NAAIDT: Meeting individual needs

	Introduction
	Differences in pupils
	Where do you start?
	Differentiation by content
	Differentiation by resource
	Differentiation by task
	Differentiation by outcome
	Differentiation by support

Meeting the individual needs of all pupils in Design and Technology at Key Stages 3 - 4

Introduction

Most teachers would agree that it is essential to continue to raise standards within design and technology and to secure high quality of teaching and learning. Planning the learning for all pupils to ensure that they achieve the best of which they are capable is fundamental to good teaching and learning. It is this issue which differentiation addresses.

"The curriculum has to satisfy two seemingly contrary requirements. On the one hand it has to reflect the broad aims of education which hold good for all children, whatever their abilities and whatever schools they attend. On the other hand it has to allow for differences in the abilities and other characteristics of children, even of the same age." (HMI A View of the Curriculum, HMSO, 1980)

Differentiation is:

a whole school issue;
every teacher's responsibility;
every pupil's entitlement;
at the heart of effective teaching and learning.

"Differentiation is a planned process of intervention in the classroom to maximise potential based on individual needs.

"Differentiation is not a single event, it is a process. This process involves recognising the variety of individual needs within a class, planning to meet those needs, providing appropriate delivery and evaluating the effectiveness of the activities in order to maximise the achievements of individual students. (Differentiation - A Practical Handbook of Classroom Strategies, NCET, 1993)

Differentiation is not:

an option nor is it only for mixed-ability teaching groups.

DIFFERENCES IN PUPILS

All pupils are different and come to design and technology with different experiences; these relate not only to age and ability but to: aptitudes, interests, developmental stage (physical and perceptual), prior learning, preferred learning style, gender, home background and culture. Appropriate differentiation will involve teachers in planning and providing for all or some of these variations.

Research by the APU suggests that for design and technology boys produce better quality work and stay on task if presented with short achievable targets but girls prefer more open ended activities with more time for thought and reflection. The differences in girls' and boys' GCSE results may well reflect the way teachers structure pupils' approaches to GCSE design and technology projects.

David Perry in his Royal College of Art Schools Technology Project paper on Differentiation, states:

"Assessment procedures, so far as they are concerned with individual achievement are by definition concerned with differentiation. To consider the progression of any student, the teacher must assess the student's current position to identify what would constitute progress. In considering an individual as having a current position that is different to that of others, the teacher is differentiating. Inevitably, every student's progress is different from any other's, as her/his position is based on different learning experiences in life, and a different personality. Ideally therefore teachers should be constantly assessing with students where they are, and where they need to go".

"To make this manageable however, we have to put together students much of the time, in pairs, in small groups, or all too often as whole classes. The only person who can constantly consider the individual's unique position is the student her/himself. For this reason, if for no other we must involve them as fully as possible in determining future directions for progress".

WHERE DO YOU START?

Differentiation is not something that will just happen by accident, it must be planned for and involves:

recognising the need to differentiate;
identifying the differing needs of pupils;
planning to meet these needs;
providing time for staff to plan to differentiate their work;
providing time to work with and train support staff;
providing and presenting appropriately differentiated activities, resources and strategies in the classroom;
evaluating the effectiveness of activities and strategies including the assessment of pupil achievements.

WAYS TO DIFFERENTIATE

Differentiation is a complex concept and it is helpful to Identify and classify the forms that it can take to assist planning.

One model used in "Differentiation - a Practical Handbook of Classroom Strategies", NCET, 1993 is:

BY CONTENT
Differentiation can be achieved by providing different content for different groups of pupils. Care is needed, however, to ensure that entitlement and equality of opportunity are not compromised. It is, however, possible to use the same or similar content but to vary the method of delivery and the range of depth of knowledge/skills taught.

For example:

most pupils designing and making an electronics project should be able to recognise the names of the components used and understand their function. For example, an LED will only conduct current in one direction and consumes much less current than a bulb. However, some pupils should be able to use a technical information sheet and identify which type of LED would be the most suitable for a circuit;
most pupils designing and making a food product could develop a product for a particular age group. An extension would be to consider a particular nutrient and a further extension could match the nutrient content to a specific individual or group.

BY RESOURCE
Pupils may be presented with the same task or activity but be provided with different resources. The management of resources can be as important in differentiation as the nature of resources used.

Where are the resources?
How are they stored?
Are they accessible to teacher/pupil?
Are they grouped/classified?
Do systems encourage flexible learning/pupil autonomy?
Does the organisation and availability of resources match the objectives of the unit of work?

Paper-based

During the research and development of ideas phase pupils will need access to a range of worksheets, books and computer software and these need to be differentiated for:

accessibility of the language;
complexity of graphic images used;
density and font size of text;
clarity of layout and format;
balance of text and visual diagrammatic information;
complexity of statistical information, graphs, etc.

When purchasing text books it may be more useful to have a range of books appropriate for different reading ages than to have one class set.

