What are Curriculum Adaptations?

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Curriculum “adaptations are teaching and assessment strategies especially designed to accommodate a student’s needs so he or she can achieve the learning outcomes of the subject or course and to demonstrate mastery of concepts.” British Columbia Ministry of Education, August 2009, A Guide to Adaptations and Modifications. Website: www.bced.gov.bc.ca

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Adaptations can be made to differentiate:

• Instruction

• Environment

• Tasks

• Assessment

• Materials

 

Why Use Curriculum Adaptations?

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“Adaptations do not represent unfair advantages to students.  In fact, the opposite could be true.  If appropriate adaptations are not used, students could be unfairly penalized for having learning differences, creating serious negative impacts to their achievement and self‐concept.” British Columbia Ministry of Education, August 2009, A Guide to Adaptations and Modifications. Website: www.bced.gov.bc.ca

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Adaptations provide:

• Equal opportunities

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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                                      “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by it’s ability to climb a tree

                                                          it will live it’s whole life believing that it is stupid”   Albert Einstein

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Types of Curriculum Adaptations:

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There are 7 types of curriculum adaptations. Choosing which adaptations to use for students depends of the student’s learning profile.

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Click on the buttons below to see different types of curriculum adaptations

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Student Learning Profile:

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A learning profile refers to the ways in which we learn best as individuals.

Children learn in many different ways and at many different rates. We need to take these differences into consideration when giving instruction, assigning tasks and assessing learning.

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There are four categories of learning profile factors:

            - Learning Style preferences: auditory, kinesthetic, tactile or visual

            - Intelligence preference: verbal linguistic, logical mathematical, visual spatial, musical rhythmic, bodily kinesthetic, interpersonal,                intrapersonal and naturalistic

            - Learning Environment preference: quiet/noise, warm/cool, still/mobile, flexible/fixed

            - Group Orientation preference: independent/self-orientation, group/peer orientation, adult orientation, combination (Tomlinson,                  2001)

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Ultimately, learning requires the regulation of the input and output of information.