2

Teaching What You Believe

A Philosophy to Guide Teachers
Who Lead for Differentiation

When the school bell rings on day one and all our students are in their seats, we
Copyright © 2023. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development. All rights reserved.

will hold the future of this nation and this world in our hands. Whatever we do
will have lasting implications, not only on the lives of those students, but also
on the lives of all those who they come in contact with. So then, the questions
that we should ask ourselves should not be, “How can I make this work?” The
question must be, “How can I afford not to make this work?”

—Wendy Kopp, One Day, All Children

Few, if any, teachers enter the profession with a well-developed philosophy of

teaching. That’s something that develops silently, day by day, through crisis
and triumph, for those teachers who are willing to risk reflecting on their work
and their own role in that work. Experts who study change in a wide variety of
fields and over many decades have pondered whether it is more likely for people
to believe their way into new actions or act their way into new beliefs. The
43

Tomlinson, Carol Ann, and Marcia B. Imbeau. Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom, Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2023. ProQuest
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 44 Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom

consensus is the latter. In terms of teacher change, this means that when a teacher
tries something new in a classroom and finds it beneficial to students, that action
shapes the teacher’s beliefs about what works and how an effective classroom
proceeds. The “action route” is more likely to result in both teacher growth as a
practitioner and positive beliefs about the efficacy of the approach than spending
the same amount of time thinking about whether or not to implement it.
If teachers were required to enter their first classroom with the philosophical
tenets of differentiation fully in tow, we would have no teachers. Our best hope
for classrooms that work effectively for each student is to cultivate teachers who
care deeply about teaching and the young people they teach; who believe teach-
ing is a calling, not just a job; and whose firm intent is to become self-actualized
professionals who pave the way for their students to also become self-actualized.
It is certainly the case that teachers who lead effectively for differentiation oper-
ate from a clear sense that classrooms should model a world in which learning is
rewarding and in which mutual respect, persistent effort, and shared responsibil-
ity make everyone stronger.
It is possible to make a strong case for differentiation simply based on the
demographics of contemporary classrooms and the needs of an increasingly
diverse student population to function in an increasingly complex world. It is also
possible to make a strong case for differentiation based on research (e.g., Tomlin-
son, 2021, 2022). We believe, however, that the practice of differentiation has its
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roots in a student-centered philosophy, or ethic, of teaching.

The goal in briefly examining the philosophy behind differentiation in this
chapter is not to suggest that educators wait to try to address student learn-
ing needs until they have this belief system—or any other—solidly in place.
Rather, our hope is that reflecting on these ideas will be beneficial to teachers
who want to lead for differentiation, helping them examine their own beliefs and
understand some of the thinking that undergirds a coherent, determined, and
proactive approach to differentiating instruction. This reflection should also help
teachers develop a rationale or vision that will help them talk with their students
about a differentiated classroom and make instructional decisions to benefit their
students.
There are numerous ways to order the ideas that follow. The method we’ve
chosen seems as logical as any, yet we know that for many teachers, these ideas do
not evolve in a logical or even “stepwise” fashion. We are aware, too, that many

Tomlinson, Carol Ann, and Marcia B. Imbeau. Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom, Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2023. ProQuest
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 Teaching What You Believe 45

of these beliefs are interconnected—difficult to separate from one another. We

also recognize that we include only a sampling of insights in each area and invite
readers to add their thinking to ours.
We’ll begin by taking a look at some core tenets of the philosophy of dif-
ferentiation. Then, we will consider how those beliefs, or principles, might shape
a teacher’s affective response to students’ affective needs. Finally, we’ll examine
some concrete examples of how those principles might guide teachers’ aspira-
tions to establish, lead, and ultimately manage flexible routines in a differentiated
classroom.

Beliefs That Point to Differentiated Instruction

Lorna Earl reflects, “Differentiation is making sure that the right students get the
right learning tasks at the right time. Once you have a sense of what each student
holds as ‘given’ or ‘known’ and what he or she needs in order to learn, differentia-
tion is no longer an option. It is an obvious response” (2013, p. 131).
This is an immensely practical way to look at differentiation, but it also mod-
els a useful cause-and-effect approach to thinking about the philosophical roots
of differentiation. To take some liberties with her words, Earl is in essence saying
that if we care about whether teaching and learning are working for each of our
students, we must continue to monitor their growth in terms of what we deem to
be critical learning goals. Inevitably, we’ll find that students are in different places
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with their mastery of those goals. Then, as she suggests, because we want to make
sure each student succeeds, we have no choice but to differentiate instruction
so that each learner can take their own next steps forward each day in our class-
rooms. There’s simply no good alternative.
The belief that sets Earl’s sequence of thoughts in motion is an affirmation
in the profound worth of every learner—not a vague, generalized, mission-
statement sort of belief. A belief in the worth of the individual propels a teacher
to look “eyeball to eyeball” at the humanity of each student and dictate classroom
practice as a result. The statement asks, “If you believe X, what choice do you
have but Y?” Following is a set of beliefs leading to classroom practice that dog-
gedly attend to the needs of individual learners because there simply is no other
choice.

