EdTalk | Differentiated teaching is the way to address the needs of all students

If you measure people’s heights, you find that most are around the average, with very few being extremely tall or short. When plotted on a graph, this distribution of data forms a bell-shaped curve, something which educators and parents in Hong Kong should know all about.

That is because most schools in the territory still use the concept of “teaching to the mean”. In essence, they teach at a level best suited to children clustered around the average.

This means that those in a classroom who are either struggling to keep up or more gifted are not receiving meaningful instruction. This is a particular concern for those at the lower end since their academic struggles are only likely to increase if not properly addressed. A widening gap can easily affect their self-esteem and feelings towards education in general.

But differentiated teaching offers an alternative. It is the opposite of teaching to the mean and focuses on individual strengths and weaknesses. The aim is to work with each student at a level that challenges them appropriately, while also providing different avenues to success.

For example, a dyslexic child finding it hard to spell non-phonemic words may have a strong visual memory. So, being taught to use visual mnemonics can help their spelling. In such ways, differentiated teaching empowers all students to access lesson content and plays to their strengths.

Another version of the same principle might see struggling and advanced students taken out of the classroom and given specialised instruction. Already, this is fairly commonplace in Hong Kong schools and, within defined limits, it is a good start.