Understanding

your students
Chapter 2
Chapter Overview
• Why Pay Attention to Individual Differences?
• The Effects of General Intelligence on Learning
• The Effects of Specific Abilities on Learning
• The Effects of Prior Achievement on Learning
• The Effects of Cultural Differences on Learning
• The Effects of Personality and Learning Style
• The Effects of the Peer Group on Learning
• The Effects of Home Life and Social Context on Learning
• Cultural, Linguistic, and SES Biases in the Classroom
Why Pay Attention to Individual
Differences?
• Children vary in experiences, socioeconomic status (SES),
culture and ethnicity, language, and learning style, all of which
influence what students learn.
• Viewing students as empty vessels into which a teacher pours
knowledge fails to consider individual student differences.
• Knowing individual student differences is important for:
1. Adapting instructional methods to individual learning needs.
2. Understanding the reasons for the performance of individual
learners 
• By recognizing students’ individual differences and special needs, you
will be better able to help them use their own experiences and
learning histories to derive meaning and understanding from what
you are teaching. With that knowledge, you will be better able to
adapt your instructional methods to the learning needs of your
students and employ different instructional methods with different
learners.
Adaptive Teaching
• Adaptive teaching: The general approach to achieving a
common instructional goal with learners with differences in prior
achievement, aptitude, or learning style.
• The remediation approach provides the learner with the
prerequisite knowledge, skill, or behavior needed to benefit from
the planned instruction. For example, you might attempt to lower the
anxiety of highly anxious students with a student-centered discussion
before an important presentation, so the presentation will equally
benefit all students. Or you might teach listening skills to students low
in auditory ability before using a linguistic approach to reading, so both
groups will profit equally from this instructional approach.
• In the compensatory approach teachers choose an instructional
method to compensate for the lack of information, skills, or ability
in learners. This is accomplished by using alternate modalities, or
by supplementing with additional learning resources.

This is accomplished by using alternate modalities (pictures versus

words) or by supplementing the content with additional learning
resources (instructional games and simulations) and activities (group
discussions or experience-oriented activities)
Benefits of Adaptive Teaching
• Adaptive teaching, in contrast, works to achieve success with all
students, regardless of their individual differences.
• Therefore adaptive teaching requires an understanding of your
students’ learning strengths and experience with regard to specific
lesson content and the alternative instructional methods that can
maximize their strongest receptive modalities
Some of the most promising instructional alternatives in adaptive
teaching include:
• Cooperative grouping versus whole-class instruction
• Inquiry versus expository presentation
• Rule-example versus example-rule ordering
• Teacher-centered versus student-centered presentation
• Examples from experience versus examples from text
• Group phonics versus individualized phonics instruction
• Individual responses versus choral responses
• Sub-vocal responses versus vocal responses
• Self-directed learning versus whole-group instruction
• Computer-driven text versus teacher presentation
Differentiated Instruction
• A related approach to responding to your learners’ individual
differences is called differentiated instruction. While the methods of
adaptive teaching can be effective in responding to the whole class or
groups of learners in the same, differentiated instruction focuses on
the academic success of individual learners or small groups of
learners
 • There are three elements of the curriculum— content, process, and
products—that can be differentiated to make instruction more responsive
to the individual needs of learners:
1. Content. Differentiation can take the form of varying the modalities in
which students gain access to important learning, for example, by: (a)
listening, reading, and doing; (b) presenting content in incremental steps, like
rungs on a ladder, resulting in a continuum of skill-building tasks; and (c)
offering learners a choice in the complexity of content with which they will
begin a learning task that matches their current level of understanding and
from which every learner can experience academic success.
2. Process. Differentiation takes the form of grouping flexibly, for example,
by (a) varying from whole class, to collaborative groups, to small groups, to
individuals and (b) providing incentives to learn based on a student’s
individual interests and current level of understanding.
3. Products. We can vary assessment methods by: (a) providing
teachers a menu of choices that may include oral responses,
interviews, demonstrations and reenactments, portfolios, and formal
tests; (b) keeping each learner challenged at his or her level of
understanding with content at or slightly above his or her current level
of functioning; and (c) allowing students to have some choice in the
means in which they may express what they know—for example,
writing a story, drawing a picture, or telling about a real-life experience
that involves what is being taught.
The Effects of General Intelligence on
Learning
• Intelligence (IQ) is not a single unified dimension, and is actually
a blend of a variety of aptitudes expressed at different levels.
• Specific aptitudes or factors are more predictive of success in
school/certain occupations than is general intelligence.
• Knowing your learners’ aptitudes, strengths, and weaknesses
and adjusting teaching accordingly will lead to greater success
than teaching according to their general intelligence.
Environmentalist and Hereditarian Views
of Intelligence
• The environmentalist position criticizes general IQ tests as
being culturally biased, noting that the verbal skills generally
required to do well on intelligence tests are not practiced in
impoverished home environments. Therefore, a significant part of
any low scores on intelligence tests among minority students
represents effects of their home environment.
• The hereditarian position concludes that heredity rather than
the environment is the major factor determining intelligence.
Multiple Intelligences
• Differing aptitudes or learning styles have been categorized by
researchers. Among the best known of these are the multiple
intelligences of Howard Gardner and his collaborators:
• Linguistic intelligence
• Logical-mathematical intelligence
• Musical intelligence
• Spatial intelligence 
• Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence
• Interpersonal intelligence
• Naturalist intelligence 
 Some practical classroom applications of Gardner’s theory of multiple
intelligences include the following:
1. Allowing students to take differentiated paths to achieve common goals
(e.g., using the Internet, reading from text, or talking to experts)
2. Allowing students to display their best, not just their average,
performance (e.g., allowing multiple tries and recording their best)
3. Providing alternative ways of assessing a student’s achievements and
talents (e.g., allowing students to choose among an oral report, portfolio,
dramatization, or written product)
4. Providing opportunities to add to the student’s self-identity beyond the
traditional logical/ linguistic abilities required by the majority of
schoolwork (e.g., allowing students to show what they know in
nontraditional ways by building a scale model, completing a graphic, or
presenting a newscast)
The Effects of Prior Achievement on
Learning
• Task-relevant prior learning is the set of facts, skills, and
understandings that must be taught (and mastered by the
learner) in order for subsequent learning to occur.
• Logical progressions called learning structures identify what
needs to be known by the learner at each previous step before
new learning can take place.
Effects of Cultural Differences on
Learning
• The typical classroom of today contains a more diverse group of
learners than at any time in our history.
• For millions of students, English is not the native language.
• Students from different cultures may react differently to the verbal
and nonverbal classroom management techniques.
• In reciprocal distancing, teachers and students use language to
include or exclude various individuals.
• An important characteristic that distinguishes lower-class children
from middle-class and upper-class children is that the latter more
rapidly acquire knowledge of the world outside their homes and
neighborhoods.
Cultural Deficits and Differences
• In the cultural deficit model, some students’ lack of proficiency
in English is explained via genetically or culturally inspired
factors. This approach focuses on what is missing in a child’s
ability to perform well in the classroom.
• In the cultural difference model, focus is placed not on
diminishing a child’s home language or dialect, but upon
providing a rich instructional environment that uses differences
as valued vehicles to transmit learning.
• Cultural frames describe how culture affects student
approaches to learning. 
The Effects of Personality and Learning
Style
• Erikson refers to three crises during the school year:
1. Accomplishment versus inferiority.
2. Identity versus confusion.
3. Intimacy versus isolation.