Tomlinson, Carol Ann, and Marcia B. Imbeau. Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom, Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2023. ProQuest
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 46 Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom

Belief 1: Every student has inherent

dignity and is worthy of respect
At the center of democracy, and the world’s major religions, resides a con-
viction that we should hold human life in esteem and regard it with a sense of
awe. From this comes the admonition that each life is unique, irreplaceable, and
innately valuable—regardless of race, economic status, language, gender identity,
religion, or exceptionality. In most societies, the mature individual is cast as one
who can move beyond egocentrism to recognize and address the needs of others
and can seek justice not just for oneself but for others. Words affirming human
dignity surround us and are prevalent in government documents, houses of wor-
ship, judicial rulings, political conversations, and ethical debates. The danger, of
course, is that although we generally “accept” the idea of human dignity almost
automatically in much of the free world, we enact this idea with much greater
difficulty.
The teacher who both accepts and enacts the principle of human dignity
does not look at a class roster and simply see a list of names. That teacher consid-
ers teaching to be a stewardship of young lives—a shaping of them—and aspires
to act and interact in ways that consistently respect and dignify the worth of each
student. Such teachers accept the premise that teaching is essentially about build-
ing lives (Tomlinson, 2021).
Much of the impetus for differentiated instruction is predicated on the belief
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that every young life is of ultimate value and should be treated accordingly by
adults who have responsibility for shaping those lives. Decisions about classroom
rules, curriculum, instruction, student groupings, discipline, grading, and virtu-
ally every other aspect of teaching are shaped by the centrality or marginality of
this belief in a teacher’s thinking. Attempting to enact this belief into classroom
practice certainly does not simplify the teacher’s role, but it likely does enrich it.
A belief in the dignity and worth of each student leads teachers to ask ques-
tions like these:

• How can I gain an understanding of the particular cultures, talents,

strengths, interests, needs, burdens, and dreams this student brings to the
classroom daily?
• In what ways can I show this student that I unconditionally respect and
value them?
• How do I help this student recognize and extend their strengths?

Tomlinson, Carol Ann, and Marcia B. Imbeau. Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom, Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2023. ProQuest
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 Teaching What You Believe 47

• How can I ensure my own cultural proficiency in order to be the most

effective teacher possible for each learner?
• In what ways can I help students see and value the contributions and
potential of every other student in the class?
• How can I guide development of a sense of classroom community and col-
laboration characterized by empathy and respect?

Belief 2: Diversity is both inevitable and positive

A teacher created a poster that hung prominently in the front of her class-
room. It read, “Our similarities make us human. Our differences make us indi-
viduals.” Her conversations and actions with students persistently reaffirmed the
words on the wall. She reminded her students that everyone needs kindness and
friends. Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone has good days and bad. These are
human things. However, Josh’s sense of humor is uniquely his. Javier’s Latino
background means that he knows things others in the class might not, and the
class can therefore learn from him. Andrea’s perspectives as the oldest child in
a large family help her see things in ways that her classmates might not think of.
Through this, the teacher helps her students learn a critical reality: We are a
great deal alike as human beings and, in those ways, we share a common bond,
yet human beings differ as well. Sometimes those differences separate us, but they
don’t need to. They should enrich us—and they do, when we are open to them.
A belief that diversity is both normal and positive leads teachers to ask ques-
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tions like these:

• How do I contribute to my students’ awareness of their core similarities

and their individuality?
• How do I seek diverse perspectives on issues and topics in our class?
• How do I help students learn to seek and value multiple perspectives on
issues and topics?
• How well do I understand my own culture and how it shapes my perspec-
tives and practices as a person and as a teacher?
• How do I ensure that all students’ backgrounds, cultures, races, languages,
patterns of communication, preferred ways of learning, and traditions are
recognized, honored, and represented in our classroom’s operation, curricu-
lum, and materials?
• How do I ensure that each student has equity of access to the highest-
quality learning opportunities this school can offer?

Tomlinson, Carol Ann, and Marcia B. Imbeau. Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom, Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2023. ProQuest
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 48 Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom

• How do I create group work that draws on the particular strengths of each
of the group’s members?
• How do I ensure that every student can make a significant intellectual con-
tribution to the work of the class?

