On Teaching Adaptively

Abstract

New theory on adaptive teaching reflects the social dynamics of classrooms to explain what practicing teachers do to address student differences related to learning. In teaching adaptively, teachers respond to learners as they work. Teachers read student signals to diagnose needs on the fly and tap previous experience with similar learners to respond productively. Adaptive teachers use their experience to form flexible groups for learning. Teaching adaptively is intellectual as well as technical, requiring quick response to learner variation. Adaptive teachers create a symbolic area at the center of the teaching ground, a space for easiest teaching. Adaptive teachers aim to keep the most number of students within that center to capitalize on skills across the class, challenge students to share experiences, and develop aptitude. Future work should capture the adaptive strategies of practitioners that illustrate the general principles described to create constituent elements of microadaptive teaching practice.