Pertemuan ke 12 bab 12

Progression and differentiation

In the introduction to this book I suggested that the planning and preparation stage of teaching could be thought of in terms of a building. First we put in place the four cornerstones ΓÇô our understanding of:

Educational aims.
The needs of stakeholders, especially pupils. The context in which we are teaching.

The cognitive structure of what we teach.

These cornerstones both delimit and support what we do.

Next we construct the first storey ΓÇô the curriculum. This pro- vides the basis on which we can add the second storey, medium- term planning and the third ΓÇô short-term planning, including three rooms of particular importance: time, space and language.

Now we need to put a roof on the building. This entails putting two concepts into place: (a) progression and (b) differentiation. I figure these in terms of the buildingΓÇÖs roof because they are over- arching concepts. They apply throughout and across the curriculum, in every class at every stage.

To understand these two concepts, it may help now to switch metaphors. Think, for a moment, of teaching as an activity that has two dimensions.