Running head: ASSESSMENT AS A DIFFERENTIATION STRATEGY 1

Strategies for Differentiation:

Teachers’ Perspectives on Differentiated Assessment

Jayden B. Lach

Western Sydney University

102097: Researching Teaching and Learning – 2H, 2019

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Strategies for Differentiation:

Teachers’ Perspectives on Differentiated Assessment

Teaching to accommodate for students’ learning needs has long been discussed in

education as a strategy to assist all students within schools to learn to their potential, with

research dating back to as early as the 1950’s (e.g. “Individual Difference”, 1953). More

recently, Tomlinson’s (2001) model of differentiated instruction provides a framework that

identifies and celebrates diversity within classrooms, and encourages students to be well-

rounded learners (Maeng, 2016; Tomlinson, Brimijoin, & Narvaez, 2008). At its core,

differentiated instruction within a classroom ensures differing approaches for students to

receive information, understand content, and to communicate what they have learnt

(Tomlinson, 2001). Whilst there has been some research into differentiated instruction (e.g.,

Tomlinson, 2001; Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006; Winebrenner, 1992), there has been very

little empirical research into differentiated assessment practices, particularly in the Australian

high school context. The purpose of this paper is to lay the foundations for research on

differentiated instruction in a Western Sydney school, and in particular, teachers’ perceptions

of, and willingness to utilize differentiated assessment practices.

Teachers that employ differentiated instruction in their classroom understand that all

students have differing learning needs, and thus require multiple strategies for conveying

information effectively for the greatest number of students (Tomlinson, 2001). For

differentiation to be successful, students must be at the forefront of learning, with teachers

providing information that is relevant and engaging to them, but will also challenge them to

be active learners, and taking responsibility for their learning (Maeng, 2016; Tomlinson,

2001). In order to achieve this, teachers must be continuously learning about their students,

and how they learn, to make adjustments to their teaching practices. This should include
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using a range of instructional practices involving whole-class discussions, smaller group

work and discussions, as well as having students working individually for an assortment of

tasks throughout the school year (Maeng, 2016; Tomlinson, 2001; Tomlinson et al., 2008).

Additionally, Tomlinson et al. (2008) recommend varying the delivery of content, the setting

for which the learning takes pace, as well as what the students are expected to produce, based

on the needs of the students.

Students being able to learn content within a classroom setting is dependent upon

constructing meaning from the novel information that the teacher is trying to convey

(Tomlinson, 2001). However, student’s ability to develop new learning is based upon their

prior knowledge, and being able to relate the new information to their experiences (McTighe

& Seif, 2010; National Research Council, 1990), hence the need for relatable problems to be

posed to students to form connections. For teachers to be able to effectively teach in this way,

students’ prior knowledge must be known, thus it is imperative for teachers to assess

knowledge with diagnostic testing, in addition to knowing their students’ interests (Blaz,

2013; McTighe & Seif, 2010; Tomlinson, 2001).

Teachers that are able to effectively apply differentiation strategies in their classroom,

are constantly assessing their students, both formally and informally, to understand how their

students are progressing in their learning (Blaz, 2013; Tomlinson, 2001; Tomlinson & Moon,

2013). Hattie (2012) suggests that to ensure differentiation is effective, the progress of each

student should be known from the beginning of each lesson, and their progression throughout

the lesson toward achieving the lesson objective. This can be done through informal

diagnostic or formative assessment strategies throughout the lesson such as having

discussions with students to gauge their understanding at points throughout the lesson, and

should form a major part of any teacher’s differentiation strategies.

