What is adaptive teaching?

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?
What is adaptive teaching?

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What is adaptive teaching?

https://www.tes.com/magazine/tes-explains/what-is-adaptive-teaching

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.


How does it work in the classroom?

Speaking to Tes, Julie Wharton, a senior lecturer and NasenCo course leader at the University of Winchester Institute of Education, highlighted the difference between proactive and reactive adaptive teaching.

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”.

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