Preparing Pre-Service English Teachers for Differentiation in the Swedish Primary School

Abstract

Pre-service teachers face both challenges and opportunities as they prepare to teach English in the increasingly diverse Swedish compulsory school (Years 0–9). Differentiation, understood here as the deliberate adaptation of teaching content, process, product, and learning environment to address learners’ varying needs and readiness levels, is a critical strategy that teachers must develop to address the wide variations in English language proficiency among pupils in Swedish schools, driven by factors like differing levels of exposure to English outside school, unequal quality of English instruction, and linguistic diversity. This study is informed by Vygotsky's sociocultural theory, emphasizing learning through social interaction in the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), and Tomlinson’s differentiation model, focusing on adjusting content, process, product, and environment. It explores how pre-service English teachers may understand and apply differentiation for Years 4–6 in their lesson planning assignment within the teacher education course English Language Learning and Teaching (ELLT). Focusing on five cohorts of pre-service teachers who completed the ELLT course, the study employs content analysis of their lesson plans, specifically examining their strategies for differentiation. The results indicate that pre-service teachers demonstrate varied differentiation strategies in lesson plans, such as group work, peer collaboration, and task variation. Process modification was by far the most common strategy, but content and product modifications were less salient. Most lesson plans targeted low proficiency pupils, while limited attention was given to high proficiency learners. While theoretically sound, practical applications are less evident in their planning, highlighting the need for more hands-on experience