Individualized Instruction Strategy

What is individualized instruction strategy?

Individualized instruction is also known as differentiated instruction.

Individualized instruction strategy refers to those classroom practices of teaching which recognize the uniqueness of each student learner and thus provide for adequate tutorial guidance, and other support services suited to bring about a wholesome development in the person (mind, body, and spirit).

Individualized instruction is about using teaching strategies that connect with individual student’s learning strategies. The ultimate goal is to provide a learning environment that will maximize the potential for student success.

Differentiated instruction is an instructional theory that allows teachers to face this challenge by taking diverse student factors into account when planning and delivering instruction. Based on this theory, teachers can structure learning environments that address the variety of learning styles, interests, and abilities found within a classroom.

In this strategy the teacher shouldn’t always stick to the same pattern of teaching rather they should adapt new ways such as teaching through audio, video, field trip, etc. so that students have multiple options for taking in information and making sense of ideas.

To differentiate or to individualize instruction is to recognize students varying background knowledge, readiness, language, preferences in learning, interests, and to react responsively. The intent of individualizing instruction is to maximize each student’s growth and individual success by meeting each student where he or she is, and assisting in the learning process. It provides the opportunity for students to learn at their own pace, in their own way, and be successful.

Purposes of individualized strategy

•      To enhance and develop listening habit

Since most of the teaching is done through lecturing, the role of students are to listen and if felt necessary take note of them. The learning of the leaners greatly dependent on their listening habit and sense of hearing, thus helping them in enhancing their listening habit.

•      Enables the teachers to explain a lesson or demonstrate a technique to small groups of students at a time.

Here the smaller the number of students are the greater is the advantage of the teachers in teaching or explaining a lesson  or to demonstrate a technique to their students. In short smaller the number of students , more efficient the teaching or demonstration  will be.

•      Individualizing instruction allows each student to progress through the curriculum at his or her own pace.

It aims at how much the learner learn and pace at which they learn. Less important is given to covering the topics in the cirrcullum. Viatl importances is given to the progress the learner are making in the field of learner at his or her own pace(the rate and speed at which they learn).

•      Long term retention as they note down what they usually understand.

While the teacher is teaching in the class, students are acitvely engage in taking note of what they really understand instead of what the teacher explain. They usually note down what thay undarstand and are usually listed in their own words. So, this help them to retain the information for a longer period of time.

•      Importance is given to a child as a individual not as group, class and so on.

The  strategy is more concern about how much a single child is able to learn, retain and his oa her progress not as a group, class and team. As the current phase of children education says ‘no child is left behind’ .  so, the focus is on a child as an individual.

Principles of Individualized Instruction Strategy.

1.     Make the students clear about the key points and generalization to make sure that all learners gain a powerful and strong understanding so that they can have a good foundation for their future learning. Teachers are encouraged to identify essential concepts and instructional focuses to ensure all learners understand.

2.    Use assessment as a teaching tool to extend versus merely measure instruction. Assessment should occur before, during, and following the instructional episode. The assessment carried out before and during can be incorporated into classroom practice; it provides information needed to adjust teaching and learning while they are happening. E.g. Observation, questioning strategies, self and peer assessment, student’s record keeping. The assessment carried out before and during instructional episode is called formative assessment. And the assessment evaluated after instruction is called summative assessment. It is carried out every few weeks, months, or chapter tests. E.g. End of unit or chapter tests, end of term or semester exams.

3.    Emphasize and stress more on critical and creative thinking while designing a lesson. What ever task and activities that we provide to the students should be up to the student’s level and understanding, so that they can understand easily and will apply meaning. Instruction may require supports, additional motivation, varied tasks, materials, or equipment for different students in the classroom.

4.    Engaging all learners is essential. We should engage and make the students participate in class activities. For that teachers should develop their lesson to engage and motivate the students.

5.    Provide a balance between teacher-assigned and student-selected tasks. If there is a balance between the task and activities that are assigned by the teachers and the tasks selected by the students, the learning will be most favorable and desirable.

Requirements of individualize Instructions.

1.  Each students learn differently

ü  Some students are kinesthetic learners, requiring a hands-on approach to learning. Some students learn visually, excelling when they can read or see photographs of the material. Finally, some students learn best through listening, learning best when they can hear and talk through a problem.

