ABSTRACT
While there is currently much emphasis on differentiation in schools, there is no clear consensus about what the term means or implies. It is linked in many teachers' minds with 'mixed ability teaching' but there is nevertheless considerable debate about just what differentiation might look like in the classroom. So - what is differentiation? And how is it done? The term was confirmed in the National Curriculum through the Education Reform Act of 1988 which formally welcomed the idea of differentiation. This Act legislated for every pupil's entitlement to a curriculum which is broad, balanced, relevant and 'subtly' differentiated. Many teachers who for some time had been striving to provide equal opportunities for a range of learners in their classrooms might have been forgiven for thinking that politicians who make decisions about the curriculum had come to understand something of the value and importance of diversity in the experiences, knowledge, languages and cultures which children bring to school. After all, the National Curriculum Council defined differentiation as a process where curriculum objectives, teaching methods, resources and learning activities are planned to cater for the needs of individual pupils (NCC 1991).
