Learning

People learn best when:

1. What they learn is personally meaningful.
2. What they learn is challenging, and they accept the challenge.
3. What they learn is appropriate to their developmental level.
4. They can learn in their own way, have choices, and feel in control.
5. They use what they know to construct new knowledge.
6. They have opportunities for social interaction.
7. They get helpful feedback.
8. They acquire and use strategies.
9. They experience a positive emotional climate.
10. The environment supports the intended learning. (p. 18)

And because people learn best under 1-10, 1a-10a are what a differentiated instruction approach offers to a diverse learning population:

1a)  Because students have different backgrounds and interests, there’s no guarantee that they’ll all find the same things personally meaningful.

2a)  Because students learn at different rates, a pace, text, or task that challenges some students will frustrate others.

3a)  At any time some students will think more concretely and some more abstractly, some more dependently and others more independently.

4a) It’s a sure bet students won’t all opt to learn in the same way, make the same choices, or feel in control with the same parameters.

5a) Because they don’t all know the same things at the same degree of competency, students will construct knowledge differently.

6a) Students will vary in the amount of collaboration they need and the sorts of peers with whom they work best.

7a) What is helpful feedback for one student may not be for another.

8a) Each student needs to acquire strategies new to that student and use them in ways that are personally helpful.

9a) Classrooms that are quite positive for some students are distinctively not so for others.

10a) Students will need varied scaffolding to achieve both common and personal goals. (p.18)