Browsing by Author "Ylinen, Elli"

The aim of this thesis was to find out what the concept of differentiation means and which theoretical arguments are attached to it in the studies. The thesis has also sought to identify the importance of differentiation in the context of physical education and to describe how the differentiation is implemented in physical education in a heterogeneous group of students and whether teachers face challenges with this aspect. Differentiation has been raised as a pedagogical starting point for all teaching in FNCC 2014. Nevertheless, teachers are experiencing differentiation to be a major challenge in their teaching, based on research. The subject of this thesis was formed by the interest in this contradiction. The extraordinary learning environment of physical education classes and my own experience of the challenge about differentiation in physical education increased the interest in the subject of the thesis. The research method of the study was a descriptive literature review. The material was selected in the books and studies on differentiation and physical education, which were mainly published in the 2010s, with the exception of a few classic works. As headwords, I used concepts related in the research topic to help me gather as versatile material as possible to illustrate the phenomenon of my thesis. According to the research method used, I summarized the material and sought to bring up new conclusions based on it. On the basis of this review, the challenge of differentiation teachers' are experiencing was partly due to the limited scope of the study. Theories attached to differentiation within the boundaries of the thesis emphasize the importance of knowing your students and seeing differentiation as a guiding philosophy that takes into account the individual characteristics of each student. According to research data, teachers find heterogeneous groups of pupils as a great challenge, making difficult to differentiate in physical education classes. However, every student has the right to participate in normal education and to receive teaching according to their own abilities. Teachers' resources to implement quality physical education are at a discrepancy with the objectives of the national curriculum. Developing teacher education, understanding differentiation as a teaching philosophy, and using teaching methods that are considered to be the best in research can give teachers more ways to differentiate their teaching.