“Differentiation … means teachers plan for the children who are actually in their class, instead of designing lessons for their idea of the “average” child.” (Graham, L., and Cologon, C., ” … What is differentiation and why is it so important”, The Conversation, March 8, 2015.)

This is a telling article, and covers the topic fulsomely. One point that needs to be taken into account is that of ‘time’. Preparing for each individual and meeting by the needs of children in solo specific manner is almost a utopian ambition. In practical terms, when teachers have classes approaching 30 chiildren in number, this ambition becomes almost impossible to fulfil.

The fact that teachers want to be 100% differentiators between children and the realisation they can’t because of time constraints, can lead to feelings of professional melancholy. That can escalate to educators suffering from self doubt and feeling guilt about the jobs they are doing.

Limitations have to be realised. Self flagellating because of not beiong able to meet the impossible should be avoided. In is in this environment that collegiate encouragement and professional support for those doubting themselves is so important.