Empowering Education with Adaptive Teaching: Meeting the Unique Needs of Every Learner

In the ever-evolving realm of education, a powerful concept is on the rise - "adaptive teaching." This approach is swiftly gaining recognition as an effective way to address the diverse needs of our students. Adaptive teaching revolves around the idea of continuously assessing students' strengths and needs, and then adjusting teaching strategies accordingly. While technology can be a helpful ally in this endeavour, it's not a prerequisite. This blog will delve into the fundamental principles of adaptive teaching, setting it apart from the traditional concept of differentiation, and integrating insights from the Early Career Framework (ECF) designed to guide new teachers.

?

Adaptive Teaching: An Overview

Adaptive teaching is a pedagogical approach that zeroes in on real-time responsiveness to students' learning needs. Unlike differentiation, which often involves tailoring instruction to individuals or small groups, adaptive teaching is a whole-class strategy. It places a high premium on teachers being attuned to their student's progress and making timely adjustments to ensure the best possible learning outcomes.

?

Key Principles of Adaptive Teaching

?

1. Understanding Unique Needs: Adaptive teaching requires a good comprehension of each student's distinctive requirements, including their prior knowledge and obstacles to learning. This information forms the bedrock of effective instruction. Know what they know - know their learning needs.

?

2. High Expectations for All: While attentive to individual needs, adaptive teaching has high expectations for every student. It guarantees that each learner has the opportunity to not just meet but exceed these expectations.

?

3. Formative Assessment: Continuous assessment during lessons is a hallmark of adaptive teaching. Techniques such as diagnostic questions, mini-whiteboards, and low-stakes tests come into play. These strategies help to gauge student understanding in real time.

?

4. In-the-Moment Adaptations: Adaptive teaching encourages teachers to be flexible and make in-the-moment adaptations as needed. These adaptations can range from reading a text aloud and employing a Literacy Toolbox Approach to adjusting scaffolding, providing extra examples, or fostering peer support.

?

Adaptive Teaching vs. Differentiation

?

Differentiation has been a longstanding educational practice, but it has encountered criticism for its unintended consequences, including lowering expectations and creating disparities among students. On the flip side, adaptive teaching presents a refreshing perspective:

?

1. Focus on Whole Class adaptions possible with AT: While differentiation often revolves around individuals or small groups, adaptive teaching concentrates on the entire class, ensuring that all students are on the path to meeting expectations. This is where your knowledge of the wider adoption of Assistive Technology and a PedTech mind-shift can really shape outcomes! For example, for a learner with #dyslexia, a ScanningPen can provide the reading support that would otherwise require a human reader, peer support or a differentiated text.

?

2. Real-Time Responsiveness: Adaptive teaching places a strong emphasis on immediate responses to student needs, making adjustments during the lesson as necessary. This contrasts with the often pre-planned nature of differentiation.

?

3. High Expectations: Adaptive teaching maintains high expectations for all students, avoiding the trap of setting lower expectations for specific individuals or groups. Where Universal Design For Learning principles have been applied every student has a greater opportunity to produce work in a way that is appropriate to their needs, skills and preferences

?

4. Avoiding Unnecessary Workload: Adaptive teaching encourages the use of well-designed resources and efficient planning to meet individual needs without burdening teachers with unnecessary work.

?

The Role of the Early Career Framework (ECF)

?

The ECF for new teachers offers valuable guidance on implementing adaptive teaching practices. Standard 5 of the ECF underscores these key points:

?

1. Recognizing that students learn at different rates and require varying levels and types of support.

2. Seeking to understand students' differences, including prior knowledge and potential barriers to learning.

3. Adapting teaching in response to student needs while maintaining high expectations.

4. Avoiding the creation of distinct tasks for different groups of students or setting lower expectations for specific individuals.

5. Flexibly grouping students within a class to provide tailored support.

6. Dismissing the notion of distinct and identifiable learning styles.

7. Recognizing that students with special educational needs or disabilities may require additional or adapted support.

The move towards adaptive teaching represents a profound shift in the realm of education, departing from traditional differentiation practices towards a more dynamic and responsive approach. By understanding students' unique needs, holding high expectations, and making in-the-moment adaptations, teachers can cultivate a learning environment where every student has the opportunity to thrive. Insights from the Early Career Framework further underscore the pivotal role of adaptive teaching in empowering educators to effectively address the diverse needs of their students.

If you are not sure how to make adaptions using #AssistiveTechnology then look no further than the nasen AT miniguide - It is a guide that will help you to make reasonable adjustments and create accessible learning opportunities.

You can download your free guide from nasen or from Empowering Tech where you will also find a video explanation of what is in the guide.