Browsing by Author "Salminen, Marko"

Objectives. The goal of the thesis was to consider the views of teachers on upwards differentiation and its realisation in elementary schools. There is a demand for this analysis as differentiation is a teaching tool, and is required from all teachers, but is barely taught in teacher education. The aim was to find out, how teachers experience the application of differentiation, its realisation, and the opportunities for applying and realizing differentiation. Methodology. There were six texts chosen for the basis of analysing differentiation. The texts used were chosen from a group of 20 and were picked based on their suitability. The aim was to gather a group of texts that represent the views of teachers not only in Finland but globally. The texts were sourced using EBSCOhost- , Google Scholar - and Helka-databases. Results and conclusions. Time constraints were the most common reason why teachers felt that upwards differentiation was not applied. They also lacked education on how to arrange differentiated classed and experienced them as difficult. The results also show the importance of the teachers’ input. If teachers were committed to arranging differentiated teaching, the classes were both varied and engaging. Based on the results, it can be concluded that there should be more training arranged for teachers, where using differentiated teaching is addressed. This training should cover both up- and downwards differentiation in teaching.