Effects of Differentiated Mathematics Instruction in a Fourth Grade Classroom

This action research project investigated how differentiation of mathematics instruction affected students' attitudes about themselves as mathematicians as well as the impact on students' mathematic achievement when they received math instruction that was differentiated according to their learning styles. The population of this study consisted of students in two fourth grade classrooms in rural southwestern Minnesota. Within the population there was a control and experimental group. The control group received traditional whole group mathematics instruction. The experimental group received differentiated mathematics instruction that was based off the students' learning styles. Quantitative methodologies included a student presurvey and postsurvey, the Northwest Evaluation Association Measures of Academic Progress test scores, and a learning style profile. An examination of the mean and standard deviation scores of survey questions and NWEA test scores revealed there were several areas of significant change in students' perceptions towards mathematics when instruction was differentiated according to students' learning styles. Overall, the t tests indicated that the differences between the means for 15 out of the 20 questions were determined to be statistically significant at the .05 level of significance for a two-tailed t test of paired means. It was also found that there was significant growth in the control group's and the experimental group's math achievement. However, there was not a significant difference in math achievement growth when comparing the control group's math achievement to the experimental group's math achievement.