Differentiated instruction is an inclusive approach that recognises and values diversities among students and adapts instruction to include every student. The concept of differentiation has been discussed over the past two decades. However, only limited attention has been paid to how pre-service teachers understand this phenomenon, while very…

Education systems around the world, faces the major challenge of including all children in schools. Differentiated instruction (DI) is proposed as a pedagogical approach that support social, emotional and academic success for all students in the context of heterogeneous classrooms. Although, recent research draws the attention to the inconsistent…

Previous research has repeatedly confirmed that students with special educational needs (SEN) are generally less accepted by their peers. Although inclusive teaching strategies and classroom characteristics are frequently hypothesised to improve students' social participation, empirical evidence is scarce. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is…

Within the current policy and legislative context of educating students with and without special educational needs (SEN) together in one classroom, the question that is frequently raised by educators relates to how best to implement inclusion and meet the different needs of their students in class. It is also important to understand…

Effective inclusion of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) in multi-grade classrooms is complex, depending on the ability of teachers to meet challenges posed in delivering a broad and balanced curriculum while simultaneously meeting the often quite specific needs of pupils with SEN. This paper details the findings of research which…

Teachers are ultimately responsible for implementing school policy changes, including those driven by current United States (US) mandates that emphasize rigorous career and college readiness standards requiring high expectations for all students. In order to create multiple entryways to instruction for students with disabilities, teachers are…

Increasing numbers of students with identified special needs and disabilities attending Australian schools have enhanced the expectation that mainstream teachers will demonstrate competence in planning and teaching for an academically diverse range of students. A qualitative action research study explored how teachers at an Australian secondary…

This article reports on an empirical, social-anthropological study of inclusion/exclusion in Danish public school education. The study sheds light on the downside of a neoliberal education policy that emphasises achievement. In spite of the best intentions of Danish education policy that inclusion and learning achievement should be two equal…

Several instructional strategies have been recommended for use in heterogeneous classrooms, but the frequency of their actual use has remained largely unknown. Therefore, an electronic survey was sent to Finnish comprehensive school teachers (N = 2276) in order to assess the prevalence of three selected inclusive strategies: co-teaching, group…

This investigation contributes to understanding how teachers reflect on the other with a disability and on their own practices. Literature suggests that inclusion takes place when barriers are removed, allowing participation. However, scholars agree that teachers still struggle with pedagogical practices in inclusive classrooms. Hansen (Hansen,…

While post-secondary school students with learning difficulties confront many challenges, there is little research on methods of support. In the current study, the 'adapted course' model was qualitatively examined from the perspective of both students and instructors. The main goal was to explore how students and instructors perceived the…

This study analyses teacher perceived difficulty in implementing differentiated instructional strategies in regular classes. The participants were 273 Portuguese primary school teachers with teaching experience ranging from 1 to 33 years. A 39-item questionnaire was used to evaluate teacher perceived difficulty in relation to different…

The present paper discusses issues related to inclusive education and curricula development based on the principles of universal design for learning (UDL), and it reports on the results of a qualitative content analysis of the new national curriculum (NNC) developed for the public Greek-Cypriot schools in Cyprus. According to the findings, the NNC…

Despite previous research and recommendations in South Africa, secondary-school teachers still encounter economic, social and cultural challenges in implementing differentiated learning activities in the classroom. The diversity of learners with learning barriers inevitably leads to an increase in workload for the teachers. This article draws on…

In the province of Quebec, Canada, a trend towards full inclusion has impelled teachers to adapt their instruction to meet the needs of both advanced and weaker learners in regular school settings. The main purpose of the present investigation was to develop and validate the Differentiated Instruction Scale (DIS), which assesses the use of…