Differentiating Science Instruction: Teacher and Student Findings From the Accessing Science Ideas Project

• In Event: Differentiation, Diversity, and Technology

Abstract

The Accessing Science Ideas (ASI) project designed content enhancements to support science teachers and to increase curricular access for students with learning disabilities (LD). The results from this experimental study of 119 randomly assigned teachers/classrooms indicate that intervention teachers felt more effective in teaching science content to students with LD, and they outperformed control teachers in their knowledge of student challenges. They also generated more instructional supports to aid student comprehension. Furthermore, intervention classes outperformed control classes on a unit science assessment, and differences remained significant when disaggregating and comparing intervention and control data from typically developing and LD students. However, no significant decrease in the gap between typically developing and LD student learning was found.

Authors

• Karen Mutch-Jones, TERC

• Gillian M. Puttick, TERC

• Lindsay Demers, TERC