Developing
Learner Profiles
Dawn Normoyle
CESD Student Services Coordinator
Dawn Weststrate
CESD Early Intervention Coordinator
Knowing the
Students in Your
Classroom
Today’s Outcomes:
After this session, you will:
 Understand
the role of learner profiles in
differentiated instruction
 Understand the components and a
variety of tools/strategies that are part of
a learner profile
 Have a variety of strategies to take back
to your classroom
Why Differentiation?
Research indicates that students:
 Learn
at different rates
 Need different degrees of difficulty
 Have different interests
 Learn in different ways
 Need different support systems
Proactive Planning
Effective teaching in a differentiated classroom
requires proactive planning.
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Understanding students’ strengths, needs,
readiness, learning preferences and interests to
guide planning increases the likelihood they will
learn as much as they can, as efficiently as possible
Having this knowledge allows you to plan varied
approaches to what students need to learn, how
they will learn it, and/or how they will show what
they have learned
Moves us away from planning based on how
students differ in general to how students differ in
particular
“Good plans shape
good decisions.”
– Lester R. Bittel, in The Nine Master Keys of
Management
Learner Profiles
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Describes the ways a student learns best
Helps identify and record student strengths,
needs, readiness, learning preferences & styles
and interests
Offers a starting point for this planning by finding
out as much as possible about how an individual
learns
Clarifies the learning destination
Goal is not to label students as certain kinds of
learners but to help them develop multiple
pathways for learning
Strengths-based approach
Ways to Gather Information
 Inventories,
surveys (e.g. Learner Preference,
Reading, Social, Interest; for parent, student)
 Interviews,
conversations (with parent,
student, previous teachers, other school staff)
 Assessment
Information (e.g. exit slips,
cumulative records, report cards,
individualized program plans (IPP), level B
assessments, psych ed./ medical assessments)
Readiness
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Attitude and experience toward school, subject,
or topic
Knowledge, experience with, understanding,
and skill in topic prerequisites or related topics
Understanding of vocabulary of the topic or
discipline
Research skills, computer skills, resources at home
Where student is at on the program of studies
Learner gaps, speed of learning, fine/gross motor
skills, attention issues, reasoning and thinking skills,
communication skills, language skills, etc.
Interests
 Most
motivated and engaged when
learning about something interested in:
 Current,
potential, hobbies, talents and
passions
 After-school clubs, extracurricular
 What they watch on TV, Where they go on
vacation, kind of music they listen to, friends
they hang out with, electives they take
 Regularly
consider interests in instructional
planning to vary projects, themes and
examples used in instruction
Learning Preferences & Styles
 Learning
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styles
Visual, auditory, kinesthetic
Whole-to-part vs. part-to-whole
Concrete versus abstract
Sequential versus random, etc.
 Intelligence
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preferences
Sternberg— creative, analytical, practical;
Gardner— verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematic;
visual-spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical rhythmic,
interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist, existential
Learning Preferences & Styles
 Environmental
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preferences
Temperature, light, availability of food and drink,
presence or absence of background noise or
music
 Gender,
culture, and/or personality
related preferences
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Competition versus collaboration, individual versus
group emphasis, introverted versus extroverted
 Group
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orientation
Work alone, partners, small group; focus on peers
versus focus on adult
Learning Preferences & Styles
Important to remember that:
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These develop and change over time
One style or preference is not better than
another
Our response to different preferences and styles
can vary across tasks and situations
Learners differ in the strengths of their
preferences and styles
Some learners shift easily between different kinds
of learning, while others cannot
Recording Learner Profiles
Can be recorded in a variety of formats:
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Binders
Electronically
Individual file cards
Glyphs
Class Profiles
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Learner profiles can be collected to create a picture
of the class as a community of learners
Identifies strengths and challenges of all students as
well as the stage each student is at in his or her
learning
Helps you to:
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Collect, sort, categorize and summarize classroom data
Identify patterns of similarities and differences among
students
Plan differentiated instruction on a daily basis
Form flexible groupings
Monitor student progress by noting results of ongoing
assessment
Share information among educators and parents
Now What?
 You
have established a relationship with your
students
 You can use this information to differentiate
grouping, content, process, and/or product
to increase your student’s success and
engagement
Animal School
Once upon a time there was a school for animals. The teachers were certain
it had a very comprehensive curriculum but somehow all of the students
were failing.
The duck was the star in the class for swimming but flunking tree climbing.
The monkey was great at tree climbing, but was getting F’s in swimming.
The chickens excelled in grain research, but disrupted the tree climbing so
much that they were sent to the principal’s office daily.
The rabbits were sensational in running, but had to have private tutoring in
swimming.
Saddest of all were the turtles, who, after many diagnostic tests, were
diagnosed as having a cognitively disability. Yes, they were sent to a special
education class in a remote gopher hole.
Like the animals in the story, each student is unique with there own interests,
ways of learning, strengths and challenges.
The question becomes: All are not tree climbers, but are great swimmers or
runners doomed to failure because they are in a system designed solely for a
different type of animal.
Resources:
Alberta Education resource, Building on Success: Helping
Students Make Transitions from Year to Year (2006)
http://education.alberta.ca/media/352661/build.pdf
Alberta Education resource, Making a Difference: Meeting
diverse learning needs with differentiated instruction.
http://education.alberta.ca/teachers/resources/cross/mak
ing-a-difference.aspx