This slideshow is intended for teachers who are motivated to explore with, implement, or advance aspects of differentiated instruction. The aspect we focus on here is student learner profiles.

1. A Pathway to Differentiation:
Sean M. Hildebrandt
Sean M. Hildebrandt
Secondary High Potential Specialist
Secondary High Potential Specialist
Email: shildebr@shakopee.k12.mn.us
Email: shildebr@shakopee.k12.mn.us
Phone: (952) 496-5768
Phone: (952) 496-5768

2. Differentiation is a teacher’s
response to learner needs
shaped by mindset and
guided by general principles.
Teachers can differentiate
through content, process, or
product according to
students’ readiness, interest,
or learning profile.
- Carol Ann Tomlinson (1999)

3. Teachers strategically use varying forms of student
groupings to target particular needs while observing the
students in a wide range of settings. Depending on the
lesson objective, groupings are primarily based on:
Readiness – assessed ability levels
Interests – compiled from tailored surveys
Learning Preference – instrument driven

4. Each student has a unique set of
learning abilities and preferences.
Collectively we can refer to this
data set as a Learner Profile. The
profiles are often composed of
four parts:
 Individual Aptitudes
 Multiple Intelligences
 Personal Interests
 Learning Styles

5. Students already come to us
with normed aptitudes.
These scores include, but are
not limited, to:
 MAPs
 MCAs
 CogAT
 Explore
 PLAN

6. Howard Gardner defined seven unique intelligences in his 1983
book Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple intelligences. He
later added an eighth and may add more (Gardner, 2003).
Differentiating instruction with
MI in mind triggers deeper
understanding for more students
(Brualdi, 1996).
Have students identify their own
strengths.
Bodily-Kinesthetic, Intrapersonal,
Interpersonal, Linguistic, Musical,
Logical-Math, Naturalist, & Spatial

7. Research suggests that
high student interest:
Significantly activates the
putamen in the brain (Johnson &
Becker, 2010)
Leads to greater attention
(Engelmann & Pessoa, 2007)
Greater willingness to learn
(Raymond, 2009, et. al.)
Leads to greater persistence
(Vanstennkistee, Simons, Lens,
Sheldon, & Deci, 2004)

9. The classic three learning
preferences: Visual,
Auditory, & Tactile
Many variants of learning
style inventories exist:
Kolb, McCarthy, Dunn
Two of the more
extensively referenced
instruments were
developed by Myers –
Briggs and Gregorc.

10. Anthony Gregorc created a self assessment tool that
categorizes adults into one of four Mind Styles

11. Katherine Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers,
studied the work of psychologist Carl Jung and developed
a psychometric questionnaire to categorize how people
perceive the world.

12. Ideally, teachers compile
the data points into an
easily referenced and
customized tool….
Use the learner profiles of
the class to guide
differentiation
Build project lists and
project menus that play to
the students strengths
Group students together
based on learner profiles