Belief 3: The classroom should mirror the kind of

society we want our students to live in and lead
Certainly, we want young people to live in, value, and defend a society that
accords respect and dignity to each of its members. We also live in a time when
the world is rapidly becoming everyone’s backyard. The United States is an amal-
gam of languages, cultures, races, economic backgrounds, and possibilities. We
therefore need classrooms in which students not only accept but expect, learn
from, and value diversity. Thus, the first two beliefs that lead to differentiation
are tied to this third belief.
Vivian Paley (1993) saw her kindergartners beginning the practice of exclud-
ing peers from games and classroom groups. Understanding the long-term
liabilities for both the rejected and the rejecter, she posted a new classroom rule:
“You can’t say you can’t play.” Over time, she helped her young students debate
the fairness of exclusion. Though conducted in the language of 5-year-olds, the
conversations initially sounded remarkably like adult rationales for sorting and
separating people. In time, her students came to accept the rule, live by it, appre-
ciate it, and defend it. Even at a young age, they found that it was not possible to
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simultaneously value and exclude a person or a group. They ultimately under-

stood that if “different” meant you had to be somewhere else, then “different”
wasn’t a good thing. They came to see differences as just part of who they were
rather than reasons to suspect or reject one another.
Likewise, it is difficult to make a compelling argument that a school or teacher
has deep regard for the value of each individual and accepts diversity as both nor-
mal and desirable while designating some students as “able” and others as “less
able” for the purpose of sorting them academically. Our long-standing practices
of academic segregation are complex and still advocated and practiced by many.
They are also antithetical to the core beliefs and practices of differentiation.
With regard to students with learning challenges, Richard Villa and Jacque-
line Thousand remind us, “Inclusive education is about . . . making a commitment
to provide each student in the community, each citizen in a democracy, with the
inalienable right to belong. . . . Inclusion is the opposite of segregation and isola-
tion. . . . Segregated education creates a permanent underclass of students and

Tomlinson, Carol Ann, and Marcia B. Imbeau. Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom, Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2023. ProQuest
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 Teaching What You Believe 49

conveys to those students that they do not measure up, fit in, or belong” (2005,
p. 5). The same could be said of students who live in poverty, students whose first
language is not English, students who live in foster care, those who experience
trauma, those who struggle with gender identity, those who are rightly afraid to
go home at the end of the day, and many other “categories” of learners who often
find themselves, in one way or another, excluded from robust and challenging
curricula, field trips, access to technology, and other opportunities that both
indicate and accord student status. To value is to include, not exclude. To honor
diversity is to invite it, not shunt it away (Tomlinson, 2022).
The belief that classrooms should mirror the world we hope our students can
live in and lead prompts teachers to ask questions like these:

• How do I come to understand my students’ diverse backgrounds and

needs so that I can draw on them and ensure that students build on them
effectively?
• How do my students and I create an inclusive learning environment in
which the full range of students learn well together, not just occupy the same
space?
• How do I help students create a classroom in which they understand that
we all have different entry points into learning yet share a common need to
learn?
• How do students come to encourage and support one another’s growth?
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• How do students learn to affirm and celebrate one another’s growth?

Belief 4: Most students can learn most things

that are essential to a given area of study
Teacher beliefs about students’ capacity to succeed are often buried beneath
consciousness. Those beliefs are nonetheless powerful determinants in shaping
both teaching and student attitudes about learning.
Carol Dweck, whose research on motivation spans several decades (e.g.,
2000, 2006, 2017), tells us that we develop early in life a mindset about what
it means to be smart and how we become successful. Her work suggests two
options, a fixed mindset or a growth (fluid) mindset. People who develop a fixed
mindset conclude that success comes from inborn ability—that is, a person is
born smart or they aren’t. People who develop a growth mindset reach a different
conclusion. They believe that success isn’t determined by innate and immutable

Tomlinson, Carol Ann, and Marcia B. Imbeau. Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom, Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2023. ProQuest
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 50 Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom

ability but rather by persistent and informed effort. To put it another way, people
work their way to success.
Students with a fixed mindset feel a sense of inevitability when they encoun-
ter difficulty in school. For example, students who struggle with school on a
regular basis simply conclude that they can’t succeed because they are not smart.
Likewise, students who are highly able might balk at challenges because they
believe smart people shouldn’t have to work hard; if they can’t handle the chal-
lenge with modest effort, then it’s an indication that they aren’t smart, and that’s
an idea they can’t abide. In either case, students with a fixed mindset have mini-
mal motivation to work hard.
Students with a growth mindset believe that if a skill or task is difficult, they
can nonetheless achieve mastery because their continuing effort will win the day.
Their motivation to work hard is high because they believe the payoff will be
worth their investment.
Teachers with a fixed mindset certainly “teach” all their students, but they do
so with a sense that “some kids will get it, and some won’t.” In a way, these teach-
ers teach without the expectation that every student will learn. They draw con-
clusions, often unconsciously and often early in a course or grade, about which
students are smart and which are not. They then proceed to teach accordingly,
remediating some students and enriching or accelerating others.
Teachers with a growth mindset work from the premise that virtually any
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student can learn anything if the student is willing to work hard and if they
have support in that effort, including support in learning to work in ways that
characterize successful people. Such teachers aren’t interested in labels or past
performance; they simply set out to establish an ethic of hard work and to teach
students the skills they need to work effectively. Success with essential learning
goals for each student is the only acceptable outcome for these teachers.
Not surprisingly, there is an interaction between the mindsets held by both
students and teachers. Figure 2.1 illustrates some of the possible interactions and
implications.
It is important to note that Dweck finds people can and do change their
mindsets. Teachers with growth mindsets regularly help students understand
that they have control over their success, thus enabling students with fixed mind-
sets to begin to operate from a sense of personal agency.
The contribution of a growth mindset to student motivation and achieve-
ment is considerable (Aronson et al., 2002; Good et al., 2003; Ng, 2018; O’Keefe

