1. Action Research „Differentiation group‟
Key research question
How do you ensure that students build in differentiation
into their own model of learning?
Main background research summary:
Research suggests that a good to outstanding lesson does not need
to do anything different in order to differentiate provided that
planning allows for:
• Multi-task learning
• Multi-sensory learning
Our group is presently giving focus to differentiation in IL

2. Our group set IL providing students with 3 options
IL that we considered to be;
• Easy (Scaffold advice)
• Medium ( Bullet point advice)
• Hard (Open research question)
Crucially what we thought of as the degree of difficulty was not
revealed to the students.
This approach provided us with simple data illustrating the
percentage of students opted for Easy, Medium and Hard.
Thereafter a survey was carried out on one sample class with the
aim of trying to tease out reasons why students selected a
particular option.

3. In a survey the students were asked the following questions and it was
made clear that they had anonymity from their teacher!
Which option did you select and what were the reasons that motivated
you to make the choice?
Did you consider that one option was easier or more difficult?
If so, which option is the most difficult and which option is the easiest?
In the future would you like to have IL options and if so what factors would
influence you when making choices?
The survey data was then passed to Lesley who analysed the data and
extrapolated from the data the following conclusions…………..

4. Did the students agree with our views about which was easiest or hardest?
• Most students (15 out of 23) agreed option A looked easiest.
• Most students (15 out of 23) agreed option C looked hardest.
What did the students choose?
• 7 students chose option A (the “easy option” – scaffold advice)
• 5 chose option B (the “middle option” – bullet point advice)
• 11 chose option C (the “hard option” – open question)

5. Then it gets interesting: How did the students differentiate for themselves?
• 6 students chose the option they thought looked easiest (which wasn‟t
always option A).
• 9 students chose the option they thought looked hardest (which wasn‟t
always option C).
• 12 students - nearly half - say they chose the option they thought they
could answer best.
• 10 students say they chose the option they were most interested in or
would enjoy most.
Did students like having the choice?
• The majority of students (18 out of 23) said they liked differentiated IL and
would like it again.
What next?
• Was the IL of better or worse quality than usual?
• Look at the reasons why students didn‟t want differentiated IL. How can
we address these concerns?
• Try again with a different group, in a different subject