An investigation of K–12 teachers' perception and use of differentiated instruction based on qualification, training, and experience

The purposes of the current study are to examine the levels of teachers’ perception and implementation of differentiated instruction (DI) and investigate the difference between teachers’ perception and the implementation of DI based on their qualifications, training in teaching students with special educational needs (SEN) and teaching experience. By employing a cross-sectional design, this study administered a survey to select 262 K–12 teachers working in Maldivian schools. Descriptive statistics including cross-tabulation were used in this study as the method of data analysis. Findings revealed that, for both perception and implementation of DI, the majority of teachers (52.8% and 52.3%, respectively) scored higher than the average. With respect to teachers’ perception, the results indicate that the majority of those who have a master’s level qualification (47.1%) had a low level of perception, while the vast majority of those who had specialized SEN training (75.0%) had a higher level of perception. With regard to implementation, unlike teachers with a bachelor’s degree or diploma level qualifications, the majority of those who have a master’s level qualification had a higher level of implementation (57.1%). Moreover, teachers who had specialized in SEN training had a higher level of implementation (66.7%), while the majority of the most experienced teachers had a lower level of implementation (51.3%). These findings confirm the importance of teachers’ continuous professional development, especially those who teach in high key-stage classes.