Differentiated Instruction Isn't a Real Thing — It's Doing Multiple Jobs at Once

I'm starting to think differentiated instruction is not a real thing.

What differentiated instruction really is, is multiple jobs that one person is doing at once.

And since it's not really possible to multitask, you're just switching between different tasks rapidly, what's really happening is that when people are told to differentiate, they're really being told to do multiple jobs at once and to switch between them very quickly.

if you are trying to differentiate from multiple levels in your class, you're not doing one person's job, you're doing several people's jobs simultaneously.

Of course, that's very convenient if you are the employer trying to get one person to do multiple people's jobs.

It's very convenient if you're the trainer, trying to train people to do something that's so complex that you never stop needing training because it's kind of impossible to succeed at it.

So I think I'm kind of at the point where I don't really agree that differentiated instruction is a real or possible thing.

I think it's absolutely possible and critical to scaffold.

I think it's critical to know where you want your students to be and also be realistic about where they are and figure out what you can do to support them as much as possible in succeeding with grade level expectations.

But the idea that you can teach like totally different things to different kids in the same classroom and still be just one person doesn't really work.

The other form of differentiated instruction that I think is even more bunk is the idea of learning styles that every kid just learns in a different way and you need to teach them in a different way that maybe matches their learning style.

Well, that idea has been soundly discredited.

So many studies have tried to find this idea of different, or excuse me, of learning styles and try to show that if you match a student's learning style, they learn more.

They don't.

The style of teaching needs to match the content, not the kid, because that's what varies, right?

Like kids pretty much all learn the same way.

It's not like your brain is different from someone else's and therefore you need a song or somebody else needs, you know, written work and somebody else needs something visual.

It just does not work that way.

Learning styles are a myth.

So let me know if you're being asked to differentiate instruction and what that means.

Part of the reason I'm coming to this conclusion is because I've worked with a lot of people who wanted to define what they meant by differentiated instruction, and none of them could get anywhere with it.

I have a whole book on how to describe a professional practice called Mapping Professional Practice is the book, and it's a great process.

It works for everything, but it doesn't work for differentiated instruction because nobody seems to know what they mean by that.

And what that leads me to believe is that it's actually just doing multiple people's jobs at once.

Let me know what you think.