What is

Individualized
Instruction?

Robert L. Collins, Ph.D.

More simply, What is Individualized
the issue can Instruction?
be reduced to Individualized instruction is one of those buzzwords thrown around
all the time – especially by firms that market educational software.
two main They sound great, but what’s really “behind the curtain?” Or better
yet, is there anything at all behind the curtain?
issues: “what”
Providing individualized instruction is a worthy goal, but the term is
gets so broad, it can mean almost anything to anyone. There’s little or
no agreement about what the words mean, much less how to go
individualized, about achieving it.
and “how” is it
It seems to be that one way to improve the situation is to start by
individualized. defining the basis for individualizing instruction. More simply, the
issue can be reduced to two main issues: “what” gets
individualized, and “how” is it individualized. On these issues there
is little clarity, and it’s made more difficult because they’re closely
intertwined.

What to
Individualize
First let’s look at what gets individualized. Many people argue that
the basis for individualizing instruction comes from the belief that
every person has a different learning style. Because of that, the
way to individualize, according to this view, is to try to match the
“way” instruction is delivered to the learning style of each individual.

But there’s a completely different approach that is thoroughly

grounded in research. It’s research on what is generally described
as “explicit, systematic” instruction. This approach has been shown
to be effective in improving learning outcomes, especially for
students who have difficulty in learning a particular subject - in this
case, math.

This body of research is far too broad to even summarize here, but
it leads to some important implications about what should be
individualized. An excellent review can be found in Gersten, et. al.
(2009a).

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 The Importance of Gaps
Below Grade Level
The first implication is that when students struggle when trying to
learn math, one of the characteristics that virtually every student
shares is the presence of “gaps” in knowledge that are “below
grade level.”

That means, when learning topics at grade level, these students

are hampered by a lack of mastery of the concepts and skills that
are required to understand and master those grade-level topics.
This is a major factor in why they struggle to learn the new content.

For example, it has been widely documented that a very high

percentage of “at risk” students have very little mastery of topics
related to fractions (NMAP, 2008). As they progress from fourth
grade through high school algebra, this becomes a major stumbling
block to success at those grade levels.

Instruction to In our work, we have documented in detail an enormous number of

gaps such as these for students who are seen as “at risk” of failure
address these in math. The number of these gaps (that include far more than just
fractions) is even more extreme than commonly recognized.
gaps must be as
They vary across students in three important ways. The first is the
individualized as “depth” of the gaps, which is how many grade levels below the
students’ current grade level these gaps exist. The second is the
possible to meet “density” of gaps, which is the number of gaps at each succeeding
these widely grade level. Finally, the third is the “diversity” of the gaps across
students – the fact that every student has a different set of gaps.
varying gaps in
The existence of these three conditions contains a clear message.
each student’s Instruction to address these gaps must be as individualized as
possible to meet these widely varying gaps in each student’s
knowledge. knowledge.

But the question remains – what do you individualize and how do

you do it?

The answer to the first part of the question is virtually mandated by

the nature of the problem. Every student must receive exactly the
specific instruction needed to address each gap (and only that
instruction to avoid unnecessary work). This is individualizing the
curriculum, which is the “content” of the lessons taught.

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 Individualized
Curriculum
It’s important Addressing any such “pre-requisite” knowledge for any topic (prior
to starting more advanced instruction on that topic) is actually one
that students of the foundational principles of mastery learning as applied to
MTSS (e.g., see Mastery Learning 2.0). It’s important that students
master all master all relevant pre-requisite topics, and in the proper order,
before later content can be mastered.
relevant pre-
For example, it is beneficial for students to master the basic math
requisite topics, facts before they start learning to do multi-digit operations that are
and in the based on those facts (along with an understanding of place value).

proper order, This issue is recognized as an important one in MTSS. One of its
basic principles is the use of more “intensive” intervention or
before later support as the situation calls for. The reason for smaller groups is
that it allows the teacher to more precisely determine each
content can be student’s needs and provide support that is more tailored
specifically to those needs. While there is little focus on why small
mastered. groups are used, and more on the size of the group.

And finally, the reality is, students do vary in other ways besides the
content they need to learn to succeed. This leads us to the other
consideration of how to individualize.

The short answer – practice and review.

Individualized Practice
and Review
Unfortunately, this is simple to say, but it’s not easy to do.

