An investigation of elementary school teachers' perceptions on their competency and implementation levels in differentiated instruction

Differentiated instruction is a teaching approach which advocates planning, implementing, and evaluating instruction, diagnosing and addressing the individual characteristics of the students. The purpose of this research is to determine the elementary school teachers' perception on differentiated instruction competency and implementation levels, to reveal the factors restraining teachers to implement differentiation. The research sample is composed of 1078 elementary school teachers, determined through stratified sampling method. In this descriptive study, the data is obtained through differentiated instruction teacher competency and implementation perceptions scales, and interviews. In the data analysis process, descriptive statistics, dependant and independent sample t-tests, one way variance analysis, content analysis and descriptive analysis were implemented. It is revealed that the elementary school teachers perceptions of their differentiated instruction implementation level correspond to good, and competencies correspond to the very good level. A significant difference is found between their implementation and competency perception levels, in favor of competency levels. Female, experienced, and private school teachers' differentiated instruction competency and implementation perception levels are revealed to be higher. Inadequacies of schools' physical attributes, lack of teachers' differentiated instruction competencies and experiences, parents insufficient support, inadequacies and limitations of educational policies, and overloaded curriculums were the most expressed factors restraining differentiated instruction. It also arised that elementary school teachers need theoretical and practical training on differentiated instruction. It is stated that the physical attributes of the schools need to be improved, classroom populations should be decreased, and necessary policies should be developed for classroom teachers to better differentiate the instruction.