Interesting article on differentiation

This article, by researchers at Duke University in the USA, talks about how ability groupings can affect AG&T pupils. It reminds me a little of the old research about single sex schooling - girls do better in single sex, but boys do better in mixed. This article suggests that gifted learners do better when they are streamed with others of their abilitiy, whereas those at the other end of the scale do better in mixed groups.

The research is backed up by the questionnaires I have been doing with pupils at my own school. Every year, pupils and parents alike hold up the subjects which set their groups by ability as the best learning environments. I'm personally quite a big fan of mixed sets, but I can easily see why the AG&T pupils prefer to be with people of their own ability. For a start, the work is usually going to be pitched at the right level, since most teachers differentiate down very well, but not up.

I'm looking quite a lot at top down planning this term. I want to launch it with the teaching and learning group next term. It involves planning for the brightest kid in the class and then differentiating down, which should reduce the amount of work required, since you're only going one way.

There's not much out there about top down planning, though, apart from references in dozens of AG&T policies and the Lead Teacher handbook.