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Chapter 9
Accommodating Instruction to Meet Individual Needs

What Are Elements of Effective Instruction Beyond a Good Lesson?

Teachers must know how to adapt instruction to students' level of knowledge. According to Carroll's model of school learning, effectiveness of instruction depends on time needed (a function of student aptitude and ability to understand instruction) and time actually spent learning (which depends on time available, quality of instruction, and student perseverance).

Slavin's QAIT model of effective instruction identifies four elements that are subject to the teacher's direct control: quality of instruction, appropriate level of instruction, incentive, and amount of time. The model proposes that instruction that is deficient in any of these elements will be ineffective. How Are Students Grouped to Accommodate

Achievement Differences?

Many schools manage student differences in ability and academic achievement through between-class ability grouping, tracking, or regrouping into separate classes for particular subjects during part of a school day. However, research shows that within-class groupings are more effective, especially in reading and math, and are clearly preferable to groupings that segregate or stigmatize low achievers. Untracking recommends students be in mixed-ability groups. The students are held to high standards and are provided with assistance to reach those goals. Nongraded elementary schools combine children of different ages in the same classroom. Students are flexibly grouped according to their needs and performance levels.

What Is Mastery Learning?

Mastery learning is based on the idea that all or almost all students should have mastered a particular skill before proceeding to the next skill. Amounts of instructional time should vary so that all students have as much time as they need to attain the targeted knowledge and skills. Mastery learning takes a variety of forms, all of which involve formative and summative evaluations, corrective instruction, and enrichment activities. Mastery learning is generally effective in teaching basic skills but may reduce coverage of content.

What Are Some Ways of Individualizing Instruction?

Peer and adult tutoring, programmed instruction, and computer-based instruction (CBI) are all methods for individualizing instruction. Research shows clear benefits of cross-age peer tutoring.

What Educational Programs Exist for Students Placed at Risk?

Students who are at risk are any students who are likely to fail academically for any reason stemming from the student or from the student's environment. Reasons are diverse and may include poverty.

Educational programs for students who are at risk include compensatory education, early intervention programs, and special education. Federally funded compensatory education programs include, for example, Head Start, which aims to help preschool-age children from low-income backgrounds achieve school readiness, and Title I, which mandates extra services to low-achieving students in schools that have many low-income students. Extra services may include pull-out programs, tutoring programs, and continuous-progress programs. Research is mixed regarding the effectiveness of compensatory education programs.

Research also supports the effectiveness of many prevention and intervention programs, such as Reading Recovery and Success for All, which provide extra services before children who are at risk fall behind.