Differentiated Instruction in Middle School Inclusion Classrooms to Support Special Education Students

Differentiated Instruction in Middle School Inclusion Classrooms to Support Special Education Students by LaToya Keyona Benjamin M.Ed., Walden University, 2014 BS, Virginia State University, 2002 Project Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education Walden University December 2019 Abstract Differentiated instruction (DI) research has shown many benefits of implementing instructional practices within an inclusive classroom. However, many teachers do not utilize this instructional practice regularly. An instrumental qualitative case study design that included teachers from one middle school in a rural school district in a southeastern state was used in this study to explore rural middle school teachers’ experiences with incorporating the components of DI to support special education students in an inclusion classroom. The challenges faced when incorporating DI were also examined. Tomlinson’s model of differentiated instruction framed this study, as it explores the need for teachers to provide responsive instruction to meet the needs of each of their students, regardless of a student’s ability. A purposeful sample of 10 middle school teachers’ Grades 6–8 from various content areas participated in an interview, an instructional observation, and submitted documents for review. Inductive analysis was used to analyze data of teacher use of DI components, and hand-coding was used to identify emerging thematic relationships and patterns. When asked about incorporating the components of DI to support special education studentsDifferentiated instruction (DI) research has shown many benefits of implementing instructional practices within an inclusive classroom. However, many teachers do not utilize this instructional practice regularly. An instrumental qualitative case study design that included teachers from one middle school in a rural school district in a southeastern state was used in this study to explore rural middle school teachers’ experiences with incorporating the components of DI to support special education students in an inclusion classroom. The challenges faced when incorporating DI were also examined. Tomlinson’s model of differentiated instruction framed this study, as it explores the need for teachers to provide responsive instruction to meet the needs of each of their students, regardless of a student’s ability. A purposeful sample of 10 middle school teachers’ Grades 6–8 from various content areas participated in an interview, an instructional observation, and submitted documents for review. Inductive analysis was used to analyze data of teacher use of DI components, and hand-coding was used to identify emerging thematic relationships and patterns. When asked about incorporating the components of DI to support special education students within an inclusion-based classroom, participants revealed concerns with class size, lack of resources, knowledge/preparation, and professional development. Based on the results, a 3 full day program was created as a project to incorporate DI into improve middle school inclusion-based classrooms for all content teachers. The program may contribute to positive social change by helping middle school teachers use the components of DI in their inclusion-based classes providing support to increase academic success for special education students. Differentiated Instruction in Middle School Inclusion Classrooms to Support Special Education Students by LaToya Keyona Benjamin M.Ed., Walden University, 2014 BS, Virginia State University, 2002 Project Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education Walden University December 2019 Dedication I dedicate this study to my parents, Paulette Potts and Vernon Benjamin, Sr. Both have been super supportive and encouraging me to push through even when I felt like giving up. I appreciate you wanting to babysit my girls providing me some personal time to write or picking my girls for school. For that, I love you. I also would like to dedicate this study to my stepfather, Marcus Potts, Sr. who battled lung cancer for several years. It was my goal to complete this program while he was here to see my greatest educational accomplishment. Unfortunately, he lost his fight. However, his presence will always be with me inspiring me to do great work. He will always be my angel watching over me! Acknowledgments I would like to thank my committee members, Dr. Sunddip Aguilar, Dr. Jesse Richter, and Dr. Karen Hunt, who were instrumental in making my dream come true. I would also like to thank Dr. Jessica Parker, Dr. Veronica Richard, and Dr. Mike Laverty for their continuous encouragement and motivation throughout this journey. I would also like to thank my dear friend and sister Dr. Kerrie Hass who has been my right hand from the start of this doctoral journey to the end. We did this! Finally, I would like to thank my beautiful girls, Adriane and Tameika Stowers. Thank you for being patient while G-Ma wrote her long paper. I love you.