Addressing individual differences
Archana Dwivedi
As parents and teachers how often have we not remarked, “Children will be children. They are all the same”? And yet we know they are not. Every child is different. Every child is unique. Culture, geographic environment, special abilities, motor abilities, emotional intelligence, aptitude, age, gender, intelligence, lateralization, memory, personality attitude, learning strategies, all play a part in highlighting these differences. While at home these differences may not be a problem to deal with, imagine a teacher in a classroom full of students. What can teachers do to address individual differences in their classrooms? Here are a few suggestions.
Adopt adaptive teaching
In an adaptive classroom, the teacher doesn’t convey the same content to all students. Students could be working on different tasks at the same time. Some working independently, others engaged in learning with their peers, and still others being introduced to a new topic.
Be consistent in your classroom management
When it comes to effectively managing a classroom, nothing is worse than empty promises and weak threats. Whether it is giving them stickers every time they do their homework or assigning extra tasks when they don’t, be consistent.
If at first you don’t succeed…
Sometimes you have no choice but to try and try again. Use different ideas and examples to stimulate the different children in your class.
Control your reactions
Reprimanding or yelling will not work with all the students. Choose how you react to the class as a whole and to individual children. How you react to a situation is how your students will respond as well. Some may need to be reprimanded. Some will need to be cajoled. Some you may have to be persistent with.
Choose your battles
Because of the diversity in a classroom, many things can go wrong – it’s impossible to tackle every single problem at the same time. Say, you have students who mostly speak their native language in class, and those who never do their homework. Choose to focus on one thing at a time. This doesn’t mean you have to ignore the other problems. You get to each problem by and by.
End your lesson on a positive note
Try not to send your students home without some sort of a closing activity. Ask them what they’ve learned that day, to name three things they can tell their friends or parents about. But more importantly, confirm they have all accomplished the learning goal for the day.
Incorporate your students’ culture(s)
If you have a multicultural classroom, have students share information about their national holidays, customs or special ways in which they celebrate holidays like Christmas.
Follow an answer with another question
Get each student to speak as much as you can. Follow up a student’s answer with another question. If a student says, “I would like to go to the Himalayas,” ask them why. If a student says he/she went away for the weekend, ask them where. This is a great strategy for the other students and also for the teacher to learn about a classmate. It improves conversational skills as well.
Involve all five senses
Students read, write, speak and listen. But why can’t they touch? Or smell? In some cases, when teaching about food or clothes, these senses are highly effective in conveying vocabulary that would otherwise be hard to grasp. The use of physical items greatly enhances the learning experience. Students are not just reading real restaurant menus, they’re touching and smelling the food.
Support learners
A gentle word, a kind look, a good-natured smile can work wonders and accomplish miracles. Within any classroom at any particular grade level, a teacher will understand that her/his students come from diverse backgrounds and will have unique, personal and individual differences and that each student may learn a new knowledge differently.
Addressing their individual differences can be a hard task but this will help the students have equal learning opportunities.
Why and how policy and pedagogic reform should take into account individual differences
- Individual differences need to be understood by teachers. Teacher training needs to present the variety of individual differences that students can have and help them modulate their lessons accordingly.
- Individual differences need to be assessed in order to be taken into account. Cognitive ability measures, personality questionnaires, interest inventories and other tools are available for this.
- In some contexts, a system can be devised in which high quality education is provided to each student (from the slower students to the gifted ones) through differentiated instruction to fit each student’s zone for future development.
- Teaching a topic using a wide range of learning styles and activities allows students to find at least one thing that fits their abilities and interests.
The author is an assistant teacher in Sunbeam Group of Educational Institutions. She likes to call herself a learner and wants to be a part of the changing world of education. She can be reached at archdwivedi0@gmail.com.