Differentiated instruction in practice: a teacher perspective

The research in this thesis was conducted in the context of an innovation implemented at a school for secondary education that aimed to further develop students' talents at school. Since differentiated instruction (DI) was encouraged in this innovation, and because DI appears to be a complex approach to implement, we studied teachers' implementation of DI, teachers' interactive cognitions of DI, and their sense-making of the innovation. We therefore conducted a systematic literature review, and studied 4 secondary school teachers using stimulated recall interviews and 15 secondary school teachers using questionnaires with open-ended questions. The literature review provided an overview of how many different factors in the teachers' daily working environment influenced teachers' implementation of DI: for example, the school principal appears to be important in providing support to teachers to change their practices towards more DI. The stimulated recall interviews and questionnaire showed that the context of the innovation might provide the teachers with more freedom to experiment with DI, since they did not have to follow the regular curriculum in this innovation. In addition, the stimulated recall interviews provided the insight that teachers mainly take student readiness into account and that their DI resembles convergent DI.Teaching and Teacher Learning (ICLON

Upscaling A Challenge-Based And Modular Education Concept (CMODE-UP)

In 2019, a course at a Dutch University of Technology was redesigned towards challenge-based and modular education. The course was received positively by students and their learning outcomes (grades and engagement) increased compared to previous years. This redesign was quite intensive, and case-specific. It did not deliver a specific set of design principles that can easily be used to redesign other courses within the university or even other universities. Therefore, a follow-up project was started, that aims to deliver a framework to scale-up the course redesign tested in the previous study (CMODE; Challenge-based Modular On-demand Digital Education). This framework will be designed using practical principles and will be evidence-informed. The project consists of three stages: (1) informal interviews with key actors at our university, experienced in studying and/or designing modular instruction, a systematic literature review on challenge-based education and modular instruction; (2) a test of the design principles that were developed using the interviews and literature review; and (3) a test of the CMODE-up framework that was built on the results from the second stage, using think-out-loud protocols. In the current study we specifically focus on the first stage. A first look at the already existing literature around challenge-based education and modular instruction shows us that both concepts have been around for a long time in higher engineering education. Since education has become more and more digitized (and the development of MOOCs), it appears that the concepts have taken a quick increase in relevance. However, both concepts have only been studied minimally in relation to each other. We deem it thus highly relevant to first build a clear and proper view on both concepts, the strengths and weaknesses, and where both (can) meet. So that anyone who has intentions like ours - to implement both in higher education - can do this in an evidence-informed manner.</p

Teachers' interactive cognitions of differentiated instruction in a context of student talent development

Teaching and Teacher Learning (ICLON

Teachers’ learning and sense-making processes in the context of an innovation: a two year follow-up study

To better align teacher learning with teachers' learning needs, teachers' sense-making of an innovation during which teachers experimented with differentiated instruction was studied during two school years. Using answers to a questionnaire, 15 teachers' sense-making processes were characterised by three types of search for meaning: assimilation, adaptation, and toleration. We further specified the teachers' sense-making through their experienced sources of ambiguity and uncertainty (limited resources and conflicting goals) and a detailed description of their personal frames of reference. We concluded that the teachers varied in their types of search for meaning during both school years, though most teachers were found to use assimilation in the second school year. Their experienced sources of ambiguity and uncertainty and their personal frames of reference, though becoming more similar to each other, still differed after two school years. A possible reason for the variety in teachers' sense-making is the freedom they had in the implementation of differentiated instruction: several teachers were positive about this from the start, others needed more support and guidance. This study hereby provides additional insight into the advantages of freedom in the implementation of an innovation, but also show the importance of proper support and guidance to ensure effective implementation.Teaching and Teacher Learning (ICLON

Upscaling A Challenge-Based And Modular Education Concept (CMODE-UP)

In 2019, a course at a Dutch University of Technology was redesigned towards challenge-based and modular education. The course was received positively by students and their learning outcomes (grades and engagement) increased compared to previous years. This redesign was quite intensive, and case-specific. It did not deliver a specific set of design principles that can easily be used to redesign other courses within the university or even other universities. Therefore, a follow-up project was started, that aims to deliver a framework to scale-up the course redesign tested in the previous study (CMODE; Challenge-based Modular On-demand Digital Education). This framework will be designed using practical principles and will be evidence-informed. The project consists of three stages: (1) informal interviews with key actors at our university, experienced in studying and/or designing modular instruction, a systematic literature review on challenge-based education and modular instruction; (2) a test of the design principles that were developed using the interviews and literature review; and (3) a test of the CMODE-up framework that was built on the results from the second stage, using think-out-loud protocols. In the current study we specifically focus on the first stage. A first look at the already existing literature around challenge-based education and modular instruction shows us that both concepts have been around for a long time in higher engineering education. Since education has become more and more digitized (and the development of MOOCs), it appears that the concepts have taken a quick increase in relevance. However, both concepts have only been studied minimally in relation to each other. We deem it thus highly relevant to first build a clear and proper view on both concepts, the strengths and weaknesses, and where both (can) meet. So that anyone who has intentions like ours - to implement both in higher education - can do this in an evidence-informed manner