Abstract:
The last four decades have seen profound challenges and changes to education and learning within Australia. One such challenge is the diversity that is found in our student population in the regular classroom. This diversity has resulted in an increase of variance in student ability and support needs, and the subsequent requirement for variance in teacher instructional design and context. Within these educational contexts, research suggests that literacy difficulties are still a major concern within Australian primary schools. With the literature suggesting a strong link between instructional differentiation and achievement, this paper represents part of the results of a PhD study investigating reading instruction in Stage 2 classrooms. In investigating the relationship between student diversity and instructional differentiation, the methodology involved observing students with low-, average- and high-reading ability during literacy lessons, the assessment of classroom ecologies, teacher instruction and student responses to instruction. The research process, some results and key features of the method including participant selection, amending the published observational coding instrument, its field-testing and subsequent analysis and assessment for reliability as an observational instrument will be presented. Whilst the results suggested some limited differentiation between instructional practice, classroom ecologies and student responses, there was very little inappropriate student behaviours.