Is Our Tool Box Full?

Have you ever noticed how many types of multivitamins exist? Take a casual walk in the health section of any grocery store and you may be surprised how many vitamin supplements you find. There are numerous nutrients the human body requires in varying amounts at varying times that are supplied in various quantities in a variety of foods. That's a lot of variety! yet, if you are even slightly deficient or in excess of any one nutrient, your body could experience irreversible disease or damage as a result.
Contrary to popular belief though, we can satisfy our nutritional needs without supplements, but only with a healthy diet of a variety of nutritious foods. Since it can be difficult to know if you are consuming the right nutrients in the right amounts, eating a variety of foods will help fill in the nutrient gaps and keep your body healthy. For example, grain in cereal is deficient in the amino acid lysine, but milk contains an adequate amount of lysine--so consuming them together for breakfast is more healthy than eating one or the other, as they compliment each other's nutrition.  

Why is differentiated learning important?

 No one food can supply all of our needs, though some are better for our health than others. It takes a variety of healthy foods that each provide a wide array of nutrients to meet the nutritional requirements of our bodies. Just as the human body has a set requirement for various nutrients, students have a standard that must also be met regardless of how close they are at the start. We have a learning goal we want our students to reach, but just like the foods we eat, no single method of instruction can singlehandedly meet that demand. Students have variety of interests and process information taught to them in ways as unique as they are. Since one way of teaching cannot address all of those at once, teaching content in a variety of ways over time results in better student learning and achievement. Unfortunately it is not feasible for teachers to sit down with each student and ask them which of the eight multiple intelligence types they are, or if they are an auditory, visual or kinesthetic learner. Teachers need to appeal to all of these variables and infinitely many more for each student through individualized instruction.

 

How could we utilize individualized teaching techniques?

 Below are some methods of effectively utilizing individualized instruction as outlined in our Methods of Teaching Agriculture text of Newcomb et. al.  

Individualize the Learning

The first step in using individualized teaching, is recognizing that each student is unique in their interest and goals. We as teachers need to do whatever we can to cultivate student interest and provide the means necessary for building their skill in a subject area beyond what our own standards may be. If there interest in something beyond what you each, or perhaps in something you don't teach much of, you need to adapt that and give an individual the resources need to go beyond what you currently provide.


Help Students Learn to Inquire into the Subject Matter

Though we may only cover a certain topic to an extent, we as teachers can cultivate interest in our content to spur student exploration further in depth than we cover. SAE projects and FFA Career Development Events are a great way for our students to continue further into subject matter than we cover in the classroom.


Promote Independence

Remember how students are more motivated when given autonomy? Well, when we allow students to make choices in their education, they are more invested in it. Since students learn and process content differently, allowing them to chose how they are assessed or how they learn the material will go a long ay in fostering their learning.


Learn to Make Use of More than One Opinion

Some of the most current hot button issues revolve around the agriculture industry. Allow students to have an opinion when I comes to what they learn will allow them to have greater investment in their learning. When they have a say, and that say is respected, students will more readily learn material.


Learn How to Evaluate and Apply Information

When giving students more autonomy, we as the teacher relinquish some control. When that happens, we need to be sure that students can effectively evaluate and apply the information they learn to be sure that it is factual and applicable to the content.

 

In short, students need autonomy and interest in the subject matter before we can use individualized teaching. Appealing to different student needs doesn't mean we alter our goals or curriculum standards (except perhaps in an IEP). It just means that we are aware of student individuality and we provide a variety of teaching practices to appeal to that individuality as much as possible.