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Traditionally, assessments in schooling have been assumed to be exams or

assignments, however this is not the goals of assessment. The purpose of assessment should

be to understand what students have learnt, and to provide feedback for the student on how to

improve their learning, as well as allowing the teacher to plan future lessons to ensure all

students are able to understand the required content to an acceptable standard for each student

(Blaz, 2013; Tomlinson, 2001). To achieve this, three types of assessment should be

incorporated into all teaching practices: diagnostic, formative, as well as summative

assessment. Diagnostic assessment should be performed at the beginning of a new unit of

work to determine students’ prior knowledge to build on, and must only be used for

influencing teaching (Blaz, 2013). Formative assessment occurs throughout a unit of work,

and is used to ascertain what students have learnt, what they have not achieved, and what to

do next (Blaz, 2013; Tomlinson & Moon, 2013; Wiliam, 2011). Blaz (2013) recommends

formative assessment to occur as often as possible, and occurs closely following the

instruction to see students’ progress, and can be simple tasks such as observations, exit cards,

peer evaluations, and questioning. Meaningful feedback should also be given in a timely

manner following formative assessment to allow for students to improve their learning (Black

& Wiliam, 1998; Suurtamm et al., 2016). Summative assessments however are typically

given upon the conclusion of a topic in the form of a test or an assignment, in order to show

what a student has learnt by a certain point in time (Harlen & James, 1997). This type of

assessment is difficult to directly use to improve student performance since they are often

administered just before moving to new topics, and thus students cannot apply the feedback

given from the task.

Exceptional differentiated assessment follows similar principles to the Quality

teaching framework (Ladwig & Gore, 2003), in that it encourages student choice, and allows

students to deliver a product that satisfies their intrinsic motivations. In addition,

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differentiating assessment allows students to choose real and relatable problems, as well as

producing work for real audiences and not just to be given a grade. This requires students to

review their knowledge, evaluate the situation, and synthesise their knowledge (Blaz, 2013).

Differentiated assessment also encourages students to apply their knowledge to existing, and

novel situations in line with the levels of learning objectives from mainstream taxonomies

such as Bloom’s (Anderson et al., 2001) and SOLO (Biggs & Collis, 1981).

Since most teachers should already be using different methods of formative

assessment in their everyday practice, this project will mainly focus around differentiating

summative assessment. When creating an authentic differentiated assessment, teachers should

be aware of the expectations of their students, since most students will still be learning the

skills and content, and although may be proficient at school-level, will likely not have

reached full mastery (Blaz, 2013). One example of summative assessment that can be used

for differentiation is called a product assessment, where students are asked to develop a

product to demonstrate their knowledge of a concept or skill, and ideally their ability to apply

them. This can take the form of a range of products, such as concept maps, reports, portfolios,

and knowledge checklists (Blaz, 2013; Tomlinson & Moon, 2013), with the importance of

quality over quantity being prevalent when designing such tasks, in addition to them being

aligned with learning outcomes (Tomlinson & Moon, 2013). It has been recommended that

combining product assessment with students self-evaluating their progress will increase a

student’s learning throughout this process, particularly since it allows students to think about

the skills they can demonstrate, and what they need to develop in order to achieve their goals

(Blaz, 2013). This strategy aligns well with the idea of allowing student choice in their work

(Ladwig & Gore, 2003), allows them to take more responsibility for their work (Tomlinson,

2001), whilst also allowing the outcomes to be assessed in an authentic manner due to the

choice of relevant information the student chooses to communicate.

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Action Research Protocol

The purpose of this research project is to gain insight into the assessment practices of

in-service teachers in western Sydney schools. The information gained from this project, can

be used to inform the development of strategies to implement differentiated assessment in

schools, to allow students to thrive by allowing them choice in the products they develop, and

also in the way that they are assessed. The idea for this research came from observing a class

taking a formal summative exam that was developed for use across the whole grade, and the

class being observed was unable to both read and write quick enough to finish the exam in

the allotted time. To combat this, the teacher of the class read each question to the students

from the front of the room to allow the students to gain an understanding of the scope of the

questioning. By not allowing the students to effectively communicate their understanding,

and subsequently giving them a failing grade when they have not completed significant

portions of the exam due to time and reading constraints, the school can be seen as failing to

provide an inclusive environment for these students.

