What Every Teacher Education Professor Needs to Know About Differentiated Instruction

Abstract

Even though differentiated instruction is considered best practice for addressing student diversity, preservice teachers may not be receiving the training they need to plan differentiated lessons and utilize a wide variety of teaching strategies. Teacher education programs are not effective in inculcating the principles of differentiated instruction_ because preservice teachers do not observe, experience or implement differentiated instruction in the preservice courses or their practicum experiences. MSU-Billings faculty are addressing differentiated instruction in their own teaching to test the premise that modeling differentiation may be a more effective way of assisting preservice teachers to understand and implement differentiation in their own teaching.