Differentiated Instruction Implementation: A Survey Study Among Elementary School Teachers

Abstract

The students in the classroom come from various characteristics and backgrounds. Dealing with this diversity of students, the teacher needs to apply multiple teaching strategies and learning activities, rather than using One Size Fits All (OSFA) teaching strategy. Many authors suggest applying Differentiated Instruction (DI) to cope with student diversity. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the teacher's understanding of DI and compare it with the implementation of DI among elementary school teachers. The study involved 113 elementary school teachers from 5 schools from public schools and private schools. The result revealed that the mean score of teachers understanding of DI was 104.42, while teacher implementation of DI was 98.51. Using the paired samples test, it showed that there was a significant difference between the understanding of DI and the implementation of DI. Based on the finding, this study recommends schools to provide a specific program to increase DI implementation among teachers. The program can be professional development on DI and sharing session among teachers who already have good experience in DI implementation. Therefore, the increase in DI implementation will help sustainable teaching and learning activities for all teachers and students.