Differentiation requires choices to be made about what work each student should do.  But who should make those choices? If teachers are in charge of this decision-making, they must consistently check up on each student’s progress to see what work they should assign that student next.  This results in increased bookkeeping. Worse still, it leaves the teacher making all the decisions. In class after class, students are given little or no voice in their own education.

Unfortunately, when “differentiated instruction” is implemented, it often leaves this problem untouched.  Instruction is what teachers do. It is much better to have students making their own decisions. What is needed is “differentiated learning”, rather than differentiated instruction.  Learning is what students do.

The consequence of students having a say in how they learn is profound.  The sense of ownership they feel boosts their motivation and responsibility.  It can transform their working relationship with their teachers. When trained to choose contract work for themselves, students can make more effective decisions than their teachers because they know what they need more accurately than their teachers do.

Teaching responsibility

Once we are clear that differentiation should be student self-directed, how do we prepare our students to take on that role?  In traditional classrooms, students are rarely given the opportunity to make meaningful educational decisions. It is therefore not a safe assumption that they can simply start making good choices for themselves.  Like any skill, effective decision-making requires practice. It is an important skill, both in school and in life. It is worth taking seriously and investing enough time to do it right.

Of course, making good decisions requires a sense of responsibility.  A student needs an internalized sense of ownership first. This will often require unlearning years of being told what to do and of doing work for the teacher or the grade, rather than for the sake of learning.  Practicing this responsible posture must be woven into the fabric of the classroom. Students need to make choices whenever it is practical, and they need feedback about how well they are making those decisions, especially when they are first learning this skill.

Cultivating a nonjudgmental posture

If a student is to become aware of whether he has mastered new material or not, he needs to receive nonjudgmental feedback.  For many students, that may mean overcoming shame over poor grades. They may also need to overcome their fear of making mistakes.  Knowing what level of challenge he needs at any given moment means seeing his current state of mastery clearly and without judgment.

Teaching Self-awareness

The student must also become conscious of how he learns.  This requires him to first become aware of the fact that human beings learn in a wide range of modes.  More importantly, he needs to become self-aware about his own personal learning style. This can be a powerful discovery, and not just academically.

Teaching a student to be self-aware about his learning style requires you, the teacher, to first be well-informed about the topic yourself.  As described below, there are a number of modes of self-awareness that must be addressed.

Helping each student discover how he best learns can be accomplished using any of a number of simple diagnostic tests.  It is also useful to have students pay attention to how easy or difficult it is to master new information through various modes.  One way to reinforce this metacognitive exercise is by having every student write reflections on how smoothly or successfully he learned new material by reading, listening to a lecture, having a conversation, working on a guided tutorial on a computer, or by doing an activity.

Teaching a student to be self-aware about his learning style requires you, the teacher, to first be well-informed about the topic yourself.  As described below, there are a number of modes of self-awareness that must be addressed. 

Helping each student discover how he best learns can be accomplished using any of a number of simple diagnostic tests.  It is also useful to have students pay attention to how easy or difficult it is to master new information through various modes.  One way to reinforce this metacognitive exercise is by having every student write reflections on how smoothly or successfully he learned new material by reading, listening to a lecture, having a conversation, working on a guided tutorial on a computer, or by doing an activity.

The issue of teaching students to be self-aware will be explored in depth in “Teaching the Skill of Learning”.