| Middle schools house a diverse group of students-developmentally, socially, emotionally, and physically. Add to the mix increasing cultural and language diversity, reflective of the population at large, and increased political pressure to accommodate learning disabled and gifted students in the regular classroom and the result is a classroom populated with diverse learners in great need of multiple pathways, responsive to individuals' experiences, readiness to learn, interests, and learning preferences. Realizing this vision requires a shift in instruction and assessment from current middle school practices, which is characterized by teacher-directed, lockstep instruction for all learners. One of two approaches, determined as viable responses to address academic diversity—differentiated instruction or differentiated performance assessment—were implemented in four middle schools to determine teachers' willingness and abilities to change their instructional and/or assessment practices to address the wide range of students in their classes.; The purpose of this study was to investigate how 12 middle school teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning and conceptions about curriculum, instruction, and assessment affect their willingness and capacity to attend to student academic diversity in response to two presented models (differentiated instruction or differentiated performance assessment). Through qualitative methods teachers and students were investigated in their natural setting—the school and classroom. Twelve target teachers, seeking conscious diversity of age, gender, race, years experience, content areas, and grade levels, were selected for participation in the three-year data collection. Classroom observations, teacher interviews, student interviews, administrator interviews, instructional documents, and student products were analyzed to determine the relationship between teachers' beliefs and conceptions and their willingness to change.; Findings indicate that teachers in middle school vary greatly in their conceptions of curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Teachers' beliefs about the nature of learning and teaching, challenge for students, and the need for fairness effect their ability to implement practices that address student diversity. |
