Adaptive Teaching: Understanding the Barriers and Enablers

Adaptive teaching involves making adjustments to instructions and teaching materials for children, based on how their needs present in the moment. It is based on the premise that students with additional needs don’t benefit from being handed out segregated worksheets and tasks. Instead, the whole class is encouraged to engage with the same learning objectives and broadly the same (or very similar) content.

The adaptive approach recognises that:

– there are different starting points and ways into a topic
– some children might need greater support or scaffolds to access learning
– every child’s learning pathway can look slightly different.

Teachers are encouraged to continuously modify their approach, content and delivery in real-time, based on how their students are responding during the lesson.

The concept of adaptation appears in the DfE’s Teachers’ Standards but it is only in the last couple of years that the notion of ‘adaptive teaching’ has really come into its own. So much so, that the UK Government has made it a priority in the revised initial teacher training. Most British International schools are also now embracing the adaptive teaching model.

While it is universally agreed that adaptive teaching is the way forward, the extent to which it has been successfully embedded in teaching practice still varies hugely. Before we look at how we can overcome this in both UK and international schools, it’s worth revisiting why it has come about.

Why has adaptive teaching replaced differentiation?

For all the good intentions around differentiation, it became a byword for setting low expectations of children with learning difficulties. The use of “all, most, some” learning objectives, as a classic example, shut off parts of the curriculum to those in the ‘bottom’ tier.

Research suggested that this raised stigma without improving outcomes. In 2019, OFSTED conducted a review and found that ‘in-class differentiation, through providing differentiated teaching, activities or resources, has generally not been shown to have much impact on pupils’ attainment.’ Creating different resources had become a distraction from meeting the present needs of each individual. Sara Alston, a leading voice on adaptive teaching recently summed this up neatly, writing in Headteacher Update: 

“Fear of Ofsted and others wanting to see evidence that differentiation was happening has led over the years to monstrosities such as three-layer planning, multiple worksheets, static ability groups, and low fixed expectations for all.” -Sara Alston, SEN consultant and former SENCO

This is not to say that we should throw the baby out with the bathwater. There are aspects of a differentiated curriculum that will always be required. It is not fair or reasonable to expect children working two years below age-related outcomes, for example, to meet the same learning outcomes as their peers. There will also always be a place for specific, targeted interventions, such as for literacy support.

The below table shows how adaptive teaching attempts to nudge us out of the bad habits brought about by a misunderstanding of differentiation.

What does good adaptive teaching look like?

There is no single blueprint for adaptive teaching that can be easily lifted from a book in the same way a lesson plan can. However, there are common strands to the underlying method, which can benefit a range of children beyond those with SEND, including EAL students, absentees and high achievers.

Meets emotional needs and promotes a growth mindset

Learning must adapt to the child’s present emotional state. If a pupil is already feeling anxious the teacher might need to allow for a movement break or put more scaffolds in place that day. If they are feeling insecure in their understanding, re-teaching might be required. If they are bored or frustrated you might need to adapt the direction of the lesson on the spot or offer choice in how they want to learn.

Follows a cyclical process of assessment and adaptation for individuals

Adaptive teaching requires continual assessment of where students are. This means knowing your students, understanding how much scaffolding they need, acknowledging differing curricula and accepting multiple ways of expressing and demonstrating learning. Adjustments happen in real-time based on continual assessment throughout the lesson, followed by adaptations that might include going down a different lesson path.

Makes effective use of scaffolds but withdraws them when no longer required

There are different ways of approaching adaptive teaching, one popular method is the scaffolds, scale, structure and style approach outlined brilliantly by Alex Quigley. The diagram below shows more about how these concepts work together. The most important thing about scaffolds is that they are removed once the pupil builds confidence – the “I do, we do, you do” model is just one framework you can use to start to encourage independence.

Meets sensory needs as well as balancing cognitive load

If a child’s sensory needs are not being met they will not be in a position to learn. This can be as simple as making effective use of sensory breaks, providing fidget tools, changing the lighting, or adjusting a uniform policy. Some children might benefit from ear defenders or visual supports, or being able to take their shoes off in order to feel the carpet. Writing in the TES, Leyla Gambell, an experienced SENCO, suggests having a range of pre-agreed sensory supports:

“Encourage open dialogue with and between students, where they can ask each other if they are feeling overwhelmed and offer tools to help.” – Leyla Gambell, SENCO

The graphic below sums up the difference between the two approaches.

