Addressing diverse student needs through student self-evaluation and differentiated activities: an example from academic skills workshops

A central challenge for learning development tutors is to ensure that group teaching sessions are of benefit to all students. My experience of teaching led me to conclude that 'one size fits all' workshops rarely meet the need of all students: some don’t receive enough support, some are already confident with the content and concepts and therefore disengage from the session, while others would benefit from support with developing a completely different skill from those on offer during the workshop. This issue is increasingly evident as student cohorts become more varied in their backgrounds, previous educational experiences and the range of competing priorities in their lives. Using pedagogical methods of differentiation to structure these sessions, based on students’ own evaluation of their needs, would enable greater targeting of support and therefore enable more students to engage with and benefit from the sessions. This case study explores an example of differentiation and the impact on a small group of business students.