For example:

differentiated worksheets for the summative evaluation of a project could include varying degrees of structure e.g. sentences with words missing and a word list of words or part sentences which have to be completed by the pupil or prompts to be used by the pupil to write notes related to their specification;
a worksheet used to teach the development of a net for a box would include for some pupils an example of a net with all the tabs in position. For other pupils they would develop nets for more complex shapes and they would have to identify the position of the tabs.

Materials, media, tools and equipment
It is possible to differentiate by guiding and structuring the materials, media, tools and equipment sometimes allowing wide choice and at other times restricting choice.

Because of their limited knowledge many pupils provided with a wide selection of materials have difficulty in choosing the most appropriate materials. On the other hand some pupils when presented with a small selection of appropriate materials can make informed choices.

For example:

When setting up a sewing machine some pupils would be able to set it up for themselves while others would need the machine to be set up for them.
Another example would be some pupils able to carry out practical tasks by using technical information/resource materials, others may need teacher intervention or sequenced work-cards.
In textiles pupils developing constructional skills may be guided to use bonded or non-fray fabric for ease of use.
In resistant materials when cutting a housing or corner rebate joint in wood, some pupils might use a mitre saw, others might clamp a piece of wood on the line and use a tenon saw, while pupils with well developed manipulative skills might use a tenon saw to cut to a line.

BY TASK
It is possible to achieve differentiation through the structuring of tasks. Tasks may be very prescriptive with little room for interpretation. This may be used for all pupils to achieve very specific objectives (focused practical tasks) or to provide support for those pupils requiring more guidance. A different approach will provide less direction but still give some guidance to support the learning of all or some pupils (Designing and Making Assignments). A more open-ended task can be made more challenging by including a particular requirement and equally an open-ended task can be made easier by giving a little more guidance.

For example:

the Key Stage 3 long task developed by SCAA on developing a snack bar is a good example of a differentiated structured task;
some pupils designing and making an animated toy operated by a cam would use one cam while other pupils would be invited to use two or three cams in their design;
When pupils are drawing two point perspective of, for example a kitchen, some pupils would be given a drawing with floor standing units only. Others would be asked to draw floor and wall units, while some pupils would also add doors windows, etc.;
Some pupils designing and making an electronic quiz game may include four questions and answers, others six, while some might include ten. For their quiz some pupils may use the computer to generate an image and collate text onto the picture while others might incorporate text and picture on the computer.

When planning pupil activities, there are a variety of approaches to the setting of pupil tasks:

all pupils carry out the same task;
pupils engage in the same task but planned learning routes are built in to accommodate pupils' different interests or abilities;
pupils are set tasks which vary in the degree of structure and complexity;
pupils carry out different tasks by negotiation;
pupils identify their own tasks.

BY OUTCOME
Outcome is often seen as an appropriate method of differentiating in design and technology, allowing for that all important individual response to a design problem. In practice, however, it is rarely appropriate as a method of differentiation to be used in isolation from the supportive teacher/pupil, intervention/negotiation and other methods described in this Guideline. If used alone, pupils' achievement is seen to be judged by outcome, but is it the best outcome of which they are capable? It can be a useful diagnostic tool to establish pupils' capabilities but used as a strategy on its own, it is best avoided. There is a danger of failing to provide challenge for some, if the work is targeted at the middle ability band and simply left to rely on pupils outcomes for differentiation.

For example:

pupils are designing and making an animated page for a book. All pupils can be taught how to make three mechanisms as part of a focused task but it is only by differentiating the task so that some pupils are asked to incorporate one of the mechanisms in their design while other pupils are guided to incorporate two or three mechanisms in an interrelated way that work can be matched to individual pupil's ability.

BY SUPPORT AND RESPONSE
In design and technology approaches to teaching allow a variety of ways of responding and supporting pupils' work in class or in their folder and written work. This may be a brief discussion with a pupil or groups of pupils. It may also include the marking of work and feedback comments. These are essential strategies for differentiation in design and technology.

BY GROUPING PUPILS
Design and technology is a complex interaction between designing and making. Some pupils are able to produce and develop a range of interesting and appropriate ideas but are less successful when involved in planning and making. Other pupils are able to plan and make to a high standard but have limited success with designing and some pupils are able to achieve at a similar standard for designing and making. This makes it difficult to identify the criteria for setting or streaming pupils. Recent work on pupils predicted GCSE grades, based on their reading ability, indicates a very poor correlation for design and technology, which suggests that setting based on reading ability may be inappropriate. Some schools are beginning to group high achievers in design and technology in one group and organise broadly mixed ability groups for other pupils. Many teachers of mixed ability sets/bands organise the class into three ability groups which are changed to match the activity.

CONCLUSION
Quality in differentiation will only come about if a full range of the various forms of differentiation are planned and used appropriately.

Identifying and sharing with pupils differentiated learning objectives are essential requirements for good teaching and learning.

Accurate, continuous assessment is essential for effective differentiation.

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