Adaptive Teaching: Enablers

1. Effective use of pupil passports

Sofia Keigher, Assistant Head at Brighton College Bangkok explains why abandoning target-driven IEPs has enabled teachers at her school to embrace adaptive teaching:

 “We found that teachers were planning to meet targets rather than what was actually being presented as an immediate need in the lesson. They also didn’t take into account the fact that needs were differing in different environments…[..] it created a culture of box-ticking between the SENCO and teacher.” Sofia Keigher – Assistant Headteacher, Brighton College Bangkok

If the pupil has a suspected or identified need, the SENCO and class teacher sit down and if they feel it is creating a barrier to how the pupil accesses the school environment, a passport is created. A Google form is used to capture information from staff as well as one-to-one meetings held to capture pupil and parent voice. 

The passports allow staff to share knowledge of the individual in order to adapt their teaching practice as required, without setting artificial targets. The information covered includes adaptations for students within the classroom and in other contexts such as PE, music or at break times, as well as any formal access arrangements, specific interventions or resources in place. Pupil passports are regularly updated as teachers and support staff, students and parents provide feedback on what is and isn’t working.

Sofia encourages staff to use the passports to help them plan lessons, emphasising that they should be living documents. While the SENCO has overall responsibility for updating them, all members of staff, including TAs are encouraged to regularly share observations.

 “Instead of creating a multitude of worksheets, it’s more about having a look at the lesson plan in order to pre-empt what might come up. So, knowing this individual pupil and their pupil passport what might they find tricky? What potential barriers might crop up and what do I plan to do about this?
It perhaps saves pen-to-paper planning time but maybe not the more kind of pedagogical and cognitive planning time.” -Sofia Keigher

  >  Take a closer look at Sofia’s example passport for a hypothetical pupil with autism, or you can download a blank template here.

2. Better use of formative assessment

For adaptive teaching to be a success, teachers need a good understanding of the knowledge children are bringing to the lesson, as well as more feedback about how things are going throughout. Rather than relying just on quizzing and marking, this could take the form of sitting with students and giving useful comments and feedback, or using hinge questions. Two particular things to consider are:

Live modelling going through your own or a student’s response, both in a whole-class or more directed way. 

Self-assessment, particularly through techniques such as thumbs-up, and thumbs-down pictures to help learners express their own level of understanding.

Class whiteboards can help the whole class show what they know and understand, while mini-whiteboards can be useful for directed learning. Some students might find it helpful to receive feedback in the form of audio notes that they can listen to again later.

3. Training and mentorship

Adaptive teaching is not a complete u-turn from what was being practised before and is what many experienced teachers are already doing. However, it can help staff to try a range of approaches, particularly micro-adaptations, and share knowledge of what is working best for a particular individual or individuals in their class. This can be where a mentor steps in. 

It is also useful for teachers to gain a better understanding of the psychology behind working memory to understand why certain scaffolding techniques work, as well as broadening their repertoire, particularly when it comes to supporting pupils with dyslexia, autism and ADHD.

> DISCOVER OUR COURSES on Cognition and Learning, Dyslexia and Autism or other aspects of SEND to deepen your knowledge.

4. Technology

AI and assistive technology have vast and varied potential to support scaffolding.

Just a few possibilities include:

• Adapting a passage of text to remove tricky words or to help provide additional explanation around a work of Shakespeare
• Generating images to help with the concrete pictorial abstract approach in maths
• Front-loading vocabulary
• Providing translation support for EAL students
• Adjusting instructions
• Using AI (ChatGPT/Magic AI etc.) to describe a graph to pupils, or help generate one
• Leveraging text-to-speech generation for longer narrative passages

Adaptive Teaching: Barriers 

1. Curriculum constraints and fear of deviating from the plan

Teachers may have valid concerns over covering the learning objectives and meeting expectations. Yet ultimately children will have a better understanding of the lesson content if the pace of lessons is adjusted to allow for more independent learning and re-teaching. 

 As Ginette Moore, iSENCO tutor with Real Training comments;

“It’s okay to deviate from the lesson plan or even push it straight in the bin if no one has the prior knowledge to access the content or if a small group of children need to come back to the carpet with the TA or teacher to go over examples again.” – Ginette Moore, iSENCO tutor 

When it comes to concerns about time, using split-off groups and adjusting the scale of the task means pupils can still achieve the learning objective but in a less demanding way.

With greater autonomy can come greater uncertainty and teachers need to know when particular programmes might need more conservative fidelity and when there is freedom to deviate.

2. Strategy overload

On a separate, but related note, in an informative blog, Gary Aubin also makes the argument that the most successful schools don’t “overwhelm their staff with strategies” explaining that fixed lists of strategies in pupil profiles can prevent a teacher from being adaptive. Instead, teachers should distinguish between the core “non-negotiables” within pupil profiles and view everything else like a menu of options that may, or may not, be applicable for the pupil, depending upon their approach to delivering the lesson and its universal ‘built-in’ aspects of inclusion.

