ABSTRACT
The ideas in this book are not new. The understanding about how children learn has been identified arid discussed in many other books as a result of teachers and researchers observing children. What we seek to do in this book is to help teachers understand how these insights about children’s learning translate into planning for differentiation. With this purpose we have developed a model for differentiation that has its foundation in the following: Vygotsky’s theory of thought and language; Hart’s (1996) collaborative learning; Bruner’s ideas (1983, 1985, 1986) on scaffolding; Rogers’ (1961) and Egan’s (1982) work on skills training for counselling and effective communication in pairs; Seligman’s (1978) learned helplessness; Craske’s (1988) research on attribution retraining, and Pramling’s (1988) work sharing criteria for success with children; Gipps’ work (1995) on assessment and learning as separate activities; Coopersmith’s (1967) and Burns’ (1982) theory of self esteem and academic success; Topping’s (1988) research on the benefits of peer tutoring, and Gardner’s (1993) thoughts on children’s learning styles.
