While there is currently much emphasis on differentiation in schools, there is no
clear consensus about what the term means or implies. It is linked in many teachers’
minds with ‘mixed ability teaching’ but there is nevertheless considerable debate
about just what differentiation might look like in the classroom. So – what is
differentiation? And how is it done? The term was confirmed in the National
Curriculum through the Education Reform Act of 1988 which formally welcomed
the idea of differentiation. This Act legislated for every pupil’s entitlement to a
curriculum which is broad, balanced, relevant and ‘subtly’ differentiated. Many
teachers who for some time had been striving to provide equal opportunities for a
range of learners in their classrooms might have been forgiven for thinking that
politicians who make decisions about the curriculum had come to understand
something of the value and importance of diversity in the experiences, knowledge,
languages and cultures which children bring to school. After all, the National
Curriculum Council defined differentiation as a process where curriculum
objectives, teaching methods, resources and learning activities are planned to cater
for the needs of individual pupils (NCC 1991).