imane nejjar, individual differences
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“Variety is the very spice of life.” Learner Differences:
Assets and Challenges
What are individual differences? Overview of major individual
differences What are learner differences?
What are Individual Differences?
Individual Differences are … ????
Human diversity is … ????
Word Cloud
Researchers either ignore or minimize the role that individual differences contribute.
Actually, determining what most people believe represents an “individual difference” variable is NOT an easy task.
Every possible variable cannot be studied in every situation, thus effort should be devoted to the determination of the most relevant variables within a particular context.
An overview of some major
Individual Differences
Human beings are diverse individuals in terms of their:Physical appearance
height, weight, skin tone, eye shape and color, hair color and texture.
Gender a social construct that specifies the socially and culturally prescribed roles that men and women are to follow.
Age infants, children , adolescents or adults
Family background
family resources such as household income, parental education, etc.
Language their mother tongue, in addition to any second or foreign language they may have learned or studied.
Socio-economic status
the classification of people by their wealth and social status in their community
Physical abilities (and disabilities)
the abilities that influence strength, endurance, flexibility, balance and coordination.
Intellectual abilities
the skills that are needed to perform mental activities usually involving thinking & reasoning.
Race the biologically engineered features such as skin color, skin tone, eye and hair color …
Ethnicity the learned cultural behaviors and heritage of a human being.
Religion the level of their religious affiliation & commitment.
Differences can also be of a psychological nature
Personality
the classification of people by their wealth and social status in their community
Valuesand attitudes
Values are the beliefs or ideals shared by the members of a culture about what is good or bad and desirable or undesirable.Attitudes are the established ways of responding to people and situations that we have learned based on the beliefs, values and assumptions that we hold.
Perception:
the process by which people translate sensory impressions into a coherent and unified view of the world around them.
Motivation the driving force that initiates and directs behavior
What are Learner
Differences?
Check: 14, 15, 19, 28Outline
Learners in any classroom are both similar and different. An understanding of such similarities and differences
help teachers determine what to teach and how to teach it.
In a classroom of students in a Moroccan high school, for example, students may share more similarities than
differences: They would roughly be of the same age & socio-
economic background They would usually have the same nationality and
religion. They would often come from the same geographical
region. They would mostly belong to the same race (Amazigh or
Arab) or a combination of the two races.
They could share the same mother tongue:
Darija - with all its regional variations, or
Tamazight, or
Tarifit, or
Tachelhit, or
Elhassania.
Since the classroom is a microcosm of society, within the same classroom students can look and behave differently.
From the first day in class, a teacher can notice the many ways in which their new students seem to be different.
Diversity: “…Those human characteristics that have both
the potential to either enrich or limit a student’s capacity to learn from the school environment.” Henson & Eller (1999, p121)
However, there are many ways in which they can be different:
Some of them may be girls, some boys. Some may like school and some may not; Some may find learning at school an enjoyable
experience; Others will feel it is a hardship. Some may feel happy most of the time, some
unhappy. Some of the students may have special needs, such as
hearing difficulties, poor eyesight, or difficulty sitting still.
Shaping the way we teach English
Students can have different learning styles Some of them may be girls, some boys. Some may like school and some may not;
Shaping the way we teach English
1. Gender2. Personality Traits3. Learning Style4. Cognitive Abilities5. Multiple intelligences6. Degree of Motivation7. Exceptionality (Giftness & Limitations)8. Teachers are also different (Good & Bad)
Students can have different learning styles Some of them may be girls, some boys. Some may like school and some may not;
Shaping the way we teach English
Disability Area of Difficulty Symptoms include trouble with: Example
Learning Disabilities
DyslexiaProcessing language
Reading, writing, and spellingLetters and words may be written or pronounced backwards
Dyscalculia Math skills Computation, remembering math facts, concepts of time, and money
Difficulty counting by 2s, 3s, and 4s
Dysgraphia Written expressionHandwriting, spelling, composition
Illegible handwriting, difficulty organizing ideas
Dyspraxia Fine motor skillsCoordination and manual dexterity
Trouble with scissors, buttons, and drawing
Information Processing Disorders
Auditory Processing Disorder
Interpreting auditory information
Language development and reading
Difficulty anticipating how a speaker will end a sentence
Visual Processing Disorder
Interpreting visual information
Reading, writing, and mathDifficulty distinguishing letters like "h" and "n"
http://nymetroparents.com/article/Learning-Disabilities-ChartDiagnoses-and-Symptoms
Prodigies Maths
It follows that if completely individualized instruction is impractical and one-size-fits-all is
ineffective for most students, a more balanced approach that
attempts to accommodate the diverse needs of the students in a class at least some of the time is the best an instructor can do.
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