DIFFERENTIATE TO INCLUDE. AN EXAMPLE OF DIDACTIC INTERVENTION IN A LOWER SECONDARY CLASSROOM

The creation of meaningful learning situations across the classroom is one of the goals that teachers of every school level seek to target. School reality in its complexity presents to teachers great challenges in terms of adapting their teaching to the “daily educational needs” of each student. The paper moving from a reflection on the construct of school inclusion will focus on teaching strategies useful to define a classroom as inclusive. In particular, the attention will move to the didactic differentiation, a strategy that, according to the recent pedagogical literature, can be useful to meet the specific educational needs of every student from the pupil with difficulty to the gifted pupil. Within a variety of methodologies available to the teacher, differentiation aims to cover the wide spectrum of situations that may occur in the classroom trying to foster every child’s potential. The paper will conclude with an example of a good educational practice in an Italian middle school. A specific didactic unit will be illustrated and the limits and advantages of this approach within the Italian context according to teachers’ perspective will be discussed