| This qualitative study investigated the implementation of Differentiated Instruction (DI) in three suburban elementary schools in Pennsylvania. The researcher endeavored to determine the concerns of teachers, who used a Differentiated Instruction teaching model, had regarding this innovation. Furthermore, the researcher investigated whether or not the concerns varied by building.; In addition to measuring teachers concerns regarding this innovation with the Stages of Concern (SoC) questionnaire, the researcher interviewed each teacher and administrator who consented to participate. The Level of Use (LoU) interview protocol was used to determine how well teachers had implemented DI in their classroom practices. The data gleaned from each interview allowed the researcher to assign a level of implementation of the DI initiative for each participant and subsequently, each elementary school. The researcher described the factors that impacted the participants' ability to successfully implement the innovation.; The data revealed that the majority of the participants were successfully using DI in their respective classrooms. Several participants agreed that it was a teaching model that helped meet the needs of diverse learners. The researcher provides a connection between the use of DI and student achievement in the concluding chapter. However, the teachers agreed overwhelmingly that the district needed to provide more time for professional collaboration for the initiative to take root and be successful for future years. Additionally, the participants agreed that although developing DI lessons was important for student success, it was quite time-consuming and therefore prohibitive, at times. |
