Differentiating Instruction in Mainstream Classrooms-Students with Disabilities

How to differentiate instruction for your students with disabilities in mainstream classrooms is a complex and critical area of discussion and professional implementation for educators in today’s classrooms. The complexity of the question becomes, “How can mainstream teachers differentiate instruction and produce challenging and accessible learning experiences for students with disabilities?” The answer to the question can be seen in how students learn in highly functioning and engaging learning environments and how the complexity of student learning styles provide access to education.

Today’s researchers on the question of student learning look at brain research in understanding learning and access. Along with the specifics of the student learner and the dynamic differences of learning skills that each learner brings to the classroom, researchers are able to understand the effectiveness of differentiated instruction. For educators who are working to accommodate the various skills and learning styles present in today’s classrooms, the construction of lessons that are rigorous and engaging becomes a challenge and a charge.

The charge for teachers today is to provide a classroom environment for learning that accommodates all students. The diversity of today’s learning groups can sometimes mean that teachers provide instruction to the majority of students and not to those who require differentiated instruction or curriculum reconstruction. Students with disabilities who need differentiated instruction the most in today’s classrooms have become the recipients of getting less and being left in the backdrops of educational communities.

For students with disabilities, the inequity in classroom instruction and curriculum can have far reaching implications beyond the public school experience and beyond the optimal learning experiences that occur in the early learning years. Implications of inequity for students with disabilities can extend into the transitional years beyond high school. In order to help students with disabilities grow and learn in today’s classrooms, teachers must have the professional skills and training to understand that one curriculum doesn’t fit every student in the classroom. Differentiating instruction provides teachers with tools to construct instruction and modify curriculum that is simpatico with how students learn and perform in classrooms. The best possible learning environment for students with disabilities is in a classroom where differentiated instruction is the norm and not the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) directive.