ABSTRACT
So many books and articles have been written about organising mixed-ability groups in schools and so many definitions of the term ‘mixed-ability’are now bandied about that it is quite impossible to discuss the topic of mixed-ability teaching without bearing in mind that the term has different meanings for different people. It can be argued,1 of course, that all teaching in school is mixed-ability teaching since the moment a teacher has responsibility for teaching more than one child at a time, he or she is faced with the problem of planning worthwhile learning experiences for groups of children which take account of individual differences within the group. This does not get us very far, however, for as student teachers discover in their contacts with schools, there are teachers who appear to ignore or discount the manifest differences among the children they teach.