Tomlinson, Carol Ann, and Marcia B. Imbeau. Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom, Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2023. ProQuest
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 Teaching What You Believe 51

et al., 2018; Sparks, 2021). Students who come to believe that their hard work
will lead to success earn higher achievement test scores and grades, engage in
academics at a higher level, and enjoy the academic process more than students
who retain a fixed mindset perspective.

Figure 2.1
Possible Interactions Between Teacher and Student Mindset
Teacher may underestimate student capacity and Both teacher and student study student growth, set
Growth Mindset

willingness to work hard and “teach down” because of goals for progress, and look for ways to continue
the student’s language, culture, economic status, race, development. Students at all readiness levels have
label, etc. maximum opportunity for challenge, growth,
and success.
STUDENT

Both teacher and student accept the student’s difficul- Teacher encourages and insists on student effort and
Fixed Mindset

ties as given, and neither exerts the effort needed for growth. Over time, the student’s mindset can change
high levels of student achievement. Both also accept to a growth orientation with evidence that effort
high grades on grade-level work as adequate for leads to success. Students at all readiness levels have
advanced learners. maximum opportunity for challenge, growth,
and success.

Fixed Mindset Growth Mindset

TEACHER
Reprinted with permission from Solution Tree.
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It is unlikely that a fixed mindset teacher exerts enough effort to ensure the
success of a student whom that teacher (consciously or unconsciously) believes
is incapable of success. Differentiation is a growth mindset endeavor—it asks
teachers to find an academic entry point relative to essential learning outcomes,
to make instructional plans designed to move students to mastery of those out-
comes from their current points of proficiency, and to adopt a “whatever it takes”
approach in doing so. Differentiation also calls on teachers to work with students
to show them the direct link between “informed effort” and achievement, thus
enlisting each student’s energy in their own success.
Dweck (2000, 2017) counsels that we serve our students best not by telling
them they are smart but by being candid about where their skills are at a given
time and where they need to be in order to achieve their life and school aspira-
tions. She continues, “The confidence students need is not the confidence that
they have a certain level of smartness, or that they have more of it than other

Tomlinson, Carol Ann, and Marcia B. Imbeau. Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom, Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2023. ProQuest
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 52 Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom

students. The confidence they need is the confidence that they, or anybody for
that matter, can learn if they apply their effort and strategies [that support suc-
cess]” (Dweck, 2000, pp. 57–58).
A belief in the capacity of virtually all students to learn essential content
causes teachers to ask questions like these:

• How do I understand the mindset of each of my students in order to

ensure that they understand their capacity to impact their own success?
• How do I help each student develop and extend the attitudes, habits of
mind, and strategies needed to contribute to their success as a learner?
• How do I understand and address each student’s learning development
and needs relative to designated learning outcomes for my grade/subject(s)?
• How do I ensure that I position each learner as a thinker and problem
solver?
• How do I ensure the supply of materials and support needed for each stu-
dent’s progress?
• How do I ensure that classroom working arrangements build on students’
cultural preferences for learning?
• In what ways can I make clear to my students that I value their effort rather
than their innate ability—that I am much more interested in their growth
than their starting points?
• How do I ensure that competition against oneself, rather than against one
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another, is the goal of this class?

• How do I ensure that student growth is a key and visible component in
reporting grades?

Belief 5: Each student should have equity of

access to excellent learning opportunities
A belief in the worth of each student should lead us to conclude that virtually
every young person requires access to the best learning opportunities a school
has to offer. To suggest that some students require less is to retrench on a deeply
important ideal. Here is John Dewey’s take:

What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the com-
munity want for all of its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and
unlovely; acted upon, it destroys our democracy. . . . Only by being true to the
full growth of all the individuals who make it up, can society by any chance be
true to itself. (in Schlechty, 1997, p. 77)

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 Teaching What You Believe 53