The idea of teachers also being researchers has been around since at least the 1920’s

by Buckingham (as cited in Parsons & Brown, 2002). The use of action research in schools

and in classrooms, is a way that teachers can reflect on their teaching, and improve their

practice (Kervin, Vialle, Howard, Herrington, & Okely, 2016; Parsons & Brown, 2002). This

project can be considered action research due to its emphasis on improving educational

practice, and occurs collaboratively with other educators within a specific school (Kervin et

al., 2016). Whilst this particular study may not exactly fit the ‘traditional’ model of action

research from Kemmis and McTaggart (1988), it does follow the model developed by

Parsons and Brown (2002) where the interpretation of the data collected from this study will

be used to inform a new research question related to the outcome, which is essential for

action research (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1990). This is in part due to the limited research on
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differentiated research practices, thus determining the acceptance of the strategy is essential

to the success of its implementation.

Data for this project will be collected through a survey that will distributed throughout

the participating school, ideally to at least one member of every faculty throughout the school

as a representative of that faculties views, giving an indicative sample of the teacher

population of the school (Creswell, 2003). This allows for perceptions from a range of people

to be analysed, with the participants having the anonymity to give honest answers to the

questions since the survey will be administered online. Ideally, interviews would be

conducted post-analysis, however due to time constraints of this project, this is not possible.

The survey will consist of a range of question styles, including responses requiring

choices based on a Likert scale of differing sizes dependant on the question to reduce the

likelihood of neutrality for the sake of answering, as well as questions requiring short

answers to assist in interpreting the answers based off the limited choice questions. After

gaining insight into the subject area and average teaching experience of the teaching faculty,

questions will determine the teachers’ understanding of differentiation practices, including

their use of such strategies. Following this, the teachers will be asked for their perceptions on

differentiating assessment for students, in particular summative assessment, and their

likelihood of engaging in differentiated assessment strategies in their future teaching practice.

A final section of the online survey will be open for the participants to outline any strategies

they believe will assist in the successful implementation of differentiated assessment in their

school, including ideas for assessments, as well as and school policies that may need

reviewing to allow for these practices to be implemented.

Prior to engaging in the survey, all participants will be informed of the process of this

project, including all submissions being de-identified, and their ability to withdraw their

submissions at any time throughout the project, in line with informed consent practices.
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Consent forms (see Appendix for the consent form) will also be administered to all potential

participants, as well as being administered online prior to the survey beginning, requiring all

participants to give written consent for their data to be analysed.

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References

Anderson, L. W., Krathwohl, D. R., Airasian, P. W., Cruikshank, K. A., Mayer, R. E.,

Pintrich, P. R., …Wittrock, M. C. (Eds.). (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching,

and assessing: A revision of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives (Abr. ed.).

Retrieved from https://www.uky.edu/~rsand1/china2018/texts/Anderson-

Krathwohl%20-

%20A%20taxonomy%20for%20learning%20teaching%20and%20assessing.pdf

Biggs, J. B., & Collis, K. F. (1981). Evaluating the quality of learning: The solo taxonomy

(structure of the observed learning outcome). New York, NY: Academic Press.

Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Assessment and classroom learning. Assessment in

Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 5, 7-74. doi:10.1080/0969595980050102

Blaz, D. (2013). Differentiated assessment for middle and high school classrooms. New

York, NY: Routledge.

Cochran-Smith, M., & Lytle, S. L. (1990). Research on teaching and teacher research: The

issues that divide. Educational Researcher, 19(2), 2-11. doi:10.2307/1176596

Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods

approaches (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Harlen, W., & James, M. (1997). Assessment and learning: Differences and relationships between

formative and summative assessment. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy &

Practice, 4(3), 365-379. doi:10.1080/0969594970040304

Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for teachers: Maximizing impact on learning. New York,

NY: Routledge.

Kemmis, S., & McTaggart, R. (Eds.). (1988). The action research planner (3rd ed.).

