Duren,

Thank you for your explanation.  I am new to this listserv and have seen the term "differentiated instruction" pop up several times.  I am not in the field of professional development but I had an idea what DI was. I did not have the full understanding as to its current role in adult education.

Thanks,
Dina
________________________________________
From: professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov [professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Thompson, Duren J [duren.thompson at utk.edu]
Sent: Friday, October 17, 2008 12:31 PM
To: professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 2612] Re: ProfessionalDevelopment Digest,     Vol 37, Issue 11

Katrina,

The theory of differentiated instruction comes from K-12 where,
supposedly, all students are supposed to come into a grade operating on
a similar level.  Differentiated instruction, in general, focuses on
determining where students *actually* are, and what are their strengths,
interests, etc. and working to create lessons that appeal to all. Rather
than teaching to a metaphorical "middle."

Differentiated instruction as a term, comes up very little in
literacy/GED/ESOL type Adult education, because that is the preferred
MODEL for AE - find out where the student is, determine their strengths
and weaknesses, and then work to assist him/her to address these.

In addition, non-differentiated instruction assumes a significant amount
of "whole group instruction."  While many AE instructors conduct group
learning activities, they are much more likely to use small group work
and related independent work - as is recommended in differentiated
instruction.

When whole group instruction is used, AE instructors are often teaching
students on widely varying levels and make instructional plans
accordingly.  These are usually called "mulit-level" instruction rather
than differentiated instruction.

All that said, I think you can find *some* research on multi-level
instruction for AE (especially in ESOL).  But like those living in the
forest who only see trees, I believe you will fine little research in
the area of differentiated instruction - as that is essentially what all
effective AE instructors proactice - without knowin it by name.

Duren Thompson
Center for Literacy Studies - Celebrating 20 years of support for
Life-long learning!
University of Tennessee
www.cls.utk.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: "Katrina Hinson" <khinson at almanid.com>
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 2605]  Question for the List
To: <professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov>
Message-ID: <48F8AAA4020000A00000591C at aiqwul01a.qwu.de.almanid.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII

Good morning everyone.

I have an interesting question that has come up for me in recent days.
I'm first year PhD student in a Technical and Professional Discourse. My
classes come from a variety of disciplines which is one of the reasons I
picked this field to advance my studies. I have worked in adult
education for twelve years and continue to do so. I had to deveop an
'issue' to explore in one of my classes this semester and opted to
explore differentiated instruction as it applies to the adult learner,
but I can't find a lot of research related specifically to this. Does
anyone on the list know of a good place to look?

End of ProfessionalDevelopment Digest, Vol 37, Issue 11
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