Differentiated instruction is actually is a framework or philosophy for

effective teaching that involves providing different students with different avenues to
learning (often in the same classroom) in terms of: acquiring content; processing,
constructing, or making sense of ideas; and developing teaching materials and
assessment so that all students within a classroom can learn effectively, regardless of
differences in ability. According to Carol Ann Tomlinson (1999), differentiated
instruction is the process of ensuring that what a student learns, how he or she learns
it, and how the student demonstrates what he or she has learned is a match for that
students readiness level, interests, and preferred mode of learning. Students vary in
culture, socioeconomic status, language, gender, motivation, ability/disability,
personal interests and more, and teachers need to be aware of these varieties as they
are planning their curriculum. By considering varied learning needs, teachers can
develop personalized instruction so that all children in the classroom can learn
effectively.
According to Tomlinson (1999: 15), teachers can differentiate the instruction
through three ways: 1) through content, 2) process, and 3) product. Content refers to
the input of the unit: ideas, concepts, information and facts. It is what the student
must know and understand as the result of the lesson. Content is differentiated by
focusing on the units most relevant and essential components and varying them to
meet learners needs by providing them choices such as providing a variety of texts:
simpler or more advanced.
The word process is often used as a synonym for activities. These activities
will help the students to own the content. In other words, process refers to the ways
students make their own sense of the content or input, it is the how of teaching.
Process can be differentiated by modifying the complexity or abstractness of tasks
and by engaging students in critical and creative thinking. According to
Preszler(2006:9) one of strategies that commonly used in differentiated content is

tiered instruction. Tiered instruction is when the teachers make slight adjustments
within the same lesson to meet the needs of students. All the students learn the same
fundamental skills and concepts but through varying modes and activities. The tiers
appropriately challenge students at their ability levels. Activities and assignments can
be adjusted in any of the following ways, such as; level of complexity, amount of
structure, material provided, time allowed, and the number of steps required for
completion, and form of expression. Furthermore, Preszler(2006:8) also explain the
steps in designing tiered instruction. The first and the most fundamental is that by
determining key concepts, skills, and essential understanding that the students need to
achieve. These elements should become the basis of the on-level tasks. Second,
identify how will the students are grouped. In this case, the number of the groups
should be in the same numbers as the level of tiers need for the class. Third, select the
elements to tier (i.e.: tier by challenge level, tier by complexity, tier by resources,tier
by outcomes, tier by process, and tier by product). The fourth step involving the
creation of the on-level tier. It means that, the tasks and/or the activities for this level
are created based on the standard used by the teacher, for instance, the syllabus. The
fifth step is to design a similar task for every level / groups of students that has been
determined previously. In this case, the task should be adjusted based on the students
readiness.
Product is how the students demonstrated what they have come to know,
understand, and are able to do after an extended period of learning (Tomlinson:
1999). It is the output of the unit or the ways that students demonstrate or exhibit their
understanding of the content. Since content is what students should know, understand,
and be able to do, the product should be designed in a way that allows students to
demonstrate this learning and to do so with clear and appropriate criteria for success.
In language classroom, products can include a performance, a poster project, an
interview, or a formal writing assignment.
The basis of which the instruction in classroom can be differentiated is
considered through one of the three factors that Carol Ann Tomlinson in 1999 coined

out. Those three factors involves the students readiness for particular topic, materials,
or skills, the students interest, and the students learning profile.
According to Imbeau & Tomlinson (2010), students readiness indicates the
students current position to particular knowledge, understanding and skills. This
factor is not the same as ability. While ability is concerned with more or less fixed
and inborn trait, readiness suggests a temporary condition that can be changed
regularly as a result of high quality teaching. Students readiness also influence the
pace of the students to understand a particular topic. Here, the students are able to
connect their prior knowledge to the topic they are going to learn, hence, they are said
to be ready to learn. As seen from students readiness, students can be categorized as
slow, average and above average. Norlund (2003) stated that, slow learner is a learner
with below average cognitive abilities who is not disabled, but who struggles to cope
with the academic demans of the regular classroom. It was stated that slow learner
has some characteristics, namely: functions at ability which is significantly below
grade level, the scores consistently low on achievement tests, works on all tasks
slowly, masters skills slowly, has difficulty deals with abstract learning, and faces
difficulty in following multi-step instruction. Therefore, to deals with students who
are categorized as slow learners, teacher should give concrete and shorter instruction
or activities to guarantee success. In addition, teacher can simplify the assignment to
make sure the students achieve the learning goals. Another category is above average
learners who work best with abstract instruction. Teacher can give them more
complex and longer activities and assignment. In conclusion, while slow learners
need more repetition and simple activities the above average learners should be given
extention and more complex learning.
The second factor that can be considered as the basis for differentiating
instruction is students interest. According to some researches (Hebert, 1993;
Renninger, 1990, 1998; Tobias, 1994) as cited by Tomlinson, et.al. (2003), motivation
is greatly linked to interest-based study which will promote positive impacts on
learning in both short and long term.It means that, by considering students
differences in their interest, thus, allowing them to do something they love is likely

