The Overview of Training Needs on Differentiated Instruction for Early Childhood Teachers

Abstract

How a kindergarten teacher can make the all of the students grasp the learning materials and remain enthusiastic even though they have varied ability and diverse background, is a classic problem faced by many teachers, including early childhood teachers. It appeared that teachers had problems in adjusting instruction that is able to fulfill the educational need of all pupils with varying abilities. The impact of teacher inability to differentiate instruction was especially for 'less able' students. They did not understand the lesson. A previous study revealed that some of kindergarten teachers use teacherdirected approach and didactic teaching. Early childhood educator expert noted that preschool classes and kindergartens have begun to look more like traditional 1st grade classes: young children are expected to sit quietly while they listen to whole-class instruction. Differentiated instruction is the process of identifying students' individual learning strengths, needs, and interests and adapting lessons to match them. However, in applying differentiated instructions is not as easy as it seems. Therefore, before implementing differentiated instructions, a training need analysis should be conducted to regards teachers' current ability. The purpose of this study was to describe the kindergarten teachers' perspectives of their training needs on differentiated instruction. A kindergarten school which used the Beyond Centre and Circle Time (BCCT) approach was chosen as the venue for this study. A qualitative study with in-depth interview was conducted with early childhood teachers and headmaster as the participants. The data from interview was analysed using thematic analysis. The results revealed that teachers tended to differentiate the activities and teaching aids, however they hardly set different learning goals for varied ability, and rarely structured the lesson in a particular way to accommodate student differences. Teachers tried to vary the method and seating arrangement. Meanwhile, the tasks weren't modified to accommodate students with additional learning needs. The suggestion for future differentiated instruction training will be developed based on teachers' needs.

The Misconception in Differentiated Instruction Practices: A Literature Review

“…So, as there is has no variety in assessment and evaluation, also no differentiated instruction in the lesson planning and teaching process. Overall, the study by Handayani et al (2017) shows that certain ECE teachers required assistance in order to understand differentiated instruction. However, Handayani et al (2017) emphasize that this finding may reflect the system or organization's implementation of differentiated instruction.…”

“…Overall, the study by Handayani et al (2017) shows that certain ECE teachers required assistance in order to understand differentiated instruction. However, Handayani et al (2017) emphasize that this finding may reflect the system or organization's implementation of differentiated instruction. The lack of understanding of students' strengths and limitations can be inferred as the main impediment to adopting differentiated instruction in ECE.…”

“…Children have varied opportunities to engage with the teaching staff who facilitate their social competence (Roopnarine & Johnson, 2013). In addition, teachers' key goal while using differentiated instruction in ECE is maintaining the link with the children's variety of needs (Handayani et al, 2017;Afurobi et al, 2017). DI Practice in the ECE sector is demanding.…”

“…DI Practice in the ECE sector is demanding. Handayani et al (2017) point out that differentiated instruction consist of three steps: planning, implementing, and evaluating. For the purpose of evaluating how effectively teachers have used differentiated teaching in kindergarten, this research involved five teachers as the participants.…”

“…There has to be more differentiation of instruction on learning objectives as it appears difficult for teachers to arrange various learning objectives for various academic demands. According to Handayani et al (2017), a lack of differentiated instruction understanding is the main problem.…”