DI journey in PE @ North Vista Primary School

The Whole School Approach 

After exploring two areas of practice (SFEd) - Assessment Literacy and e-Pedagogy, the team of teacher leaders felt that the staff had some fundamentals to explore the next area of practice – DI. The team, led by our School Staff Developer, embarked on our planning for the professional development in Differentiated Instructions. We started the year by bringing resources to the table during our weekly timetabled time and discussing how to best use them in our various subject disciplines. For the learning experience to be meaningful for the teachers, we adopted the Learn-Apply-Share structure to plan our PD sessions across all the departments.

Concurrently, to better understand DI and how I can lead the team better, I attended 2 two courses i.e. Facilitating DI (PE) and Leading DI in PE. These courses gave me great insights, and as part of the course requirement for Leading DI in PE, I got the opportunity to digest the principles, plan and execute a lesson with principles of DI as the backbone. The course also got us to think about our department’s professional development plan, and every participant had a chance to chart and share our plans to learn from one another.

DI in PE @ NVTPS

Thereafter, the professional development plan of the NVTPS PE team was put in place. We started our journey with an engagement session with Master Teacher, Ms Mabel Yong from PESTA. Mabel gave the team an overview to create awareness among our teachers and help us better understand the principles and concepts in DI. She also shared some available resources to kickstart our PD journey. To show what the principles look like in practice, I shared the lesson with the department to give them an idea on how to translate some of the principles into action. 

In the weeks that ensued, during our weekly timetabled time, the team went through, in greater detail, the principles of DI and how we can apply them in the context of  PE. Every individual teacher went through one cycle of planning a lesson with DI principles incorporated, and enacted the lesson during a scheduled time where most of the other members were available to watch the lesson (Open Classroom concept). Thereafter, we did the post-lesson discussion and reflection as a department. This boosted their confidence in applying DI principles as they could translate what they learnt into action. The observers were treated to a buffet of lesson ideas, and we learnt from one another through what we saw during the lesson enactment and what we heard and contributed during the post-lesson discussions. This made the learning rich and meaningful. 

An experienced PE teacher, Mr Reuben, observed that students demonstrated less off-task behaviours (e.g. being disruptive or getting restless) as they were meaningfully engaged in the task that was pegged at their level. He shared that FA (formative assessment) complements DI as the data from the assessment allowed for differentiation in activities to further support our students in the areas that may be lacking. 

‘Grouping students according to different abilities has helped to maximize participation rate. Students get the same level of ‘push’ despite being in different teams,’ says Kelly, another PE teacher.

To sum up our learning, we invited Ms Mabel Yong back to our school so that we could share our journey and reflections with her. She value-added to our learning with affirmations and provided us with food for thought for us to better continue our PD journey in this area. This session was an important check point for us as it enabled us to consolidate our learning and celebrate the efforts put in by the entire team. 

A Celebration of Learning

At the end of the year, our School Staff Developer organized a Learning Festival for the whole school to showcase the various translations of DI in the different subject disciplines. It was heartening to see how the teachers stepped up to practice what they have learned and share this knowledge with one another, across different departments. A group of them took on the role of a presenter during the concurrent sessions to share their journey and key takeaways.

It was an enriching journey for our teachers, and for many of us, it has changed the way we teach. 

Contributed by: 

Ms Yeong Yi Mei, Senior Teacher PE @ North Vista Primary

I am a Senior Teacher in PE and have been serving the school in this role for three years and counting. My main area of work is to curate resources and facilitate professional discussions and learning for and with my colleagues in the PE department. Whenever applicable, the resources are shared with colleagues in the Art and Music department. I also work with the teachers in the areas where they may need support. 

Contact: Yeong_yi_mei@moe.edu.sg 

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Back to content page - 2023 SPEA Newsletter Issue No.1 (June/July)

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