Equality of Opportunity: differentiating for students in a
non-setted year seven music class
Hedydd Edge
(PGCE Music, 2016-2017)
Email: hedydd.edge@cantab.net
Abstract
This case study investigates the pedagogical issue of differentiation within education, specifically looking at what can be differentiated and how a teacher might differentiate in the music classroom. This assignment
attempts to reflect upon a small-scale research project designed to evaluate what steps can be taken to differentiate in a ‘mixed-ability’ classroom.However, the term ‘mixed-ability’ itself is problematic as it has been variously conceived. Additionally, within the music classroom there is the paradigm of ‘musical ability’. This study was conducted with a year seven class of students of ‘mixed-ability’ composing programme music. The findings suggest that differentiation encompasses a variety of differences that may not be at the forefront of a teacher’s mind and the element of choice became an important factor. Differentiation is beneficial to ensure that everybody can access what is being taught, but within teaching there must be a degree of flexibility to adapt for students who need additional help, or for those who need more of a challenge.
Copyright: © 2018. This paper is copyright of the author. (Please read the Journal's copyright information page by using the menu to the left of this page.)
The full paper is available for download as a pdf file : 039-072-edgeh
Citation: Edge, H. (2018) 'Equality of Opportunity: differentiating for students in a
non-setted year seven music class.' Journal of Trainee Teacher Educational Research, Volume 9 pp.039-072 (Downloaded from http://jotter.educ.cam.ac.uk/, [date of access])