A belief in the capacity of all students to learn the essential knowledge,

understandings, and skills in a topic or unit of study suggests that schools offer
their very best to everyone. This belief also implies two additional assumptions.
First, learning opportunities should focus on what is essential to learn—that is,
on how the subject makes sense and what makes it authentic, useful, relevant,
transferable, and meaningful. Second, the curriculum and instruction to which all
learners are exposed should provide consistent opportunities to understand the
content so students can retain, apply, and transfer what they learn (Tomlinson,
2021, Tomlinson & McTighe, 2006). In other words, if our schools and teach-
ers operated from a growth mindset perspective, we would have little reason to
assume that only a few students could learn conceptually, think critically, debate
ideas, and address real-world issues. Rather than develop curriculum that mirrors
a belief that only a relatively small proportion of students can do complex work,
we would plan “high-end” curriculum for advanced students and then scaffold
instruction to make certain each student is supported in achieving and, if pos-
sible, exceeding those complex goals (Tomlinson, 2021, 2022).
There is ample evidence spanning many years that the practice of providing
high-quality curriculum and instruction for some—but not all—students results
in an escalating disadvantage for students who are already at a disadvantage in
terms of their opportunity to achieve (e.g., Darling-Hammond, 2001; Domina
et al., 2016; Gorsky, 2018). In addition, indications are increasingly clear that
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establishing expectations for a majority of students to become creators (rather

than simply consumers) of knowledge is imperative if we expect all our young
people to thrive in and contribute to the world they will enter as they leave school
(Berger et al., 2014; Fullan et al., 2018). As DuFour and Eaker (1998) put it, “In
today’s Information Age . . . educators must operate from the premise that it is
the purpose of schools to bring all students to their full potential and to a level of
education that was once reserved for the very few” (p. 62).
A belief in equity of access to excellent learning opportunities leads teachers
to ask questions like these:

• To what degree does the curriculum feel relevant and engaging to each
student in my class?
• Is the curriculum designed to ensure student understanding of content?
• Am I confident that I am “teaching up” to all of my students, rather than
“watering down” for some of them?

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 54 Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom

• Are all of the tasks I offer respectful—that is, are they equally appealing
and focused on essential understandings, do they require students to think
critically and/or creatively, and do they ask all students to work with content
in authentic ways?
• In what ways can I make certain that my most advanced students are being
consistently challenged?
• In what ways can I support each student in achieving and, whenever pos-
sible, surpassing established goals?
• How do I ensure that each student is an active participant in discussions
designed to help them make meaning of ideas?
• How do I schedule our time so students can regularly focus on their own
specific academic needs and still come together around important ideas?
• How do I consistently seek student input to shape what I ask them to
learn?

Belief 6: A central goal of teaching is to

maximize the capacity of each learner
Ensuring that each student experiences the best curriculum and instruction
a school can offer, as well as the support necessary to succeed in such settings,
would move schools much closer to this belief. In practice, however, we generally
fall short of embracing it for at least two reasons. First, we tend to accept a single
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performance level as adequate or even desirable for a grade level. While it is obvi-
ously important to have clear learning targets for teachers and students, when we
assume that all students reach their maximum respective potential if they achieve
the same goals under the same circumstances on the same day, we operate in
direct contradiction to all that we know about human development. While, for
some students, success is inevitably out of reach on the date designated to judge
their competence, other students are invariably rated as “successful” without
regard for the fact that they may have passed the performance level measured by
the test much earlier in the year.
Students learn incrementally from their various starting points. It is simply
how the process works. We cannot require students to make an impossible leap
over a chasm in knowledge, nor should we ask them to move backward in order
to stay with the class. Theodore Sizer (1985) explains it this way:
One cannot succeed at something totally beyond one’s experience, beyond
one’s grasp. One is interested in that at which one succeeds. Thus, a clever

Tomlinson, Carol Ann, and Marcia B. Imbeau. Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom, Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2023. ProQuest
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 Teaching What You Believe 55

teacher sets a student’s work, and the expectations for it, at a level where some
modicum of legitimate success is possible. However, because “experience has
shown that it is worth the effort to provide the growing child with problems
that tempt him into next stages of development,” an effective teacher keeps the
subject of study at an arm’s length from the student, but no further. The joy
of success comes especially sweet when that which was mastered had earlier
seemed unachievable. (p. 167)

This is the case for students at all entry points into a lesson or unit.
Further, when we set a single benchmark for all students, it is inevitably a
middling one. In doing so, we teach students that there is a finish line and that
“good enough” is good enough. Former U.S. Secretary of Education John Gard-
ner (1961) reminded us that we are in peril if the goal we set for ourselves is one
of amicable mediocrity. All we can ask of students is that they invest maximum
effort in learning—and we should not settle for less from our students or from
ourselves.
A second reason that our classrooms aren’t geared to maximize the capacity
of each learner is that we tend to see and think of our students as a group (Brigh-
ton et al., 2005; Tomlinson, 2021, 2022). We say, “The students always love it
when we do this lab,” or “The students don’t understand inverting fractions,” or
“The students were restless today.” No doubt a number of students do like the lab,
don’t understand how and when to invert fractions, and were restless today, but
Copyright © 2023. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development. All rights reserved.

