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Elementary Reading Teachers' Perceptions About Differentiated Instruction, Cathy Marie Davis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The local school district mandated the implementation of differentiated instructional (DI) strategies to strengthen students’ reading skills and curtail literacy deficits. The problem addressed by this study was that elementary reading teachers experienced difficulty implementing DI in their mixed-ability classrooms. The purpose of this study was to investigate the local elementary reading teachers’ perceptions about using DI in the classroom and to explore what teachers believed was needed to improve the effectiveness of their practice. Tomlinson’s DI model and Vygotsky’s theory of constructivism formed the conceptual framework that guided this study. The research questions focused on reading teachers’ perceptions about …