Study on how teachers use differentiated instruction in a primary school in Maldives : a case study / Ibrahim Nisham

Abstract

The aim of this research was to explore the how teachers use differentiated instructions in their lessons to cater the individuals learning needs and to find what they change in order to fulfil the learners' needs. The stimulus for this research came from my observation as leading teacher.

A case study approach was chosen because I am interested to observe my teachers and to see how they differentiate their instruction to ensure that everyone in the class enjoy learning. This often regarded as interpretive research paradigm which is essentially concerned with understanding the phenomenon of interest `differentiated instruction' through different lenses (Cohen, Manion and Morrison, 2007).

As this research aims to observe a particular process in action, and it is believed that the most appropriate methods could be observation, documents (lesson plan, worksheet, notes and exercises) and field notes which would allow the researcher to use data from many different sources. Observation was made for five teaching to primary grades. Using this as a baseline, the research explored the perspectives of five teachers in-depth, through semi-structured interviews. Efforts were made to involve the participants at every single stage of the research. The discussion of the results was incorporates the participant's voices, giving opportunity to share their understanding.

In an attempt to answer the research question, it was revealed that teachers differentiate their lesson. Some of teachers use the best practice in the field. However, with proper training and guidance teachers believed that they could do much better. Moreover, from the information it is found that differentiated instruction is presented as the fix-all to every problem students can throw at their teachers. Differentiated instruction is at least as important for students with significantly higher ability as for students with significantly lower ability. Within that environment, through; the acknowledgement diverse learning ability, the flexibility of content, process and assessment, and through additional supports, students can feel comfortable and capable of learning at their full potential.

With limitations, this was conduct with the intention of enhancing my professional experience as a middle manager. With the completion of this study, I found several areas for which teachers need additional help.