Understanding Learners and Adapting Teaching: Differentiated Teaching and Learning

Every classroom includes learners with different levels of readiness, interests, preferences, and backgrounds. Teachers are expected to help all learners progress, but a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching often makes this difficult.

Differentiated teaching and learning is an inclusive, learner-centred approach that helps teachers respond to learner diversity while maintaining high expectations for all. Rather than requiring every learner to learn in the same way, at the same pace, or through the same activities, differentiated teaching and learning enables teachers to adapt teaching, learning experiences, assessment, and classroom environments to better meet learners' needs. This supports greater educational access, participation, and learning outcomes for all learners.

This course provides practical guidance on how teachers can identify learner needs, plan differentiated teaching and learning, and implement strategies that are responsive to diverse classrooms. Participants will explore learner readiness, interests, preferences, and broader aspects of learner diversity, and learn how these can inform teaching decisions. The course introduces a range of evidence-based frameworks and strategies that can be adapted for different subjects, grade levels, and learning contexts, including classrooms with large enrolments and limited resources.

This course is the second in a UNESCO learning series on Understanding Learners and Adapting Teaching. (Link to be added.)

The companion course, Understanding Learners and Adapting Teaching: Diagnostic Assessment focuses on understanding learners through diagnostic assessment. It helps teachers identify where learners' skills and knowledge are against learning prerequisites before new learning begins.

This course, Understanding Learners and Adapting Teaching: Differentiated Teaching and Learning, builds directly on that foundation. It focuses on how teachers can use what assessment data tells them about learners to make informed decisions about teaching, learning activities, grouping, and support.

Together, the two courses form a coherent learning pathway: first understanding learners' needs through diagnostic assessment, and then responding to those needs through differentiated teaching and learning.