- Field dependence/independence is one of the most studied

learning styles (conditions under which someone prefers to
learn).
• During the first crisis, accomplishment versus inferiority, the learner
seeks ways of producing products or accomplishments that are
respected by others. In this manner, the child creates a feeling of
worth to dispel feelings of inferiority or inadequacy that result from
competing in a world where adults appear confident and competent.
• Erikson’s second crisis during the school years, identity versus role
confusion, is precipitated by the need to understand oneself—to find
his or her identity, “the real me.” One’s gender, race, ethnicity,
religion, and attractiveness can play important roles in producing or
failing to produce a consistent and acceptable self-image. This is a
process of accepting oneself as one truly is, apart from illusions,
made-up images, and exaggerations.
• Erikson’s third crisis during the school years, intimacy versus isolation,
involves giving up part of one’s identity to develop close and intimate
relationships with others. Learning how to get along with teachers,
parents, and classmates is one of the key developmental tasks
learners must master to successfully resolve this crisis. Successful
relationships with parents and teachers, referred to as vertical
relationships, meet a learner’s needs for safety, security, and
protection. Successful relationships with peers, referred to as
horizontal relationships, are of equal developmental significance for
learners. They meet learners’ needs for belonging and allow them to
acquire and practice important social skills. Providing opportunities
for learners to develop healthy relationships when they enter school
helps them develop skills important in getting along with others,
helping others, and establishing intimacy.
The Effects of Personality and Learning
Style
• Research shows that some learners are:
– More field sensitive (holistic/visual learners).
– Less field sensitive (verbal/analytic learners).
• Field dependence/independence is one of the most studied
learning styles (conditions under which someone prefers to
learn).
• Avoid stereotypes when planning teaching to take advantage of
individual differences.
The Effects of the Peer Group on
Learning
• Peer groups are an influential source of learner behavior both in
and out of the classroom. Group work, group norms, group
cohesiveness, and cross-age tutoring are means of using
peer-group influence to foster instructional goals in the
classroom. 
The Effects of Home Life and Social
Context on Learning
• Along with their peer group, a learner’s family and their
relationship to the school are prominent sources of influence on
their learning.
• When parents and teachers become partners, not only can
student achievement increase, but parents learn about the
teacher and the school.
• Genuine partnerships between the school and parents or
guardians of learners are essential to building a cohesive
classroom climate. 
Guidelines for Promoting Family School
Partnerships
1. View the family from a systems-ecological perspective.
2. Acknowledge changes in the American family.
3. View parent participation from an empowerment model rather
than a deficit model.
4. Recognize the unique needs of mothers and fathers when
planning opportunities to involve parents.
5. Appreciate that parents are just like you, and experience
periodic emotional, family, and economic problems.
6. Understand the variety of school-family linkages and respect
family preferences for different degrees of school participation.
Cultural, Linguistic, and SES Biases in the
Classroom
• To avoid bias in interacting with students:
– Consciously spread interactions across categories of students
toward whom you have identified bias.
– Randomly select students for special assignments.
– Pair students who are opposite in your category of bias, and
then interact with both members of the pair.
– Code class notes to remind yourself to call on students toward
whom you may be biased.