Differentiated Instruction Strategies in Meeting Students' Learning Needs

Farah Dina Khoirunnisa, M.Pd.

Mahasiswa PPG bagi Calon Guru Bidang Studi Matematika Gelombang 2 Universitas Islam Sultan Agung 2024

Mata kuliah Pembelajaran Berdiferensiasi dengan dosen pengampu Nila Ubaidah, S.Pd., M.Pd.

sumber: dokumen pribadi

According to Ki Hajar Dewantara's philosophical view of education, education (opvoeding) is guiding all the natural powers possessed by children, so that they as humans and members of society can achieve the highest safety and happiness. As educators, we must realize that children are unique individuals who are born with their own nature. Teachers are similar to sculptors who are experts in the conditions, types, aesthetics, and techniques of wood carving. That is how a teacher must have a deep understanding of the science of education, so that they can carve humans physically and mentally.

According to Urie Bronfenbrenner, every child has unique interests, talents, and cognitive abilities depending on the cultural background in which they are raised. Educators as guardians in helping students develop their interests and talents must be able to provide services to each student so that educators must be competent in facilitating students who produce quality learning. An educator must have at least four competencies, namely pedagogical, professional, and social. Through these competencies, teachers can apply learning strategies that can facilitate the diversity of needs of each student.

Educators who can determine learning strategies by facilitating the diversity of each student, indirectly help students in digesting the understanding and knowledge gained will be more meaningful. Learning strategies that can meet the diversity of learning needs that are different for each student are differentiated instruction strategies. According to Tomlinson (2000), differentiated instruction is an effort to adjust the learning process in the classroom by meeting the learning needs of each student. Differentiated instruction is a process or philosophy for effective teaching by providing various ways of understanding new information for all diverse students by obtaining content, processing, building or reasoning ideas, developing learning products, and assessment measures so that the diversity of needs of each student and includes learning can be effective.

Differentiated instruction strategies are related to meeting the needs of students, both in terms of learning interests, learning profiles, and learning readiness. Differentiated instruction strategies can help students to succeed in their learning process, because the output of learning outcomes is in the form of student learning needs. Learning outcomes produced by students from the entire series of learning activities in the form of articles, songs, poems, infographics, posters, videos, performances, animated videos, or other forms according to learning interests with the concept of the material being taught, both skills individually or in groups.

A teacher must be able to know the characteristics of students because they can be used as a guideline to develop planning and tactics in carrying out the learning process. Teachers must also be able to determine activities in the learning steps to students effectively where each student has different needs. In addition, students in the learning process gain direct experience actively, both individually and in groups, so that they can influence their learning outcomes according to their learning abilities.

Differentiated instruction components include differentiation of content, process, product, and learning environment. Differentiation of content is related to the material or content that will be learned by students. Differentiation of process is related to students' efforts in processing ideas and information obtained so that it includes how students choose their learning style, how students choose their learning style, how students communicate and interact with the material, and how these interactions become part of determining students' learning choices. Differentiation of product is related to students to show the results of their knowledge and understanding. Differentiation of learning environment is related to students' feelings and conditions during the learning process.