Best Practice

Adaptive teaching: Ideas for differentiation and scaffolding in the primary classroom

Differentiation and adaptive teaching are crucial in the primary school classroom. Emmanuel Awoyelu discusses some of his tried and tested approaches
Standard 5: According to the Teachers’ Standards, all teachers must adapt teaching to respond to the strengths and needs of all pupils - Adobe Stock

The art of differentiation means that it is possible to effectively teach a mixed ability class, which may comprise many different learners including those with English as an additional language or SEN.

Differentiation allows equity and excellence to co-exist in our classrooms irrespective of the challenge we face daily as educators. It is therefore important for educators to understand the fundamental principles before they are afforded the time to put these skills into practice.

These days, differentiation is often termed as adaptive teaching. Is there a difference? We might consider that while old-school differentiation focuses on individual learners, adaptive teaching looks at the whole class.  

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