Promises and challenges of differentiated instruction as pre-service teachers learn to address pupil diversity

This multi-sited ethnographic study explores how pre-service teachers (PSTs) address pupil diversity during their practicum at lower secondary schools and how this is facilitated by their participation in university courses. This investigation's focus on diversity is grounded in the concept of differentiated instruction. We found out that university teaching contributes to PSTs having a positive approach towards pupil diversity and that in their practicum PSTs succeed in taking the needs of certain groups of pupils into account in the classroom. However, PSTs take the needs of pupils into account unevenly and tend to homogenise their teaching on their practicum, to which the university curriculum also contributes by not being sufficiently experience-based and not providing a systematic framework for addressing the needs of all pupils in the classroom.

Automated summary

This study examines how pre-service teachers deal with pupil diversity during their practicum in secondary schools and how university courses support this process. The study reveals that university teaching helps pre-service teachers adopt a positive attitude towards pupil diversity and they succeed in addressing the needs of certain groups of students. However, the study also finds that pre-service teachers unevenly consider the needs of students and tend to homogenize their teaching during the practicum due to inadequacies in the university curriculum.