ABSTRACT
The authors have stated that for them Differentiation is about all children having entitlement and access to the curriculum. It is often assumed that mixed ability will mean that the ‘bright’ children will need individual work to stretch them, the average children will not need much individual work and the ‘slow children’ will need a ‘remedial’ form of individual work which is both simple enough to provide success and repetitive enough to provide the child with practice of the ‘basics.’ The authors’ concerns about such an approach are to do with the focus on children’s differences, and the fact that the solution is provided by the teacher. In the authors’ experiences these two factors very often result in dependency by the child on an adult and also in ridiculing by peers. Additionally children who get help from adult support teachers may well attribute success to the adult and not to themselves. In the authors’ experience the assumptions teachers make about ability also result in children being limited and held back. The authors have observed that this limiting of children takes place when learning, assessment and remediation are delivered through one task. This is often called differentiation by task and this approach is illustrated in Figure 5.1.
