Dissertations and Theses @ UNI
Availability
Open Access Thesis
Keywords
Individualized instruction -- Middle West; Middle school teachers -- Middle West; Individualized education programs; Mastery learning; Open plan schools;
Abstract
The needs of students in American schools are increasingly more varied as the school population becomes more diverse. Ensuring that all students receive access to an appropriate education becomes vital to our future. Differentiated instruction has been suggested as one way to provide that access. Differentiated instruction does this by using planning that explicitly addresses students' diverse interests, learning preferences, and abilities. There is plentiful information on what differentiated instruction is and what it looks like in the classroom, but there is little research on the process of teachers implementing differentiated instruction.
Over a seven-month period, this research sought to understand how a small group of middle school teachers in the Midwest approached the process of implementing differentiated instruction. Through surveys, bimonthly team meetings, interviews, and observations the researcher gathered data from these middle school teachers as they discussed, planned, and experimented with implementing differentiated instruction in their various classrooms. Students' attitudes and feelings toward school were also examined in order to provide corollary data and to incorporate the voices of those who were receiving the differentiated instruction. The themes that emerged from the data were transparency, grading, and self-efficacy. These themes and their implications for professional development related to differentiated instruction were explored.
Year of Submission
2010
Degree Name
Specialist in Education
Department
Department of Educational Psychology and Foundations
First Advisor
Katheryn A. East
Date Original
2010
Object Description
1 PDF file (v, 69 pages)
Copyright
©2010 Tonya Rae Vitense Keefer
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Vitense Keefer, Tonya Rae, "Middle school teachers' implementation of differentiated instruction : the complexity" (2010). Dissertations and Theses @ UNI. 477.
https://scholarworks.uni.edu/etd/477
Included in
Educational Methods Commons, Junior High, Intermediate, Middle School Education and Teaching Commons
Comments
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