English Language Teachers’ Perceptions and Actual Classroom Practices of Differentiated Instruction General Secondary and Preparatory School in Focus

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to ferret out English language teachers‟ perceptions, and tocompare with that of their actual classroom practices of differentiated instruction. Toachieve this goal, an exploratory type of case study was employed. Grade 11 Englishlanguage teachers of Bahir Dar TanaHaik General Secondary and Preparatory Schoolswere selected as participants using a comprehensive sampling technique. Interview andobservation were utilized to gather data and the results were analyzed qualitativelyparticularly through describing what was really happening in the classrooms andnarrating their responses. The findings indicated that the interviewees had positiveperceptions about differentiated instruction, but they did not practice it. Teachers‟ lessuse of the strategies may be attributed to their limited knowledge of differentiatedinstruction, lack of commitment, time constraint and large class size. Finally, in light ofthe findings, recommendations were forwarded.