Schools are working very hard at the moment to make sure that ‘adaptive teaching’ is an established idea, and is a successful part of everyday practice. This post (based on work I have done with schools) offers one framework for reflecting on or auditing that practice. This has, in turn, emerged from discussions around what ‘adaptive teaching’ might actually look like – what it might mean in practical, everyday terms.
Much is being written about ‘adaptive teaching’ at the moment, and there have been some excellent blogs, such as those by Alex Quigley and Claire Sealy. Still, there is no particular agreed definition of ‘adaptive teaching’, although the term is generally used to refer to inclusive teaching which:
- pitches high for all
- avoids elaborate differentiation
- presents content in accessible ways
- uses scaffolding and modelling to make success possible
- adjusts for pupils’ identified needs
- checks learning and responds dynamically to assessment in
the moment - anticipates and minimises barriers
- is informed by pupils’ prior learning
The principles of ‘adaptive teaching’ are closely related to those of ‘quality first teaching’ or ‘Wave 1’ teaching – classroom practice which is inclusive and responsive to the needs of all pupils, including those with SEND.
My own attempt at a summary, graphical representation of it is this:
Principles, with examples
The following offers a version of what ‘adaptive teaching’ means, in the form of a series of principles or broad intentions. It also suggests some – just some – examples of what these might look like or consist of in practice.
Some have found this useful as a tool for teachers to self-audit their confidence, or for scaffolding discussions within subject teams. A tabulated version is available here, as an editable Word document.
Being properly aware of individuals’ prior learning
- Effective passing on of information
- Baseline assessments
- Knowledge checks
- Confidence checks
- Talk around topics
- Anticipating common misconceptions
Carefully selecting content to meet the needs of the class
- Ensuring challenge
- Building on prior learning
- Balancing new content with revisiting of previous content
Anticipating and mitigating for any literacy barriers
- Pre-teaching of vocabulary
- Reading texts aloud to students, modelling fluency and helping to convey meaning
- Avoiding ‘reading round the room’ or practices which mean that the text isn’t being effectively mediated for students
- ‘Releasing’ difficult texts in small chunks
- Glossing vocabulary; providing glossaries
- Untangling difficult phrasing in texts
- Avoiding unnecessary barriers such as small font-size, wide columns, etc
- Reading questions and texts multiple times
- Writing frames, sentence stems, picture boards and other scaffolding for extended writing
Pitching teaching high, with common goals for all pupils
- Ambitious intent; high expectations of all
- Open, rather than closed, objectives
- Avoidance of differentiated learning objectives (such as ‘All, Most, Some’ or ‘Gold, Silver, Bronze’) and tasks
- Key learning questions
Presenting content in a way that is as accessible as possible to all
- Explaining the learning, rather than just the activities
- Supporting spoken information with written ‘backups’
- Accessible use of the board
- Breaking down of content into small steps
- Skilful explanations, which relate abstract ideas to concrete examples
- Multiple examples of ideas, to build schemata
- Dual coding / multi-modal approaches
- Use of graphical organisers and devices
- Repetition, clarification and glossing of instructions
- Pre-teaching where appropriate
- Re-teaching where appropriate
Ensuring materials are accessible and supportive for all pupils
- Textbooks, slides and other materials which are well-designed, uncluttered and accessible
- Print large and clear enough for all pupils
Arranging the classroom supportively, including for SEND pupils
- A careful seating plan, helping to minimise distraction and promote confidence, and taking account of sightlines
- Tactical and flexible pairings and grouping, so that pupils are supported by each other, or can be attended to as small groups where appropriate
Ensuring the environment is supportive, including for SEND pupils
- Working walls, toolkits, placemats and other resources supporting independent working
- Uncluttered walls and materials which avoid overload
Making further adaptations and adjustments to meet the needs of pupils with SEND plans
- Careful attention to individual plans
- Effective deployment of teaching assistants
- Curricular adaptations where appropriate
- Extra time to verbalise or answer
- Copies of notes and slides available
- Instructions broken down
- Pre-teaching where appropriate
Deploying any teaching assistants effectively in the classroom
- Liaison with teacher on goals and activities
- Working in a scaffolding role, focused on developing pupils’ independence
Building and maintaining an inclusive classroom culture, in which all pupils can learn through talk
- Inclusive questioning and listening
- Supportive pairings and groupings
- Modelling of talk activities
- Scaffolding of talk activities
- Rehearsal of ideas and understandings through talk
- Celebration of experimentation and mistakes
Ensuring that questioning is inclusive, and is successfully ‘adaptive’
- Carefully targeted questioning
- Reframing of questions, to provide extra scaffolding
- When appropriate, open ‘no wrong answer’ questions
- Genuine enquiries, inviting participation rather than just expecting performance, e.g. asking for students’ thinking
- Skilful use of wait-time to allow for success
Using a range of scaffolding techniques, to make tasks accessible
- Structures and toolkits
- Checklists
- Questions and prompts
- ‘DARTS’ approaches
- Matching and sorting activities
- Graphic organisers
- Word banks
- Sentence stems
- Sentence combining
- Comparative and ‘error-finding’ activities
- Starts to build on
- Writing / response frames
Using a range of modelling techniques to make learning accessible
- Exemplar products, answers and responses
- Use of worked examples
- Live, procedural modelling of processes and techniques
- Modelling of talk activities, as well as of paper activities
- Thinking aloud to model cognitive processes, attitudes and pleasures in a task
- Comparison of weak and strong examples
- I do / we do / you do
- Priming or kick-starting independent or paired activities, with a shared ‘start’
- ‘Doing’ a task alongside the pupils, to model investment or pleasure
Being continually alert to how pupils are learning in the moment
- Listening attentively to pupils
- Noticing how pupils are engaging and investing
- Connecting with less confident or less ‘visible’ pupils
Assessing learning and checking for understanding
- Circulating the room
- Live marking
- Targeted questioning
- Knowledge checks
- Short plenary activities
Using this checking to make adaptations (including micro-adaptations) for individuals, groups and the whole class
- Altering the pace or timing of the lesson
- Extending or truncating activities
- Identifying pupils who need further breaking down of material or more scaffolding
- Addressing misconceptions
- Reinforcing, re-explaining or re-teaching content
- Providing extra scaffolding or modelling
- Working with target groups, while the rest of the class works independently
- Changing the direction or focus of the lesson
- Exploring tangential or related ideas
- Parking ideas for later attention
Providing feedback in the moment which moves pupils on
- Responding to pupils in dialogue
- Praise and encouragement
- Setting new or more specific goals and challenges
- Asking questions which extend or deepen pupils’ thinking
- Prompting and nudging towards better or deeper understanding
- Sensitive correction of errors
James Durran 