there’s also little doubt that some students found the lab pointless or confusing,
could teach a cogent lesson on inverting fractions, and were perfectly calm and
ready to learn today. It’s virtually impossible to attend to student differences
when we think of “the students” as a single entity. Such thinking also reinforces
the sense that a single learning indicator or set of indicators is appropriate for “the
students” at a given time. As Baruti Kafele (2021) reminds us,
Each student has their own individuality, academically, socially, and emotion-
ally. And each student has their own voice, academically, socially, and emo-
tionally. Each student is somebody. Each student is somebody special. Each
student has his or her own set of experiences, realities, challenges, obstacles,
goals, aspirations, and ambitions. Additionally, each student has his or her own
unique way of being motivated and inspired. What sets one student on fire
might not be what sets another student on fire. Most importantly, how each
student learns, thinks, makes sense out of, and processes new information may
be unique. (p. 16)

Tomlinson, Carol Ann, and Marcia B. Imbeau. Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom, Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2023. ProQuest
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 56 Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom

Differentiation asks teachers to look beyond “groupthink” and study the

evolving profiles of students as individuals. The degree to which a teacher melds
respect for the individual and belief in the capacity of the individual to succeed
with the intent to know each student as an individual determines the likelihood
that the goal of maximizing the capacity of each learner is operationalized. Such
a triumvirate of beliefs also results in many more students exceeding the unitary
standard(s) we now establish. Berger (2003) and Berger and colleagues (2014)
commend the idea of inspiring each student to create “beautiful work” and ensur-
ing that each learner has the support necessary to achieve “exemplary status” on
every summative assessment and every long-term learning target. The work of
excellence, Berger (2003) argues, is transformational:

Once a student sees that he or she is capable of excellence, that student is never
quite the same. There is a new self-image, a new notion of possibility. There is
an appetite for excellence. After students have had a taste of excellence, they’re
never quite satisfied with less; they’re always hungry. (p. 8)

A belief in the importance of maximizing the capacity of each learner leads

teachers to ask questions like these:

• What is this student’s next step in learning essential content today?

• How can I help each student understand and contribute to their next step
in learning?
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• What task, materials, and working arrangements will push this student a bit
beyond their comfort zone today?
• What models and indicators can I use to help this student understand what
high-quality work looks like at their stage of growth?
• How can I tap into this student’s motivation to strive for quality?
• What forms of support does this student need from me and from peers to
persist in the face of difficulty and do exemplary work?
• How do we support one another in working for quality?
• How do we chart growth and quality of work over time?
• How do we recognize and celebrate excellence, both individually and as a
community of learners?

Tomlinson, Carol Ann, and Marcia B. Imbeau. Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom, Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2023. ProQuest
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 Teaching What You Believe 57

A Philosophical Compass
for the Journey Ahead
Good teaching—the really good stuff—is hard work. Being a good teacher
requires meeting many of the same demands as being a good parent, a good doc-
tor, or a good musician. Humans are largely sustained in our work by a belief that
what we do makes a profound difference in the lives of other people. Differen-
tiation is an individual-focused approach to teaching. It is the manifestation of a
conviction that every student is both unique and of prime importance as a learner
and as a human being. It is an affirmation that human differences are normal and
desirable, and that excellent teachers plan, teach, and reflect with those differ-
ences in mind. Here’s how Grant Wiggins (1992) put it:
We will not successfully restructure schools to be effective until we stop seeing
diversity in students as a problem. Our challenge is not one of getting “special”
students to better adjust to the usual schoolwork, the usual teacher pace, or the
usual tests. The challenge of schooling remains what it has been since the mod-
ern era began two centuries ago: ensuring that all students receive their entitle-
ment. They have the right to thought-provoking and enabling schoolwork so
that they might use their minds well and discover the joy therein to be willing
to push themselves farther. They have the right to instruction that obligates the
teacher, like the doctor, to change tactics when progress fails to occur. They
have the right to assessment that provides students and teachers with insight
Copyright © 2023. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development. All rights reserved.

into real-world standards. . . . Until such a time, we will have no insight into
human potential. Until the challenge is met, schools will continue to reward the
lucky or the already-equipped and weed out the poor performers. (pp. xv–xvi)

Enter the Students

A philosophy in the abstract is worthwhile since it grounds our thinking and
reminds us that a life well lived or a career well spent is likely to be more reasoned
and purposeful than random. The test of that philosophy comes in the arena of
daily life rather than in the seclusion of individual minds. In the case of teaching,
a defensible philosophy supports the capacity of teachers to address the needs of
the young people in their care.
Abraham Maslow (1943) found that individuals develop along a continuum
of needs, with the more basic human needs demanding attention before higher-
level needs can be satisfied. First in line, he tells us, are physiological needs for
things such as food, clothing, shelter, and sleep. The primacy of these needs is so

