‘It’s all about the attitudes!’ – Introducing a scale to assess teachers’ attitudes towards the practice of differentiated instruction

‘I do not think I actually do it well’: a discourse analysis of Australian senior secondary teachers’ self‐efficacy and attitudes towards implementation of differentiated instruction

“…Supporting this, Elizabeth stated 'I actually need a physical concrete example of DI for me to go right, okay, I get that now'. This contradicts the findings by Letzel, Pozas, and Schneider (2020) who found that German secondary school teachers who valued DI were more inclined to implement DI. Elizabeth indicated that she values DI because she desires to learn more about it; however, her barrier to DI implementation appeared to be a sense of a lack of practical mastery.…”

“…This study, however, was conducted in Germany and does not reflect how Australian teachers' beliefs are shaped, highlighting the need to investigate the Australian landscape. Letzel, Pozas, and Schneider (2020) conducted a quantitative study using an attitude scale to assess attitudes towards DI in Germany and found that secondary school teachers who valued DI were more inclined to implement DI. However, Herbert, Kalloo, Kitsingh, et al.…”

“…This study, however, was conducted in Germany and does not reflect how Australian teachers' beliefs are shaped, highlighting the need to investigate the Australian landscape. Letzel, Pozas, and Schneider (2020) conducted a quantitative study using an attitude scale to assess attitudes towards DI in Germany and found that secondary school teachers who valued DI were more inclined to implement DI. However, Herbert, Kalloo, Kitsingh, et al (2018) and Shareefa (2021) found in their studies that pedagogical choices and preparation time were indicators for a positive attitude towards DI, with Shareefa (2021) stating that the use of DI helped to bring about positive attitudes to teachers.…”

“…Research has typically focused on self‐efficacy, teachers' beliefs in their ability to apply effective teaching practices to diverse classrooms (Monteiro, Kuok, Correia, et al., 2019; San Martin, Ramirez, Calvo, et al., 2021) and views towards students with learning difficulties (Woodcock and Faith, 2021) rather than DI specifically. Teacher attitudes and beliefs play a crucial role in the provision of DI (Knauder and Koschmieder, 2019; Letzel, Pozas, and Schneider, 2020). This study aimed to delve deeper into a framework that has existed for nearly two decades (Sun and Xiao, 2021) by analysing discourse on teachers’ attitudes and self‐efficacy in a senior secondary setting.…”

Confident, positive, but interested? Exploring the role of teachers’ interest in their practice of differentiated instruction

“…Analyses from a study by Schwab et al (2019) revealed that teachers holding more positive attitudes tend to differentiated their instruction. This was also shown in a more recent study by Letzel et al (2020). Interesting is that Letzel et al (2020) point out, that even after controlling for teachers' self-efficacy, teachers' attitudes appeared to be the dominant predictors of their DI practice.…”