Differentiated Instruction A Significant Academic Event of Center for Professional Advancement of Ed

Active Learning creates positive output among students because there are meaningful classroom activities other than merely passively listening to a teachers’ lecture. Research shows that active learning improves students' understanding and retention of information and can be very effective in developing higher order cognitive skills such as problem solving and critical thinking.

In the 21st century teaching and learning, we develop critical thinkers, communicator, creative and problem solvers. This is really a big challenge for us educator to create a classroom which is an avenue of collection of mental activities that include the ability to intuit, clarify, reflect, connect, infer, and judge that will bring students to engage in various activities together and enables them to question what knowledge exists.

DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION is a teaching philosophy based on the premise that teachers should adapt instruction to student differences. Rather than marching students through curriculum lockstep, we teachers should modify our instruction to meet students’ varying readiness levels, learning preferences, and interest. Therefore, we need to proactively plans a variety of ways to “get at” and express learning.

In this 3-day seminar-workshop held at Sikatuna Beach San Jose Occidental Mindoro last February 26-28, 2016 , we learned that differentiated instruction is more qualitative, student-centered, and a blend of whole class, group and individual instruction. We teachers should consider Stenberg’s learning profile and tools for high-quality differentiation which are analytic, critical and practical. Another highlights of this significant academic event is the differentiation through TIERING. This tiered task is a readiness-based approach designed to help all learners work with the same essential information, ideas and skills, but at a degree of difficulty. Differentiated instruction aims to maximize each students’ growth. Teachers in differentiated classrooms are more in touch with their students and approach teaching more as an art than as a mechanical exercise. This is really a call that teachers in differentiated instruction use time flexibly, use variety of instructional strategies and become partner with their students so that both what is learned and the learning environment are shaped to support the learner and the learning.

Dr. Marla C. Pampango and Dr. Shirley N. Cervo emphasized that Differentiated Instruction is a process to teaching and learning for students of differing abilities in thesame class. They also discussed that differentiate instruction want to recognize students' varying background knowledge, readiness, language, preferences in learning and interests; and to react responsively. maximize each student'sgrowth and individual success by meeting each student where he or she is and assisting in the learning process.

The seminar-workshop also addressed learners’ diversity. This was served also as an avenue for us educator that in the teaching and learning process we need to consider the students’ cognitive functioning, learning strength, personality characteristics, learning preferences and interest. At the end of the session, the Center for the Professiomal Advancement of Educators motivated teachers to keep going up and ready empower students with their learning. The seminar challenged us to be in ONE TEAM, ONE FAMILY in making our students globally competitive and productive individuals in the future. This will happen of we collaboratively exert effort and be continuously standing in the name of EDUCATION.

DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION...ADDRESSING LEARNER DIVERSITY THROUGH DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION