Chapter One Introduction
1.1 Background of the Research
With the rapid development of the world’s economy and science, the socialrequirements of young people are higher and higher; the competition between them ismore and more intense. At the same time, it is a usual thing that can be foundeverywhere in the class that different students have their different characters, interestsdue to their different living situations and backgrounds. That’s also true that thesedifference will be an obstacle in the practical teaching activities. For instance, someteaching methodologies which are beneficial for some students may not fit others;some students may feel encouraged for talking free in the class, which is a difficultthing for others. What’s more serious is that with the increase of the number ofstudents in the class, the differences between students produce a bad effect on thequality on English teaching. As a result, we can find out that our traditional classroomteaching mode of unified teaching material and same teaching requirements can’t makestudents have an all-round development and can’t help them to become the talents whocan meet the requirements of the modern world in their future.In essence, every student has the potential of creativity. The progress of teachingshould make students fulfill their own potential. However, the traditional education ismerely seeking common ground but ignore individual differences. We can see that thesame teaching program and changeless teaching requirements make the teacher andstudents have no choice at all. All of these are not only bad for student’s personalitydevelopment, but also bad for the improvement of English teaching quality.
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1.2 Significance of the Research
First of all, through this research, the quality and efficiency of English teaching inclassroom can be improved. On the basis of quality-oriented education, theaccumulation of students’ knowledge is not the only thing we should pay attention to, their various abilities, their personalities and their psychological health should also benoticed by teachers. However, the traditional teaching mode can’t give teachers enoughtime and energy to take care of every student, sometimes teachers will misunderstandthe students for lacking of information of their aptitudes. The “DifferentiatedInstruction”, which requires teachers to teach students according to their differences,will not only takes students’ personalities into consideration, but also persists inseeking common ground and reserving differences in English teaching and learning. Inthis way, the quality-oriented education can find a way to come true. What’s more, onthe basis of knowing students’ different learning abilities quite well, when the teacherprepares the class, he/she can apply different teaching strategies and set differentlearning objectives for different students. As a result, everyone in the class can achievetheir own learning goals, and the effectiveness of teaching can be improved.Secondly, through this research, teachers can understand the significance to teachstudents in accordance with their aptitude. On one hand, in the traditional teaching, wealso meet the dilemma that the teaching content is too easy for some students but toodifficult for others.
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Chapter Two Literature Review
2.1 Definition of Differentiated Instruction
The conduction of the “ Differentiated Instruction” means that teachers alter theirteaching speed, teaching level and teaching types to cater to students’ necessity, stylesand interests.( Gardner,2002) .Meanwhile, differentiating instruction means thesatisfaction of learners’ individual differences in the collective teachings in the classfor the raise of comprehensive development of learners.(Holec, 1985). In order tohave a good understanding of the “Differentiated Instruction”, there are someimportant factors should be pay attention to.First of all, we should understand that the differences of students are objective.Besides, these differences are not only in the different students, but also in oneindividual. These differences can be found in students’ interest, abilities, cognition,personality and so on. As a result, in order to conduct the “Differentiated Instruction”,the teachers need to find out the students’ individual differences .Secondly, in the teaching process, if we can meet different needs of differentstudents, the effect of teaching and learning can be more effective. For example, byproviding different learning contents and teaching methods, setting different learningaims and learning speeds.Thirdly, we should keep it in our minds that the “Differentiated Instruction” is adynamic teaching process. For the students’ differences are changeable, so thestrategies of teaching should be change when necessary.
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2.2 Theoretical Foundations of Differentiated Instruction
Jean Piaget is the dominant figure in Constructivism theory, who lay stress on theconstructive nature of the process of learning.(Marion Williams&Robert L.Burden), InPiaget’s opinion, constructivism is that peoples are actively involved right since birthin constructing individual meaning, that is their individual understanding from theirown experiences. That is to say, everyone makes their own understanding of the worldand build their experiences that around them. As a result, the learners are brought intocore in learning theory.(Marion Williams&Robert L.Burden). Piaget treated cognitivedevelopment as in nature a process of maturation, in which genetics and experiencehave a interaction.This is completed by the complementary procedures of assimilationand accommodation. Specifically,assimilation is a process by which we change ormodify the incoming information in our minds, as a result, we can fit it in with whatwe already know; Accommodation, on the other hand, is a process by which wemodify what we already know to take into consideration the new information.(MarionWilliam&Robert L.Burden).According to Piaget’s opinion, we can find out that learning is a process in whichthe learner’s own experience and knowledge from the outside world have theinteraction with each other to construct a individualized information. Based on this, itis important for teachers to see the learner as an individual, rather than treating thelearner as a passive receiver of the language.
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Chapter Three Methodology......20
3.1 Research questions......20
3.2 Subjects......21
3.3 Teaching material.........22
3.4 Teaching methods........22
3.4.1 Dividing Students into different levels.........23
3.4.2 Setting different teaching objectives for students of different levels......24
3.4.3 Assigning different exercises for students of different levels........29
3.5 Instruments......31
3.6 Research procedure....32
Chapter Four Findings and Discussions.........36
4.1Findings and discussions of the pre-test performances between the twoclasses........37
4.2 Fingdings and discussions of the post-test performances between the twoclasses.......37
4.3 Fingdings and discussions of the pre-questionnaire ........38
4.4 Fingdings and discussions of the post-questionnaires .....39
Chapter Five Conclusion....41
Chapter FourFindings and Discussions
4.1 Findings and discussions of the pre-test performances between the two classes
Before the experiment, the students’ (students from EC and CC) final examinationscore of last semester (the first term of Grade seven) was analysed to see if there wasmarked difference between these two classes. During this process, the t-value teststatistic in SigmaPlot software was used. We could find out that before the experiment,the average of the EC students’ performances of English was 72, while the average ofthe CC students’ performances of English was 71.14, they were basically the same; thebest percent of the EC was 17%, while the best percent of the CC was 16.3%, theywere nearly the same; the pass percent is 41.2% in the EC, and 42.5% in the CC, theywere almost the same. From the results of these data, we could find out that P>0.05,and /t/<t in the T-value table. That’s to say that there were no marked differencesbetween the results on the students’ English test of these two classes, the EC and theCC were parallel ones, and the experiment was feasible.
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Conclusion
In order to improve students’ performances in English examination and changetheir poor situations of learning English , the author carried out a new teaching pattern,the “Differentiated Instruction” in her class. In this experiment, the writer not onlypaid much more attentions to investigating students’ individual differences, but alsosetting different teaching objectives, contents and methods to help different students toget their own ZPD.The “Differentiated Instruction” reflects the requirements of new curriculumstandards for English (New English Curriculum, 2002): for all students, educationshould be in accordance with individual differences. According to the results of thisexperiment, we could find out that the “Differentiated Instruction” was effective andhelpful to improve the quality of English teaching and learning; After the wholeexperiment, the major findings can be conclude as the following: The“Differentiated Instruction” can help students to improve their performances on test.We can see that before the experiment, the EC and the CC were parallel classes whichhad no marked differences in the scores of test, but after the experiment, these twoclasses were not as parallel as before. In the EC, the average, the past and the bestpercent were better than that of the CC. As for the CC used the traditional teachingpattern during the whole experiment, we can make a conclusion that the“Differentiated Instruction” was more effective in helping to improve students’performances in English examination than the traditional teaching pattern.#p#分页标题#e#
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Reference (omitted)
