How can a teacher balance addressing individual student needs with meeting the needs of the larger group in the classroom? What do you think the teachers in this scenario should do to address some of the other students' concerns about the differential treatment Thomas is receiving?

The reality of each classroom is different, although there may be similarities between them, there are no general rules applicable to all educational environments. The dynamics that are created within the classroom are the result of the interaction between the characteristics of each one of the students, and the characteristics of the teacher. The diversity of their behaviors and experiences is determined by the sociocultural factors of the context in which they live and a series of psychological factors of each individual.

That's right, if you change your attitude, you change the group in general, because the group dynamic is no longer the same. The concept of attention to diversity is very broad and addresses the activities of the entire educational system, the operation of schools, even the most specific interventions by teachers in their classrooms. Therefore, it must be recognized that attending to the needs of each individual, while teaching the group, is quite a difficult and laborious task.

It is very common to focus efforts and attention on students whose needs are highly visible or whose demands are directed directly to the teacher's attention, and the most timid, introverted or more conformist students can go unnoticed.

Step-by-step explanation

The planning of the sessions cannot be thought of in the same way for everyone. The objectives, content, activities, methodology, material resources, etc. that the teacher considers necessary for the development of a session have to be planned and prepared in different formats. Specifically, to prepare a topic for a session, the following must be taken into account:

? carry out the same activities with different levels of difficulty: easy, medium and difficult

? for teamwork, plan tasks that adapt to the abilities of students with learning difficulties and others that are attractive to students with high abilities

? think about the best organization for groups or pairs (it is not recommended to combine a student with learning difficulties with one with high abilities because they will conflict)

? choose the contents that will be given first according to the capacities of small groups: conceptual, procedural or attitudinal

? create diverse activities on the same content, combine group, pair and individual activities

? propose different ways of evaluation, both of previous knowledge and of new learning

We will have to continue working the different types of learning commonly used, but we will have to make adaptations or diversifications of the curriculum to adapt them to the students who need it. In many cases we cannot work with the group in the class as a homogeneous whole, flexibility is needed in the classroom and support at all levels involved in education.

We have to increasingly assume that diversity that exists not only in Education, but at all levels of society and try to cover all the new situations that are emerging.

If we are capable at an educational level of solving and seeing diversity as a real and positive issue that we can take advantage of, we will win at all levels of Society