On Differentiation Strategies in the EFL Mixed-Ability Classroom: Towards Promoting the Synergistic Learning Environment

The aim of the research was to examine the implementation of various differentiation practices seen from teachers’ and learners’ perspectives. The paper reviews recent research studies related to the adjustments teachers make to content, process and product, according to the patterns in student readiness, interest or learning profile and provides a descriptive analysis of the teacher and student responses to the effectiveness of differentiation techniques. This paper draws on the analysis of teachers’ and students’ responses to the key interview questions about their experiences and views of mixed-ability and same-ability classes. The data were collected by means of two web-based surveys using Google Forms and involving 25 teachers of the Alibra School in Moscow and 100 undergraduate B.Ed. students of Moscow City University (MCU). The participants’ responses were visualized and published on the Internet with open access to the questionnaires’ data. Open-ended questions were organized and thematically coded in NVivo to facilitate analysis. The coding of several debatable cases was further manually checked and examined by the authors. The results indicate that the majority of the teachers purposefully apply a variety of management tools in different parts of the lessons to achieve elaborate educational results and to infuse a growth-oriented mindset in the classroom. With regard to the students’ views on the notion in question, the research reveals broad patterns in learners’ attitudes characterized by certain correlations between students’ academic training and format preferences. Copyright © 2021 by Academic Publishing House Researcher s.r.o. All rights reserved.