Tomlinson, Carol Ann, and Marcia B. Imbeau. Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom, Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2023. ProQuest
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 58 Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom

great that, when there is a deficiency in one or more of them, the body focuses
almost exclusively on attending to that need. In a school setting, students who
enter the classroom hungry, cold, sleepy, or worried about where they will find
shelter at night have no mental energy to learn a new language or complete a
worksheet—until a teacher or another adult can attend to their needs.
Once physiological needs are met, the need for safety and security takes cen-
ter stage. For these needs to be satisfied, students require a sense that they are not
only physically safe but also safe from teasing, bullying, and hopelessness in terms
of the tasks and challenges ahead. A school and classroom that provide safety and
model and demand respect can help pave the way to effective learning, but when
the end of the day nears and the student again faces potential threats, anticipation
of the dangers ahead will push learning aside. Only when safety and security seem
assured can individuals systematically seek acknowledgment and belonging.
Most students want to be part of a community. A feeling of collegiality or “team-
work” in the classroom satisfies this need to be a part of (rather than apart from)
the group. The absence of such a sense of belonging leads to loneliness, isolation,
and low self-esteem. In school, it essentially derails the learning process.
When an individual’s physiological needs are adequately addressed, attention
can then be spent on esteem needs such as academic learning. When this is the
case, students demonstrate a desire to engage themselves in ways that bring rec-
ognition and value. They want to contribute and be valued as contributors to the
group and its work. Through achievement, they develop a sense of self-efficacy.
Copyright © 2023. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development. All rights reserved.

The final two levels of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs are self-actualization, in

which an individual strives to become all that they can be, and self-transcendence,
in which individuals learn to live at a higher level of insight and on a plane that
takes them beyond themselves. It is highly unusual for young people to achieve
these two stages.
It is interesting, then, to realize that academic learning requires students to
work at the highest level of need satisfaction within their grasp as young people. It
certainly reminds us, once again, that a teacher’s job is not simply to enter a room
and impart knowledge, but rather to attend to each student as a whole human
being in order to open the way for each student to truly become a learner.
When we keep Maslow’s hierarchy in mind, we realize that most learners
come to school not so much to seek mastery of math or literature as to satisfy
more basic needs, such as affirmation and contribution. Once those needs have
been met, they shift their attention to things such as purpose, challenge, and
power (Tomlinson, 2004, 2021, 2022). A teacher who honors the individual

Tomlinson, Carol Ann, and Marcia B. Imbeau. Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom, Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2023. ProQuest
Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uncg/detail.action?docID=30286736.
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 Teaching What You Believe 59

seeks to understand each student’s particular progression of needs and to address

those needs in a way that leads to both personal and academic growth.

The Teacher Responds

Students will come to school with the sorts of needs—both cognitive and
affective—outlined by Maslow. Teachers will respond to those needs—by
addressing them or ignoring them, understanding the similarities and differences
in how students experience them or generalizing across students. At least two ele-
ments determine a teacher’s response to students’ needs and its quality in terms of
student benefits. One determinant is the philosophy (or lack thereof) that shapes
the teacher’s actions. The second determinant is the teacher’s level of competency
in setting and following a specific course of action. We often think of these two
elements as “will” and “skill.” Ultimately, a philosophy of teaching is based first on
a teacher’s will to teach each learner and then on that teacher’s will to develop the
skills required to understand every learner and teach them as individuals.
We hope this chapter will contribute to the development of beliefs about the
nature and purpose of teaching. We also hope that the following chapters will
contribute to teachers’ skills in managing and leading a classroom that is atten-
tive to learners’ particular needs and to the group’s common needs. A philosophy
of teaching based on beliefs such as the ones outlined earlier in this chapter
leads teachers to respond to student needs for affirmation, purpose, challenge,
Copyright © 2023. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development. All rights reserved.

and power with invitation, investment, persistence, opportunity, and reflection

(Tomlinson, 2004, 2021, 2022). In a variety of ways and over time, teachers need
to consistently convey the following messages to their students, both individually
and as a whole class:

• Invitation—I am pleased that you are here, eager to know you better, and
aware that you bring important experiences and characteristics to class with
you. I see you with unconditional positive regard—that is, the belief that you
are valuable and worthy of respect as you are. I want to do whatever I can to
make this a place of learning for you. I encourage you to help me be the best
teacher possible for you.
• Investment—Because you are important in this class and in the world,
I am going to work hard to help you grow as much and as fast as you can.
Because your effort has much to do with your success, I am going to ask you
to work hard as well. I will help you develop the attitudes and skills that sup-
port the hard work of learning.

