Teachers’ Perception of the Use of Differentiated Instruction Strategies on Teacher Practice and Student Learning

This qualitative case study was developed to explore teachers’ perceptions of the use of differentiated instructional strategies and the impact it had on teacher practice and student learning after engaging in a professional development initiative. Teachers were trained using two professional development modules; a 90-minute face-to-face module and/or, an eight-hour book club. The research questions addressed how targeted professional development, in differentiated instruction, changed teacher instructional practice and how teachers, who used differentiated instructional strategies and techniques, perceived these strategies impacted student learning. Data instruments included teacher perception surveys, demographic surveys, classroom observations, lesson plan checklists, semi-structured questionnaires, and book club evaluations were collected over a two month time period, were analyzed from themes using a manual coding system. Based on the multiple sources of data collected, teachers needed change for their instructional practices and more differentiated instructional strategies in their daily lesson delivery models.