Identifying the differentiation practices of virtual school teachers
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Identifying the differentiation practices of virtual school teachers Dennis Beck 1 & Jennifer Beasley 2 Received: 21 June 2020 / Accepted: 9 September 2020/ # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Despite a large increase in enrollments of students in online courses at the K-12 level, there is very little research on the use of differentiation in fully online (called “virtual”) schools. This study asked virtual teachers from two different types of schools to discuss their differentiation practices, and compared differentiation practices of teachers across these schools. Nineteen focus groups consisting of 92 teachers were conducted. Data were analyzed using Tomlinson’s differentiation framework. Results showed that the large majority of teacher comments about differentiation definitions, assessments, curriculum, grouping and strategies fell in the novice category, and that newer virtual school teachers may struggle in developing skills in differentiation in an online environment. Keywords Differentiation . Virtual schools . Online teaching . Differentiated instruction
1 Introduction Teachers use the principles of differentiation to make decisions that are responsive to the needs of all students (Tomlinson, 2001, 2005). Unfortunately, there is very little research on the use of differentiation in fully online (called “virtual”) schools. This is important, because districts employing online education courses have increased enrollments from 50% to 74%, with rural districts making the most growth (Gemin and Pape 2017). In recent times, a global pandemic forced many educators to teach remotely. In addition, students accessing this technology are more diverse than ever. Enrollment of English language learners (ELL) was higher in 2012–13 (9.2%) than in the previous ten years (U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs,
* Jennifer Beasley [email protected]
1
University of Arkansas, 102 PEAH, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA
2
University of Arkansas, 114 PEAH, Fayetteville, AR 72701, USA
Education and Information Technologies
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) 2014). This has resulted in larger online classrooms with more diversity of students. Although there is much research on the effectiveness of differentiation in the brick and mortar K-12 classroom (Baumgartner et al. 2003; Doubet 2007; Valiandes 2015) and on the best practices of how teachers define and enact differentiation (Archambault et al. 1993; Westberg and Daoust 2003), there are few studies found on the use of differentiation in virtual schools. One study found that teachers struggle to find ways to differentiate instruction (Beasley & Beak, 2017), but beyond that, no research compares differentiation practices of teachers across different types of virtual schools. In order to begin to explore the differentiation practices of virtual teachers, this research will ask the following research questions: 1. How do Virtual School (VS) teachers differentiate teaching practices in an on
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