Social and Environmental Preferences: The Lost Subsets of Differentiated Instruction

Did you know?

Teachers should differentiate instruction according to how each student uses emotional awareness and social-emotional skills (Shelton & Stern, 2003).

Teachers in differentiated classes use time flexibly, call upon a range of instructional strategies, and become partners with their students to see that both what is learned and the learning environment are shaped to the learner (Tomlinson, 1999).

According to J. McTighe and J. L. Brown, “Effective instruction accommodates differences in learners’ readiness levels, interests, and learning profiles” (p. 236).

"In a time when teachers feel almost unbearable pressure to standardize what we do, it is important to begin with the conviction that we are no longer teaching if what we teach is more important than who we teach or how we teach."
–Carol Ann Tomlinson

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If you ask educators what they know about differentiated instruction, you will probably hear something about the importance of matching instruction to “the big three”: student readiness, interest, and/or learning preferences. Tools to measure and assess readiness, interest, and learning style preferences abound online and in print, and you may have even created your own that work with your students.

Readiness and interest are fairly self-explanatory. Depending upon the assignment or task, different students will have various levels of preparedness as well as interest. To adjust for variations in readiness and interest, assignments can be modified so all students are doing work that they find interesting and challenging. Readiness and interest are dynamic qualities that can change depending upon the topic as well as personal qualities within each student.

When you hear learning style preferences, you probably immediately think of cognitive styles (perceptual and organizational styles), sensory styles (kinesthetic, tactual, auditory, and visual), and/or multiple intelligences (verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, etc.). Learning styles preferences, in contrast to student readiness and interest, change much more slowly, if they change at all.

When differentiating instruction to accommodate readiness, interest, and/or learning preferences, we don’t often consider the two additional and often-neglected subsets of learning style preferences: social and environmental.

Determining Social and Environmental Preferences
Students learn best when their social, environmental, and learning style preferences are met. Each student’s unique set of these three preferences is called a learning profile. Think about differentiating instruction based on learning profiles as a pie where learning preferences compose half (four slices). A quarter of the pie (two slices) is composed of social preferences and the remaining quarter (two slices) is environmental preferences. All three are important, with learning preferences a bit more heavily weighted.

Social preferences and environmental preferences are fairly easy to determine. Depending upon the age of your students, you can simply observe them or you can give them a survey.

Social preferences questions might include: Do you prefer to work in a group or independently? Do you prefer to get help from the teacher or from a classmate? Do you prefer to work in the same group or to form different groups often?

Environmental preferences questions might include: Do you prefer a warm room or a cool room? Do you prefer a noisy room or a quiet room? Do you prefer a predictable schedule or a variable schedule?

If you choose to observe your students, you will be able to ask yourself what the student preferences seem to be when they are in different learning situations.

You can even make the assessment more interactive and create a live model of how diverse the students in your own classroom are by having them line up and step to the left or right based on whether they agree or disagree with statements such as: I prefer a well-lighted room when I study, I prefer to have the whole week’s assignments on Monday, and I prefer working with a partner or in a small group. Students will appreciate the diversity among their peers when they can literally see the preferences that exist among them.

You can ask students to explain their answers if you wish. Once you have the information compiled, you will be better situated to differentiate instruction for your group of students. For instance, if many of them prefer a predictable schedule, you know you will need to spend extra time preparing them for a change in routine by explaining what to expect and giving examples if possible. Of course, you won’t always want to arrange instruction to please the preferences of the majority, but spending some time preparing students for change situates them to better accept it and feel more comfortable. Comfortable and well-adjusted students are ready to learn because their basic needs have been addressed.

McTighe, J., & Brown, J. L. (2005). Differentiated instruction and educational standards: Is détente possible? Theory Into Practice, 44, 234–244.

Shelton, C. M., & Stern, R. (2003). Understanding emotions in the classroom: Differentiating teaching strategies for optimal learning. New York:
National Professional Resources.

Tomlinson, C. A. (1999). The differentiated classroom: Responding to the needs of all learners. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision
and Curriculum Development.

Zurbriggen, E.L., & Sturman, T.S. (2002). Linking motives and emotions: A test of McClelland’s hypotheses. Personality and Social Psychology, 28(4),
521-535.

Source: The tips above are based on ideas offered in the PLS course Differentiated Instruction for Today’s Classroom® . For more information see "Featured Graduate Course" to the right.

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