3. Behaviour change from senior leadership

Historically, leadership often took the presence of multiple colour-coded worksheets as evidence of accommodation for pupils with SEND. Now the way we evaluate success has changed. Lesson observation records need to reflect the new approach and those observing should put themselves in the pupil’s shoes – is it evident that teachers know their pupils?

Leaders need to put their faith in teachers and allow them to act with autonomy. They also need to ensure communication is clear and consistent across the school. It can be frustrating and upsetting if there is an agreement in place between teacher and pupil that they can take their tie and jumper off in one lesson, only for the student to be subsequently told off by another member of staff for doing so in a corridor.

4. Language and mindset

Writing in the TES, Margaret Mulholland describes how several school leaders have had to actively re-think their use of language. One school in particular has ditched the use of acronyms “LATS” (low attainers) and “HATS” (high attainers) as they felt it was leading them into poor habits. 

Often this comes down to pulling apart some of the things that were previously considered good practice – like “all, most, some” and exploring why this language and accompanying mindset is no longer helpful.

5. Poor utilisation of TAs

Teaching assistants can play a fundamentally important support role when it comes to adaptive teaching, (especially as they often spot things about individual children that the teacher doesn’t) and can also elicit student viewpoints while the lesson is taking place. But if they are jumping in to solve things for pupils too soon, or do not have sufficient depth of knowledge around effective support with scaffolds, their impact is diminished. Better training for TAs would rectify this, as well as more CPD for teachers on how to best collaborate with their support staff as well as more time to collaborate.

> EXPLORE FURTHER. Visit our course page on the Level 5 Specialist TA Apprenticeship to learn more about the new SEND career pathways for teaching assistants.

6. Perceived lack of resources or staff (especially in international schools)

Adaptive teaching empowers everyone and means that frontline SEND support is not just the responsibility of the SENCO. Many schools, particularly those in international environments, have reservations because inclusion teams are small or they don’t have the resources, but there are many low and no-cost ways to make adaptations.

The need for fluid learning journeys

Adaptive teaching can benefit all children, fostering a growth mindset and avoiding the scenario where expectations are capped. It requires teachers to both anticipate and respond to needs, and embrace greater fluidity in learning journeys, student grouping and use of teaching assistant support. It recognises that, at times, the curriculum will need to be adjusted for some, but that this should be the exception – not the rule.

Although adaptive teaching builds from the responsive skills and behaviours that many teachers are already deploying, there can be knowledge gaps within schools. 

Some teachers are also hesitant about the idea of going “off-piste” and deviating from the lesson plan. Speaking on a recent podcast, George Athanasiou, a Headteacher and educational consultant underlined the need to let teachers embrace this. His advice? “Focus on the outcome and let the journey happen organically. Let the children decide how they’re going to reach that outcome. The best lessons are the ones that are completely off the page. And as a teacher, you have to be confident in that.”

Resources

Take a look at our recent webinar on adaptive teaching – you can find the recording here.

Alex Quigley writes a great introductory blog explaining the Scaffold, Scale, Structure and Style approach: https://alexquigley.co.uk/adaptive-teaching-scaffolds-scale-structure-and-style

PrimaryTimery: A great article on adaptive teaching with practical examples and strategies to support memory https://primarytimery.com/2024/03/29/adaptive-teaching-the-four-verbs-approach/

The Center for Family Support: A useful step-by-step guide to creating One Page Profiles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brcjbVkbph0

Daniel Sobel and Sara Alston’s book The Inclusive Classroom, a fantastic guide for Primary and Secondary teachers. It addresses why we should meet needs rather than focusing on diagnosis, and guides you through different phases of a single lesson and how they can be adapted. Sobel, D. and Alston, S (2021). The Inclusive Classroom. Bloomsbury https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inclusive-Classroom-Daniel-Sobel/dp/1472977920

Jon Eaton writes a guest blog about how adaptive teaching has benefitted his Trust: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/news/moving-from-differentiation-to-adaptive-teaching

A basic pupil passport template can be downloaded here

The Education Endowment Fund (EEF) have good general information about adaptive teaching https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/news/eef-blog-assess-adjust-adapt-what-does-adaptive-teaching-mean-to-you

Sara Alston writing in Headteacher Update: neatly summarises what went wrong with our previous use of differentiation: https://www.headteacher-update.com/content/best-practice/adaptive-teaching-or-differentiation/

George Athanasiou gives a great interview on the School Behaviours podcast where he describes how adaptive teaching can boost engagement, reduce behavioural issues and improve outcomes.https://beaconschoolsupport.co.uk/podcast/the-impact-of-adaptive-teaching-on-pupils-with-semh-needs-with-george-athanasiou