Teachers’ Understanding and Students’ Level of Satisfaction in the Implementation of Differentiated Instruction

Abstract

Diverse English classrooms and meeting students’ needs require research on differentiated instruction. This study measured teachers’ understanding and students’ satisfaction with implementing differentiated instruction using validated survey questionnaires. This descriptive-correlational study selected student respondents using stratified sampling and teacher respondents using total enumeration. The data was interpreted using frequency count, mean, percent, Chi-square, percentage distribution, Spearman rank correlation, and Pearson r. Results revealed that teachers highly understood differentiated instruction, but students were merely satisfied with the implementation. Differentiated content instruction reflects teachers’ content knowledge and is most appreciated by students. Teachers’ and students’ responses show students’ interests as the least understood and satisfied. In addition, no significant relationships existed between teachers’ understanding of differentiated instruction across all domains (student interest, assessment, lesson planning, content, process, and product) and their profile variables (age, sex, and highest educational attainment). Still, there were positive relationships between teachers’ grade level taught and the number of years of teaching experience. Also, there were no significant relationships between students’ satisfaction with teachers’ use of differentiated instruction in all domains and their profile variables (sex and program), but there were strong positive relationships with students’ age, current grade level, and previous English grades. It was concluded that student and teacher responses showed discrepancies, so a proposed enhancement activity was developed to improve differentiated instruction among English language teachers.