One of the most important sources of the difference in students has

been found to be the amount of practice and review it takes to
attain mastery, and retain mastery, of new content. One of the
widely accepted findings in the relevant research is that students
who struggle when learning reading may need from 10 to 30 times
as much practice as other students (Gersten,et. al, 2009b) and it is
also the case for math as well. This of course, implies wide
differences among this group of students themselves. Some may
need 10 times as much, some 20 times as much, some 30 times as
much, and so on. This is a very important dimension on which
instruction for each student should be individualized.

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 There is a second issue that is also important in customizing
practice and review. It’s another important feature of “explicit,
systematic” instruction. Unfortunately, the label for this feature is
frequently misused.

It’s called “scaffolding.”

Scaffolding to Individualize
Instruction
One of the most This has become one of those buzzwords that almost everyone
uses, but when you look at how it’s used, it’s widely different – and
important usually incorrect. But scaffolding is an important reason for the
need to individualize instruction.
sources of the
difference in So what is scaffolding really?

students has The definition we’ll use comes from the extensive research on
explicit, systematic instruction which is reviewed in Gersten
been found to be (2009a).
the amount of In simplistic terms, it’s a technique for facilitating the transfer of
knowledge from the teacher to the student in an efficient manner.
practice and It’s embedded in the process for answering questions or solving
review it takes to problems, when the teacher gradually requires the student to take
over more responsibility for answering on their own. The really
attain mastery… important feature of scaffolding is one that almost never gets
mentioned. It’s associated with the word “transfer,” and it’s the main
reason scaffolding should be individualized.

At the beginning of instruction, the teacher provides new

Scaffolding has information to the student. Learning occurs when the student
“acquires” that information. To find out whether and when the
become one of student has “acquired” the new information, the teacher poses
questions or problems. The answers to these let the teacher know
those buzzwords whether the student understands a concept or has mastered the
that almost ability to solve problems of a certain type. This transition is critical,
and it doesn’t occur at the same rate for all students.
everyone uses,
The purpose of scaffolding is to this transition, easier, more reliable,
but when you look and more accurate than would otherwise occur. When done
at how it’s used, properly, students are more successful because the scaffolding
facilitates learning with fewer errors.
it’s widely different
– and usually
incorrect. 4
 One way to think about scaffolding is in terms of the old saying “I
do, we do, you do” as a way to describe the process.

The end goal, of course, is the “you do” part where the student
When done responds independently, without scaffolding. That’s why scaffolding
properly, students is a “transition” process. The transition has three stages: 1) the
teacher provides the new information which the student attends to,
are more 2) the teacher provides the student an opportunity to show they
understood by posing questions or problems that the student has a
successful very high probability of answering correctly, and 3) at the
appropriate time, the teacher gradually withdraws the support
because the provided by the scaffolding and the student must answer the
scaffolding allows questions and problems on the same topic without any assistance.

learning to occur This is a very complex process, but highly effective when done
properly. One reason it’s complex is that the specific embodiment of
with fewer errors. the process is different for every topic, which is another reason why
scaffolding should be individualized by topic. The goal for each
topic is to provide enough support to facilitate a rapid transition to
independent answering by the student, but not so rapid that
students start making a lot of errors.

As noted above, the use of the term “scaffolding” is often misused,

to the point of abuse. For example, it is not uncommon to hear that
“scaffolded” instruction is provided simply because the program
provides feedback with “error correction”. Suffice it to say, however,
that is not what scaffolding means, as defined in the research
literature.

So, in summary, the critical variables in delivering practice and

review are determining and delivering the right amount of practice
and review to meet the individual needs of each student and
managing the delivery of this process to ensure a successful
transition to independent success with a minimum of errors and
frustration. When this is done well, the need for “corrective
feedback” diminishes.

The best way to individualize instruction is to give every student

exactly what they need to learn, make it as easy as possible to
learn it, and make sure each student receives enough practice and
review so they retain what they’ve learned. All of this is to be done
while focusing on preventing errors rather than trying to correct
them.

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References:
NMAP (2008). Foundations for Success: The Final Report of the
National Mathematics Advisory Panel. U.S. Department of Education

Gersten, R., Beckmann, S., Clarke, B., Foegen, A., Marsh, L., Star,
J.R., Witzel, B. (2009a). Assisting Students Struggling with
Mathematics: Response to Intervention (RtI) for Elementary and Middle
Schools.

Gersten, R., Compton, D., Connor, C.M., Dimino, J., Santoro, L., Linan-
Thompson, S., Tilly, D. (2009b) Assisting Students Struggling with
Reading: Response to Intervention and Multi-Tier Intervention in the
Primary Grades.