TEACHING CLASSES OF STUDENTS WITH DIFFERENT ABILITIES.

Teachers and I mean all teachers have to face this problem. My teachers faced it, I faced and now I mentor teachers as to how to deal with it.

We never have a homogenous class, it is always heterogeneous. Believe me, teaching a class where there are children with the same knowledge, same skills and same learning abilities (though an impossible situation unless we have a group matched on various variables after detailed psychological testing and Factorial Analysis) would not be a challenge to a good teacher. It would be routine and monotony.

Find as to what are the Learning Styles of your students, check their Entering Behaviour and where you find that it does not suit the minimum expectations at Entry level, organise a Bridge Course and improve upon their Entering Behaviour. If majority of students show poor learning abilities then change your objectives, your expectations and choose Curricular Areas that will help in improving upon their Entering Behaviour.

Most important is your Instructional Procedures or Strategies.
Adopt a Multisensory Approach; choose from a range of Activities on a topic, those that are obligatory and those that are optional. Give students the freedom to choose projects and activities from a Grid that allows them the freedom of choice at two levels; Taxonomical and Multiple Intelligence. You will in the process find that while all children perform activities at Lower Levels of Remembering, Understanding and Application; only a few will choose activities on Analysis, Evaluation and Creating. Similarly different children will choose activities as per their Intelligence.

You have to teach keeping the average 68% in view most of the time and the remaining 32% who are evenly distributed at the two ends of the continuum: 16% Above average need to be challenged with activities, projects and assignments as a programme of Enrichment and Acceleration and the other16%-Below average need immediate Remediation but after Diagnostic Evaluation and they need your time, attention, patience, reinforcement and care. This is the challenge to a teacher.

Please follow practices that have been tested and found useful; like peer work, group work, Use of colour and Music, Movement Breaks, enough opportunities for Review and Practice.

You have to individualise your teaching in a classroom setting. This is not difficult at all provided you have all the background information about each child and you can transact curriculum at various levels.

Cheer up. We all did it. I am sure you can do it better than us.
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