Melbourne, Australia: Deakin University Press.

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Kervin, L., Vialle, W., Howard, S. J., Herrington, J., & Okely, T. (2016). Research for

educators (2nd ed.). South Melbourne, Australia: Cengage Learning.

Ladwig, J., & Gore, J. (2003). Quality teaching in NSW public schools: A classroom practice

guide (SCIS Publication No. 1149494). Retrieved from http://web1.muirfield-

h.schools.nsw.edu.au/technology/Programs/Template/Quality%20Teaching%20Guide

.pdf

Maeng, J. L. (2016). Using technology to facilitate differentiated high school science

instruction. Research in Science Education, 47, 1075-1099. doi:10.1007/s11165-016-

9546-6

McTighe, J., & Seif, E. (2010). An implementation framework to support 21st century skills.

In J. A. Bellanca & R. R. Brandt (Eds.), 21st century skills: Rethinking how students

learn (pp. 149-172). Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

National Research Council. (1990). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school.

Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Parsons, R. D., & Brown, K. S. (2002). Teacher as reflective practitioner and action

researcher. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.

Suurtamm, C., Thompson, D. R., Kim, R. Y., Moreno, L. D., Sayac, N., Schukajlow, S., Silver,

E., Ufer, S., & Vos. P. (2016). Assessment in mathematics education. doi:10.1007/978-3-

319-32394-7

The challenge of individual difference [Special issue]. (1953). Educational Leadership,

11(3). Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership.aspx

Tomlinson, C. A. (2001). How to differentiate instruction in mixed-ability classrooms (2nd

ed.). Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

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Tomlinson, C. A., Brimijoin, K., & Narvaez, L. (2008). The differentiated school: Making

revolutionary changes in teaching and learning. Retrieved from

https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Tomlinson, C. A., & McTighe, J. (2006). Integrating differentiated instruction and

understanding by design: Connecting content and kids. Retrieved from

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Tomlinson, C. A., & Moon, T. R. (2013). Assessment and student success in a differentiated

classroom. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com

Wiliam, D. (2011). Embedded formative assessment. Indianapolis, IN: Solution Tree.

Winebrenner, S. (1992). Teaching gifted kids in the regular classroom: Strategies every

teacher can use to meet the needs of the gifted and talented. Minneapolis, MN: Free

Spirit Publishing.
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Appendix A

Project consent form

Dear Potential Participant:

I am working on a project titled ” Strategies for Differentiation: Teachers’ Perspectives on Differentiated
Assessment” for the class, ‘Researching Teaching and Learning 2,’ at Western Sydney University. As part
of the project, I am collecting information to help inform the design of a teacher research proposal.
Differentiated instruction has become prevalent in schools within the last decade, however students are still
being assessed using the same assessments across a cohort. The purpose of this project is to gain an insight
into the assessment practices of teachers, and their willingness to apply differentiated assessments into
their regular practice. This project will consist of a survey that will be used to inform a larger group project
titled “What are the benefits of differentiated learning in classrooms?” All information provided will be
used to inform and improve the teaching practice of the larger group.
By participating in this survey, I acknowledge that:
• I have read the project information and have been given the opportunity to discuss the information
and my involvement in the project with the researcher/s.
• The procedures required for the project and the time involved have been explained to me, and any
questions I have about the project have been answered to my satisfaction.
• I consent to my answers to the survey being de-identified, and data analysed.
• I understand that my involvement is confidential and that the information gained during this data
collection experience will only be reported within the confines of the ‘Researching Teaching and
Learning 2’ unit, and that all personal details will be de-identified from the data.
• I understand that I can withdraw from the project at any time, without affecting my relationship
with the researcher/s, now or in the future.

By signing below, I acknowledge that I am 18 years of age or older, or I am a full-time university student
who is 17 years old.
Signed: __________________________________
Name: __________________________________
Date: __________________________________
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Appendix B

Research Questions
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