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Pre-service teachers today face both challenges and opportunities as they prepare to teach English in the increasingly diverse Swedish compulsory school (Years 0-9). The present study focuses on one area especially warranting attention: differentiation. The increasing variation in English language proficiency within classrooms is due to, e.g., the degree of exposure to English outside of school, unequal extent and quality of English language instruction, and pupils’ linguistic diversity. This ongoing study stems from pre-service teachers’ expressed needs via end-of-term course evaluations, as well as an observation of the changing English classroom in Swedish schools. To address changing needs, the 7.5 hec course English Language Learning and Teaching (ELLT), one part of the course English for Primary School Teachers Years 4-6, 1B (15 hec) has been updated over the last two years after teacher students indicated that they wished for more theory and practical methods in this area.  The aim of the present study is to understand how pre-service English teachers of Years 4-6 understand the concept of differentiation and how they apply this understanding to their own planned teaching, as observed in a lesson unit planning assignment in the ELLT course. 

This study is informed by Vygotsky's (1978) sociocultural theory, which indicates that learning takes place through interaction and communication with others in a social context. For effective learning to occur, primary pupils should be in the "Zone of Proximal Development" (ZPD) — the gap between their current developmental level, determined by independent problem-solving, and their potential developmental level, which can be reached through problem-solving with adult guidance or collaboration with more capable peers (1978).  In addition, an ecological perspective (van Lier, 2004) is utilized, focusing on how the pre-service teachers express perceived affordances and constraints in their lesson planning, as well as how contextual layers (e.g., the national curriculum or the course syllabus) may affect this planning.

The focus is on five cohorts of pre-service teachers studying the ELLT course. Using content analysis, the students’ lesson unit portfolios will be analyzed, focusing on the section of their planning in which they must indicate how they plan to work with differentiation. This analysis will further be examined in relation to the required course literature and seminar content, in order to identify what teaching materials have made an impact on the pre-service teachers’ understanding.  Preliminary results indicate that pre-service teachers rely on both traditional analogue and more innovative digital resources when planning for their work with differentiation. Their choices may reveal their own understanding of what is possible in working with mixed levels of proficiency as well as their understanding of the curricular requirements to incorporate more digitalization in compulsory school teaching. New knowledge of how and why pre-service teachers understand the essential concept of differentiation, as well as how they apply this to lesson planning are expected to be of value to Swedish teacher educators preparing students to teach English in the compulsory school.

van Lier, L. (2004). The ecology and semiotics of language learning: A sociocultural perspective. Kluwer Academic.

Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher mental processes (M. Cole, V. John-Steiner, S.Scribner & E.Souberman, Eds. & Trans.). Harvard University Press.