Adaptive teaching is billed as the ultimate in flexible, personalised learning – but what does the wider research say, and how can it be used in the classroom?
Adaptive teaching involves continuously assessing the strengths and needs of learners and adapting the pedagogy accordingly, through, for example, providing different levels of support, using different resources or adjusting the pace of instruction.
The approach emphasises the need for teachers to personalise learning for their pupils while doing away with the idea that this requires entirely different learning activities to match each child’s level of understanding, as is the case in certain iterations of differentiation.
Instead, the focus is very much on accurately diagnosing pupils’ needs, and varying the support on offer in response - being prepared to dial this up for any child struggling with learning and dial it back for those who are excelling.
The former, she explained, relies on strong teacher-pupil relationships and a clear understanding of where pupils are with their learning and the differences they are bringing to the classroom.
Teachers should consider how they plan to “promote the independence and participation of all pupils through their teaching” and should pay close attention to how they model tasks and give instructions, taking care “not to overload pupils with too much information”.
The latter approach, meanwhile, takes shape in the classroom in response to what is happening there, requiring the bravery of a teacher to deviate from the plan and “ad lib”, Wharton said.
To make this work effectively requires quick, ongoing formative assessment and good communication with the additional adults in the room, she explained, allowing for “small adjustments to be made to the task”.
But the importance of such moments should be recognised, she continued, as the most successful learning sometimes happens as “the result of a dialogic encounter between teacher and pupil, in which misconceptions are identified”.
The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) is an independent charity dedicated to breaking the link between family income and educational achievement.
To achieve this, it summarises the best available evidence for teachers; its Teaching and Learning Toolkit, for example, is used by 70 per cent of secondary schools.
The charity also generates new evidence of “what works” to improve teaching and learning, by funding independent evaluations of high-potential projects, and supports teachers and senior leaders to use the evidence to achieve the maximum possible benefit for young people.