2.  All students are talented in different ways.

ü  While one student may be creative, another student may be analytical. While one student may be mechanical, another student may excel at writing. Teaching requires differentiated and individualized instruction in order to reach all students.

3.  Educating children with special needs.

• Special Education is a specialized area of education which uses unique instructional methods, materials, learning aids, and equipment to meet the educational needs of children with learning disabilities.
• Remedial instruction aims to improve a skill or ability in each student. Using various techniques, such a more practice or explanation, repeating the information and devoting more time to working on the skills, the teachers guide each student through the educational process. A student that might, for example, have a low reading level might be given remediation.

4.   It is to meet the unique educational needs of the child.

ü  The IEP is intended to help children reach educational goals more easily than they otherwise would and  must especially help teachers and related service providers  understand the student's disability and how the disability affects the learning process.

5.  Teaching requires differentiated and individualized instruction in order to reach all students.

ü   Differentiating does not mean providing separate, unrelated activities for each student but does mean providing interrelated activities that are based on student needs for the purpose of ensuring that all students come to a similar grasp of a skill or idea.

6.  Careful and continuous assessment of individual progress can be carried out.

Ways of Individualizing/Differentiating Instruction.

Several key elements guide individualized instruction. Tomlinson (2001) identifies three elements of the curriculum that can be individualized or differentiated: Content, Process, and Products.

Content

Content can be described as the knowledge, skills and attitudes we want children to learn. Individualizing content requires that students are pre-tested so the teacher can identify the students who do not require direct instruction. Students demonstrating understanding of the concept can skip the instruction step and proceed to apply the concepts to the task of solving a problem. This strategy is often referred to as compacting the curriculum. Another way to individualize of differentiate content is simply to permit the apt student to accelerate their rate of progress. They can work ahead independently on some projects, i.e. they cover the content faster than their peers.

·         Several elements and materials are used to support instructional content.

These include acts, concepts, generalizations or principles, attitudes, and skills. The variation seen in an individualized classroom is most frequently the manner in which students gain access to important learning. Access to the content is seen as key.

·         Align tasks and objectives to learning goals.

Designers of individualized instruction determine as essential the alignment of tasks with instructional goals and objectives. An objectives-driven menu makes it easier to find the next instructional step for learners entering at varying levels.

·         Instruction is concept-focused and principle-driven.

The instructional concepts should be broad based and not focused on minute details or unlimited facts. Teachers must focus on the concepts, principles and skills that students should learn. The content of instruction should address the same concepts with all students but be adjusted by degree of complexity for the diversity of learners in the classroom.

Process

Individualizing or differentiating the processes means varying learning activities or strategies to provide appropriate methods for students to explore the concepts. It is important to give students alternative paths to manipulate the ideas embedded within the concept. For example students may use graphic organizers, maps, diagrams or charts to display their comprehension of concepts covered. Varying the complexity of the graphic organizer can very effectively facilitate differing levels of cognitive processing for students of differing ability.

·         Flexible grouping is consistently used.

Strategies for flexible grouping are essential. Learners are expected to interact and work together as they develop knowledge of new content. Teachers may conduct whole-class introductory discussions of content big ideas followed by small group or pair work. Student groups may be coached from within or by the teacher to complete assigned tasks. Grouping of students is not fixed. Based on the content, project, and on-going evaluations, grouping and regrouping must be a dynamic process as one of the foundations of individualized instruction.

·         Classroom management benefits students and teachers.

Teachers must consider organization and instructional delivery strategies to effectively operate a classroom using individualized instruction.

Products

Individualizing or differentiating the product means varying the complexity of the product that students create to demonstrate mastery of the concepts. Students working below grade level may have reduced performance expectations, while students above grade level may be asked to produce work that requires more complex or more advanced thinking. There are many sources of alternative product ideas available to teachers. However sometimes it is motivating for students to be offered choice of product.

·         Initial and on-going assessment of student readiness and growth are essential.

Meaningful pre-assessment naturally leads to functional and successful differentiation or individualization. Assessments may be formal or informal, including interviews, surveys, performance assessments, and more formal evaluation procedures. Incorporating pre and on-going assessment informs teachers to better provide a menu of approaches, choices, and scaffolds for the varying needs, interests and abilities that exist in classrooms of diverse students.

·         Students are active and responsible explorers.

