Open-Ended Activities: Differentiation Through Learner Responses

Abstract

This article explores the meaning of curricular differentiation for identified gifted students by examining learner responses to open-ended activities. Very little research supports or describes how open-ended activities—which have been advocated as a strategy to allow students to work in their own interest areas, in their own learning styles, and at their own ability level—serve to differentiate the curriculum. This paper sets curriculum differentiation in an historical perspective, reviews a comprehensive investigation into the nature of open-ended activities, and focuses on how and in what ways the responses to open-ended activities of children identified as gifted differed from responses of children who were not identified as gifted in a third-grade and a fourth-grade heterogeneously grouped classroom. The study also focuses on teacher perceptions of classroom activities and learner responses. Data sources included observations over the course of one academic year, interviews with teachers and students, learning style and interest assessment instruments, and documents related to over 33 open-ended activities. Based on the findings reported here, the author proposes a reexamination of the meaning of curricular differentiation with a renewed emphasis on determining how an instructional strategy, for example, providing open-ended activities, maximizes student's capabilities.