Differentiated Curriculum
Differentiated curriculum relates to both school-based and supplementary provision but specifically to in-class provision by teachers on an ongoing basis. Teachers who provide a differentiated curriculum for gifted and talented students, particularly in their day-to-day teaching, assist them to make informed educational and career choices.
An effective program for gifted and talented students enables them to fulfil their potential through opportunities to direct, manage and negotiate their own learning, both as group members and as individuals. As students progress from primary to secondary to post-compulsory education, it becomes increasingly important for them to have these skills. Some ideas of differentiating the curriculum are as follows;
Compacting |
Eliminate skills and/or concepts which the student has already mastered. |
Independent Projects |
Identify problems or topics of interest to the student; teacher assists student in planning a method of investigation and in identifying the product to be developed. |
Interest Groups |
Based on student interest, not academic ability. Children's "voices" are heard in choices offered. |
Flexible Skill Grouping |
Students are matched to skills work by readiness. Movement among groups is common. All are challenged and no one is labelled. |
Learning Centres |
A place for children to go to be challenged and pursue interests |
Tiered Assignments |
All children can be working on the same unit but assignments vary |
High-level Questioning |
Questions that draw on an advanced level of information, require leaps of understanding and challenge thinking. |
Contracts/Management Plans |
The teacher grants certain freedoms and choices about how a student will complete tasks, and the student agrees to use the freedoms in designing and completing work according to specifications. |
Mentorships/Apprenticeships |
The student develops skills of production in a field with a resource person from school or community to complete a task. |
Principles of a Differentiated Curriculum
In designing a curriculum for gifted and talented students, research suggests that four important elements must be considered: curriculum content, processes, product and the overall learning environment.
Content (what is learned) should be:
- based on concepts
- based on knowledge which is intended to illustrate abstract ideas rather than the acquisition of knowledge as a major focus
- arranged to challenge students to formulate concepts, develop relationships and make applications
- organisationally economic to facilitate transfer of learning, memory and understanding of concepts and generalisations
- an expansion of regular curriculum to include also a study of gifted and creative individuals and the investigative techniques used by scholars in different disciplines
- more abstract, complex and based on ideas that have a wide range of applicability and transfer both within and across disciplines
- of greater variety than the classroom curriculum
- stress the use of information rather than the acquisition of it
- provide opportunities for problem solving and creativity
- use discovery and inductive learning techniques
- lead students to higher levels of thinking
- ensure learning is open-ended
- ensure students have the opportunity to give evidence to support their reasoning, not just the correct answer
- provide greater freedom of choice in selection of topics.
- resemble the products being studied and developed by the experts in the field and may include reports, stories, plays, dance, art work, demonstrations in a range of media
- allow solutions to real problems, preferably related to students' local environment
- allow for presentation of these problems to a real audience
- be evaluated by an appropriate audience and by the student
- extend solutions to generalisations
- demonstrate a transformation of information which is based on the collection and analysis of original data rather than a summary of others' research
Learning Environment should be characterised by:
- variety
- flexibility
- more and varied resources
- sophisticated equipment
- warmth and trust
- non-threatening situations for testing views, risk taking
- provision of situations to promote creative and divergent thinking
Learning and teaching programs for gifted and talented students should be inclusive of all students, including those at-risk.
Checklist for Constructing a Differentiated Curriculum for Gifted Students 
(Word Doc 35kb)
When considering the learning needs of gifted and talented students, teachers may find the DC Checklist a useful auditing and planning tool.
Reference: Maker CJ (1982) Teaching Models in Education of the Gifted. Rockville, Maryland: Aspen Publications
Different approaches and strategies for providing a differentiated curriculum can be combined in a variety of ways through enrichment, extension and/or acceleration. These different levels of provision are not mutually exclusive - students may be involved in more than one form of provision, e.g. a student may be involved in a problem solving club (enrichment); working on an independent contract in Science (extension) and joining a multi-age group for advanced reading (acceleration).
Enrichment should be ongoing with activities incorporated into both extension and acceleration, e.g. higher-level thinking and problem solving skills would be integral to both learning centre work and multi-age grouping.
A Different Place
Nancy Bosch has created a 'place on the web to find differentiated activities in all content areas for high ability and gifted learners.