ABSTRACT
In an earlier extract in this section of the reader, Ainscow (pp. 363-7) introduced the concept of ‘matching’ which he defined as, ‘a matter of seeking a match between the attainments and interests of individual pupils and the tasks and experiences with which they are provided’ (Ainscow, 1987). In the 1978 Primary survey, HMI discussed the problems of matching curriculum experiences to the capacity of learners and concluded that ‘mismatching’ was a common feature of many primary classrooms, with serious underestimation for many able children and over-estimation for children with learning difficulties. These assertions stimulated the interests of a number of researchers, notably the psychologist Charles Desforges and his colleague, Neville Bennett. The extract which follows, summarizes the research undertaken into this topic by them and indicates that the whole topic of matching curriculum experiences to children’s competence is considerably more difficult than HMI suggested. In fact what the research seems to reinforce is that classrooms are extremely complex places and that teachers should be applauded for the success that they presently achieve. In this extract they employ a variant of Piaget’s clinical method (see the extracts by Isaacs pp. 283-7 and Adibe pp. 289-95) to explore children’s understanding and suggest that teachers could benefit from developing their skills in this area as a means of monitoring children’s progress and by implication improve the level of matching in their classrooms.
