Annamária Kótay-Nagy: DIFFERENTIATING INSTRUCTION WITH TECHNOLOGY IN THE HUNGARIAN EFL CLASSROOM
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2 Theoretical and Empirical Background
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2.1 Differentiated Instruction
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2.1.2 What Differentiated Instruction Is Not and What It Is

2.1.2 What Differentiated Instruction Is Not and What It Is

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The fact that leading experts in the field of DI (Blaz, 2016; Fox & Hoffman, 2011; Tomlinson, 2001) often provide compare-contrast lists of what DI is and what it is not shows that there are certain misconceptions about the term that need to be dispelled. The present section addresses some of the most frequently emerging issues.

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Firstly, DI is sometimes referred to as a set of instructional strategies and activities. Proponents of DI, however, emphasise that the meaning of the term goes beyond the mere application of strategies. It is more of a “belief system” (Blaz, 2016, p. 5), a “philosophical orientation” (Santamaria, 2009, p. 217), i.e., a way of thinking about teaching and learning which encompasses all stages of the teaching process from pre-assessment through lesson delivery to post-lesson reflection (van Geel et al., 2019).

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Secondly, it is a common belief that DI is first and foremost used for “outliers” (Tomlinson, 2017, p. 28) such as gifted students or students with special educational needs. Although in the past DI was indeed used primarily with these students in mind, now it is understood as a much more general approach in which “every student benefits from being on the teacher’s radar and from seeing evidence that the teacher understands their development and plans with their success in mind” (Tomlinson, 2017, p. 30). As Blaz (2016) points out, DI is rooted in the idea that “all learners come to class with potential ready to be accessed” (p. 5) and its primary concern is to create conditions for this potential to be unlocked.

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Furthermore, DI is often equated with individualised instruction, which involves creating different tasks appropriate to the varying needs of individual students. DI, however, is not geared towards such purposes. The main goal of DI is to set up multiple resources and processes that learners can choose from and thus to enable learners to “tailor-make tasks” for themselves (Benson, 2012, p. 34). As Tomlinson (2001) puts it, DI means “shaking up what goes on in the classroom so that students have multiple options for taking in information, making sense of ideas, and expressing what they learn” (p. 1). The importance of student choice is argued for by Tennant (2017) too, who contends that any meaningful endeavour of differentiation needs to be an opportunity for students to “self-differentiate” (p. 6), i.e., to actively decide for themselves what level of challenge or engagement they want and choose accordingly. Student choice is, in fact, one of the guiding principles of DI, which is discussed in further detail in Section 2.1.3.3.

Jegyzet elhelyezéséhez, kérjük, lépj be.!

Finally, many tend to equate DI with scaffolding, i.e., the occasional modification of the instruction up or down in difficulty in response to emerging student differences. DI, however, is more proactive in nature as it sets out from the individual characteristics of students and takes those characteristics into account right at the planning stage. As having a constant understanding of learner differences is a prerequisite to planning, formative, ongoing assessment is regarded as an indispensable component of DI (Blaz, 2016; a detailed discussion of this principle is provided in Section 2.1.3.3).

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The characteristics described above show that DI is a complex approach present in all stages of the teaching process. The next section discusses a theoretical model developed by Tomlinson (1999), which grasps the complexity of the approach in a theoretically sound manner and has served as a basis for professional discussions about DI for more than two decades now.
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