Teacher’s respect that each task put before the learner will be interesting, engaging, and accessible to essential understanding and skills. Each child should feel challenged most of the time.

·         Vary expectations and requirements for student responses.

 Items to which students respond may be differentiated or individualized for students to demonstrate or express their knowledge and understanding. A well-designed student product allows varied means of expression, alternative procedures, and provides varying degrees of difficulty, types of evaluation, and scoring.

Advantages and disadvantages of Individualized instruction strategy.

Advantages:

1.  Student-Centric

• Differentiated instruction focuses on the academic needs and learning abilities of every individual student. By changing the methods of teaching to suit students, teachers are able to adjust the content of the syllabus. This encourages critical thinking in students, and gives them a chance to come forward and demonstrate what they have learned. It also creates a sense of equality among students, including the ones with a learning disability. Differentiated learning provides ample opportunity for students to aim and attain academic success with aplomb.

2.  Raises The Bar

• Advocates of this teaching approach believe differentiated learning raises the standards of learning in a big way. The true essence of this practice lies in the realization that learners and their abilities, readiness and interests vary. Educators have the liberty to set up classrooms and devise methods that would aid all students in thinking, analyzing and comprehending the teaching contents easily. Differentiation does not have hard and fast rules; it is all about options.

3.    Meeting the needs and interests of diverse learners.

4.    Provides the opportunity for students to learn at their own pace, in their own way, and be successful.

5. Recognizes students’ varying background knowledge, readiness, language, preferences in learning, interests, and to react responsively.
6. Maximizes each student’s growth and individual success by meeting each student where he or she is, and assisting in the learning process.
7. Helps in providing for the uniqueness of each child in terms of his/her particular learning style, talents and potential, handicaps and deficiencies, etc.

Disadvantages:

1.     Time constraints and chopped-up schedules are an obstacle.

Teachers could work better if they had longer blocks of time with students. At the elementary level, kids have to go somewhere or someone comes in to do something every 15–30 minutes; at the secondary level, kids rotate in and out every 37 or 42 minutes. It makes teachers crazy.

2.     Class size and teaching load are two of the biggest constraints.

 A teacher who works with150 kids a day gets glassy-eyed when told he needs to get to know those kids better. It's doable, but we would be far more efficient by arranging schedules so teachers had fewer students to get to know or kept them over longer periods of time.

3.    Teacher Preparedness.

 Sometimes, the teacher’s lack of adequate knowledge on individualizing instruction could also serve as a serious obstacle in individualizing instruction in the classroom. The teacher’s lack of knowledge and ignorance could be further aggravated when the school does not have the essential resources to support individualized or differentiated instruction.

PLANNING FOR DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION

A planning model can be used to help teachers make decisions about differentiated instruction and assessment. Each phase of the planning model will be explained.  Throughout this book, the strategies are clarified using examples.

1.     Established what needs to be taught. First, consider the standards, benchmarks, essential questions, or expectation to be taught. It should be clear what the students should know, to be able to do, or be like after the learning experience. Determine which assessment strategies will be used to collect data (logs, checklists, journals, observations, portfolios, rubrics).

Essential questions may be developed that will be visible and posted throughout the unit so that the students can consider the questions as they work on tasks.

2.    Identify the content, including facts, vocabulary, and essential skills.

3.    Activate. Determine what students know and what they need to learn next. This may be done 1 to 3 weeks prior to the unit to allow plenty of time for planning learning activities, grouping activities, and raising anticipation about the new topic. “Emotional hooks” can be used to engage and to capture the attention of the students through challenge, novelty, and unique experiences.

A strong pre-assessment determines what the students know. The pre-assessment is sometimes formal and other times informal. It is essential to select an assessment tool that best shows student’s prior knowledge, background experience and attitudes and preferences toward the information.

4.    Acquire. Decide what new information and skills students need to learn and how they will acquire the knowledge. Also decide whether the acquisition will take place in a total group setting or in small groups.

Now it is time to lay out the plan. Determine how the information is the best taught to this particular group of students. In this step, weed through the resources available and find the materials that will best meet the needs of these students. Focus on quality materials and remember that what works for one group does not always work for another group.

5.    Apply and adjust. Students need the opportunities to practice and become actively engaged with the new learning in order to understand and retain it. Determine how the students will be grouped and what tasks will be assigned to challenge them at the appropriate levels.