Tomlinson, Carol Ann, and Marcia B. Imbeau. Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom, Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2023. ProQuest
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 60 Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom

• Persistence—You won’t always get things right the first time you try
them. Neither will I. When class is not going well for you, I am going to work
for you and with you to find approaches that will ensure your success. I will
never give up on you.
• Opportunity—You are young and just learning about the possibilities
that exist in the world. I want to provide opportunities for you to see yourself
at work in varied settings, in varied roles, and with varied content. This is a
time for you to prepare for the future and get excited by the possibilities that
exist for you.
• Reflection—I will listen to you, learn from you, observe you at work in
our class, study your progress, and ask for your guidance. I will think about
my work and how it’s working for you as often as I possibly can. I expect that
of myself so that I can become a more aware and effective teacher. I will ask
the same of you so you can become a more aware and effective learner.

In addition to this sort of affective response to a student’s needs, a teacher

whose work is rooted in the worth of the individual understands that much
of what they communicate to students will be in the form of curriculum and
instruction. Therefore, the teacher ensures that every student’s work is engaging,
important, focused, challenging, and scaffolded (Tomlinson, 2004, 2021). These
attributes of day-to-day work clearly communicate to students the teacher’s
Copyright © 2023. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development. All rights reserved.

belief in their individual worth and potential.

In a book that is both disturbing and hopeful, Kirsten Olson (2009) presents
her body of research, which includes interviews with many adults from diverse
backgrounds, virtually all of whom felt profoundly “wounded by school.” Olson
didn’t set out to do research in this area; the work evolved as she discovered
that many adults with whom she spoke (about other topics) discussed negative
impacts that school had on them. She goes on to clarify that her definition of
“wounded by school” does not include the inevitable moments of discomfort that
occur when substantial numbers of young people share a classroom or the kinds
of natural “bumps and bruises” that help us grow. Instead, she’s talking about the
hurt that diminishes individuals in their own eyes, doesn’t go away even in adult-
hood, and cannot be dismissed even if the victim achieves success in the eyes of
the world. Common results of such wounding that emerged from the interviews
included the following:

Tomlinson, Carol Ann, and Marcia B. Imbeau. Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom, Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2023. ProQuest
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 Teaching What You Believe 61

• A loss of pleasure in learning.

• A belief that we are not smart or competent in learning.
• A belief that our abilities are fixed and can’t be improved with effort, coach-
ing, or self-understanding.
• A belief that we are “just average” in a way that feels diminishing.
• Anger toward teachers and others in authority because we feel that we are
not seen or acknowledged as worthy.
• A generalized feeling of shame that came from school and produces gen-
eralized anxiety.
• A sense that school diminished us cognitively.
• A low appetite for intellectual risk taking; in other words, a desire to get the
right answer and just finish the job.

Olson finds that there are some teachers who heal wounds, and as a group,
they exhibit predictable behaviors. These teachers

• Welcome and honor diversity in race, language, economic status, learning

exceptionality, gender, and sexual orientation.
• Accept many types of students and consciously value diversity of back-
ground and experience in the classroom.
• Place the student at the center of instruction.
• Honor what students already know and feel.
Copyright © 2023. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development. All rights reserved.

• Honor varied ways in which students most comfortably learn.

• Emphasize multiple avenues of content presentation, reflection, and
assessment.
• Make communities of caring central to learning.
• Acknowledge the ambiguity inherent in teaching.
• Employ experimentation in instructional design and learn from mistakes.

It is not a great leap to suggest that a philosophy of differentiation exists

to avoid wounding learners (as much as those wounds are within our power to
avoid) and to play a role in healing the wounds that young learners bring with
them into the classroom. Philosophically, differentiation is an approach that
commends planning for human wholeness as a primary goal—and that provides
for healing when necessary. Accepting this premise provides teachers with con-
siderable guidance when they plan for instruction, reflect on instruction, and talk
with others about the work they do.

Tomlinson, Carol Ann, and Marcia B. Imbeau. Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom, Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2023. ProQuest
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 62 Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom

Nora Rose, a graduate student at the University of Virginia, reflected, “I have

come to see differentiation not as something revolutionary but as a kind of quiet
radicalism. This is not meant to discount its power but rather to highlight it as a
practice of kindness.” Nora’s statement reflects a core insight about differentia-
tion. A teacher who works from deep and determined respect for the worth of
each learner will, through study and practice, discover differentiation—not all at
once, but step by step—as part of the search for ways to dignify and extend the
capacities of each of those learners.
Chapter 3 explores ways in which teachers invite students to share in the
development of a philosophy of differentiation. It also examines how teachers
assume the role as leader of parents, colleagues, and administrators in under-
standing and supporting differentiation.
Copyright © 2023. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development. All rights reserved.

Tomlinson, Carol Ann, and Marcia B. Imbeau. Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom, Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 2023. ProQuest
Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uncg/detail.action?docID=30286736.
Created from uncg on 2024-09-24 03:05:36.