helping them develop positive attitude toward learning.Such interest-based study can
be linked typically to the students strength, cultural context, personal experiences,
questions, or sense of need (Imbeau& Tomlinson, 2010).
The last factor for consideration is learning profile.The students learning
profile is commonly shaped by four elements and the interactions among them.
InImbeau& Tomlinson (2010), those four elements are including as follows:
First, learning style; it is a preferred contextual approach to learning.
Students may prefer to have different styles to ensure that learning occurs. For
instances, Dunn & Dunn (1992) in Imbeau& Tomlinson (2010) suggests that learning
styles include the students preference in working alone or with a partner, in a quiet
place or with music playing in the background, in bright room or a darkened
environment, and while sitting or moving around.
The second element that shape students learning styles is intelligence
preference. The way how students learn something is highly determined by their
intelligence preference. This is the area which is supported by the theory of multiple
intelligence (Gardner, 1985 in Imbeau& Tomlinson, 2010). It is boldly claimed that
human being has different intelligence to each other. These intelligences differences
include: verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, musical-rhythmic, spatial, analytical, practical, and creative.
The third element is gender. Even though in fact it cannot be generalized that
all males (or females) learn in the same ways, it is believed that there are genderbased pattern of learning (Imbeau& Tomlinson, 2010 in Gilligan, 1982; Gurian, 2001;
Tannen, 1990). Therefore, by utilizing teaching and learning activities that reflect a
range of gender-based preferences, all students needs of learning can be reached.
Finally, the last element is culture. Culture has long believed as the one that
influence human behavior. For example, how people communicate, how they think
about particular thing, how they celebrate and mourn, all of which are shaped by
culture. As in gender, we cannot generalized that people from the same culture would

learn the same way as each other. However, by implementing a range of culture-based
learning preferences, teacher can provide the students with appropriate strategy. To do
so, the teachers should study the diverse cultures of the students they teach so they
can achieve multidimensional understanding of the relationship between culture and
learning (Delpit, 1995; Heath, 1983; Lasley, Matczynski& Rowley, 1997 in Imbeau&
Tomlinson, 2010).

CONCEPTUAL DEFINITION

Tomlinson (1999) defines differentiated instruction as the process of ensuring

what the students learn, how they learn, and how they demonstrate what they have
learned. The principle of differentiated instruction believes that every student is a unique
individual, having different traits, characters, motivation, ability/disability, personal
interest, cognitive level, etc. It is the teachers job to be aware of these aspects in
preparing the curriculum in teaching, since by considering variations in learning needs,
effective learning can be obtained through personalized instruction.
In differentiated classroom, teacher can differentiate the instruction via three
ways, namely: 1) through content, 2) through process, and 3) through product
(Tomlinson, 1999:15). Moreover, she also coined out the also factors to be considered as
a basis for preparing differentiated instruction, they are: students readiness, students
interest, and students learning profile.
OPERATIONAL DEFINITION
In this study differentiated instruction is defined as the process of ensuring what the
students learn, how they learn, and how they demonstrate what they have learned. There are
three ways used by the researcher to develop differentiated instruction, namely: 1) through
content, 2) through process, and 3) through product. In addition, from three basis consideration
in preparing differentiated instruction proposed in the theory (based on students readiness,
students interest, and students learning profile) this study focuses on students readiness which

indicates the students current position to particular knowledge, understanding and skills.
Moreover, as seen from students readiness there are three types of learners; slow, average, and
above average learners. Those types of learners would be categorized based on students
academic report.

REFERENCES

Imbeau, M.B and Tomlinson, C.A. (2010). Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom.
Virginia: ASCD
Nordlund, M. (2003). Differentiated Instruction. Oxford: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
Preszler, J. (Ed.). (2006). On Target: Strategies That Differentiate Instruction. Black Hills Region
7: SD Education Service Agency
Tomlinson, et.al. (2003). Differentiating Instruction in Response to Student Readiness, Interest,
and Learning Profile in Academically Diverse Classrooms: A Review Literature.
Journal for the Education of the Gifted. Vol. 27, No. 2/3, 2003, pp. 119145. The
Association for the Gifted.