Tag Archives: Differentiation
The following is an excerpt from Dr. Joe Renzulli’s opinion piece, originally published in Education Week’s February 28, 2012 edition.
There are conferences for just about everything these days, but because of my interest in personalized learning, it appeared that this one on redesigning personalized learning would be just the ticket for gaining new insights into how learning can be more responsive to the divergent needs and diverse populations in today’s schools. Most educators agree that the one-size-fits-all curriculum needs addressing, and this by-invitation-only “summit” showed so much promise that I wangled an invite. Resplendent with all the buzzwords of the personalization and differentiation mystique (“flexible,” “student-driven,” “authentic,” “everywhere learning,” “systemic redesign” — to mention a few), the event would be staffed by the gurus of school reform and attended by education power brokers and CEOs from the public and private sectors.
Wow! What could be more appealing and hopeful for a change from the harmful direction that education has taken since the No Child Left Behind Act turned the learning process into a gigantic text-consumption and weakness-based test-prep industry? And the expectation that technology was a major answer to this promise of a revolution in personalizing learning made the conference even more appealing.
Editor’s Note: This is the final in a series of three posts from Dr. Joseph Renzulli, a world-renowned expert on gifted and talented education and whole-student education, as well as co-developer of Renzulli Learning, a revolutionary online learning system that personalizes learning for students based on their interests, learning styles, and expression styles.
During the time that we were experimenting with and watching the success of many gifted and enrichment programs based on the Enrichment Triad Model, we were also working on methods for differentiating curriculum (Curriculum Compacting) and matching the needs of academically talented students with appropriate levels of challenge and interest-based materials. The development of individual educational plans for academically gifted and talented students became a priority in our research, and we published a guidebook that recommended interest and learning styles analyses of students, coupled with curriculum compacting and modification, in 1978. It was during this time that we became increasingly interested in identification procedures that would include more academically talented and creative students who could excel and would benefit from participating in Enrichment Triad Programs.
The Triad Model and investigative learning are not intended to replace the regular curriculum. Rather, teachers should look into any and all regular curricular topics to find opportunities where they can infuse one or more general (Types I and II) enrichment experiences into prescribed curricular topics. And, when one or more students show a positive reaction, teachers can make the connections for individual and small-group follow-up (Type III) by guiding the work themselves, locating mentors with expertise in the students’ chosen area of study, or using internet resources to provide material for advanced study.
Editor’s Note: This week, we feature a series of three posts from Dr. Joseph Renzulli, a world-renowned expert on gifted and talented education and whole-student education, as well as co-developer of Renzulli Learning, a revolutionary online learning system that personalizes learning for students based on their interests, learning styles, and expression styles.
I have spent many years analyzing the powerful impact of enrichment activities covered in my previous post. The reactions of both students and teachers have led me to conclude that there are three characteristics that exemplify what most students and teachers experience when the best forms of learning take place. These characteristics are Enjoyment, Engagement, and Enthusiasm. Based on these three characteristics, a “brand” of learning has been developed that is intended to bring some balance between prescriptive requirements and enrichment experiences. We call this brand “investigative learning,” and the vehicles designed to deliver this more creative method of teaching are three different types of enrichment depicted in the figure and briefly described below.
Editor’s Note: This week, we feature a series of three posts from Dr. Joseph Renzulli, a world-renowned expert on gifted and talented education and whole-student education, as well as co-developer of Renzulli Learning, a revolutionary online learning system that personalizes learning for students based on their interests, learning styles, and expression styles.
Imagine what it would be like if students came to school each day with the same positive attitude we routinely see when they are working on the school yearbook, preparing for a choir presentation, getting ready for a robotics competition, or preparing to play their arch rivals in basketball. What is the magnetism surrounding these experiences that produces a mindset that is so different from regular schooling; and how can we create at least some of this positive energy as we go about educating young people in the regular curriculum as opposed to these extra curricular activities?
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