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A change of perspective – Exploring Mexican primary and secondary school students’ perceptions of their teachers differentiated instructional practice
Author(s) -
Pozas Marcela,
Jaquelina González Trujillo Claudia,
Letzel Verena
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of research in special educational needs
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.543
H-Index - 27
ISSN - 1471-3802
DOI - 10.1111/1471-3802.12514
Subject(s) - differentiated instruction , diversity (politics) , perspective (graphical) , perception , mathematics education , inclusion (mineral) , psychology , pedagogy , school teachers , sociology , computer science , social psychology , artificial intelligence , neuroscience , anthropology
With the increasing student diversity, the establishment of inclusive classrooms has become a top concern of policy‐makers worldwide urging teachers to differentiate their instruction according to students’ individual learning needs. As the implementation of differentiated instruction (DI) relies mainly on teachers, previous research has mostly focused on examining teachers’ perspectives on their use of differentiation. In contrast, far less attention has been paid to explore students’ perspectives about their experiences in inclusive classrooms. Therefore, this study aims at examining students’ experiences of their teachers’ actual DI practice. Moreover, this study sets the spotlight on Mexico, a country that has faced changes with a recent proposed educational model. Results from a mixed analysis of variance revealed that students do in fact perceive that their teachers implement DI practices. It appears that both primary and secondary school teachers implement more frequent variants of mastery learning as well as tutoring systems as a means to differentiate their instruction. Implications of the results, as well as further lines of research, are discussed.