation with stakeholders. This included, firstly, the cooperation with the teaching staff and administrators. Patrik and Gellért said that the concept of DI should be embraced by all members of the school community so that teachers can experiment with DI in a “supportive environment” (Gellért) and receive professional help from colleagues. Anett, Bella, Gellért and Patrik, who are relatively novice teachers, said that they often ask for their colleagues’ advice as “one can learn immensely” from peers (Patrik). Teachers with more years of experience, such as Cecília and Cintia, were also very much in favour of getting advice from colleagues; as Cecília put it, “seeing good practices in action is what has worked best” for her. Regardless of their years of teaching experience, all participants articulated a wish for platforms of informal knowledge sharing, which is close to what Theisen (2002) referred to as cohort groups where teachers can “problem-solve as a group” and “learn new ideas in a professional, supportive setting” (p. 6).

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Cooperation between colleagues was considered important also because it can help teachers of different subjects to exchange information about students, which can in turn inform their DI efforts. As Cintia pointed out:

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“If I ask about the children then I will be able to differentiate more effectively because I will know what the children’s strengths and weaknesses are, or, for example, how good a certain student is at drawing … I think it is definitely helpful to learn about the student outside my classes too. … We should look at the child holistically.”
 

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Gellért spoke about the importance of cooperation with parents as well, especially in the case of students with special educational needs. As he explained, parents may feel that DI is about “stigmatization” and therefore communicating with them is of crucial importance. This is in line with Theisen’s (2002) argument stating that parents may see DI as being unfair or giving privileges to certain students, and therefore informing them about pedagogical decisions is an essential step in securing the effective implementation of DI.

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The third theme pertained to the ICT facilities at schools. Both Anett and Gellért highlighted the importance of digital infrastructure in enhancing DI. As was pointed out earlier, the practices mentioned by the participants ranged from using mobile devices for differentiated learning objectives to using specific apps to engage fast finishers with supplementary tasks.
 
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