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Sessions 10 and 11 helped me understand Differentiated Instruction in a clearer and more practical way. From the notes, I realised that DI is really about recognising that students learn differently, and adjusting the content, process, product, and learning environment so that everyone can access the lesson. Seeing examples like scaffolding, tiered activities, flexible grouping, and giving choices helped me understand how teachers can respond to different needs in a respectful and meaningful way.

I also appreciated how Session 11 introduced Universal Design for Learning. UDL reminded me that good lesson design starts with planning for flexibility from the beginning, instead of waiting until students struggle. Providing multiple ways to engage with learning, present information, and show understanding makes learning feel more inclusive and less stressful for students.

These two sessions showed me that effective teaching is not about creating many separate lessons, but about being flexible, thoughtful, and responsive. As a future SENO, this strengthened my belief that my role is to support teachers in understanding their learners well and finding simple, practical ways to make learning accessible, comfortable, and motivating for every student.

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Differentiated Learning (DL) and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) both recognise that every student learns in unique ways, and together they create a powerful foundation for inclusion. Through DL, teachers can respond flexibly to individual learning needs, while UDL encourages proactive lesson design that reduces barriers before learning begins. In my practice, incorporating both approaches has allowed me to create learning experiences that are accessible, engaging, and meaningful for all students. It was both interesting and heartening to see how these strategies boosted my student’s self-confidence and enthusiasm for learning. By offering multiple means of engagement, through UDL, and targeted support and scaffolding through DL—such as visual aids, step-by-step guidance—students were motivated to learn.

As a SENO I also hope to have the opportunity to share these inclusive frameworks with teachers, helping them plan lessons that cater to diverse learners and embed support naturally into classroom practice. Through collaboration, I can guide colleagues in using tools like SRSD and differentiated instruction within a UDL framework. This not only supports students with additional needs but also enriches learning for the entire class. It is inspiring to see how inclusivity, when nurtured from a young age, fosters confidence, reduces stress, and empowers every child.

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Sessions 10 and 11 were a timely reminder of the necessity of Differentiated Instruction (DI); it shifted my perspective from previous framings.

As a teacher, I primarily viewed DI through the lens/context of Full Subject-Based Banding (SBB). Admittedly, this focus limited my understanding of the concept to that of addressing varied readiness levels (i.e., HA, MA, LA) among general education students in the classroom. My learning journey at DISE has broadened this understanding significantly. I see now that DI is not merely a strategy for managing diverse groups of students; it is fundamentally essential for students with SEN, ensuring their needs are actively addressed and supported within the classroom.

In my opinion, what ties DI and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) together is the core commitment to actively planning for, monitoring, and responding to student variability. As a beginning teacher, I often struggled with the dilemma of pitching: Should I aim for the HA students and scaffold up, or pitch to my MA/LA students? I think UDL resolves this by shifting the focus from adjusting after the fact to designing learning experiences for all students from the outset. As Posey (n.d.) notes, UDL helps teachers "make sure that the greatest range of students can access and engage in learning—not just certain students" (para. 8). This flexibility is central to removing barriers to learning by asking: How can my students demonstrate learning in authentic, meaningful ways via means appropriate to their interests and preferred learning styles? UDL is thus the proactive framework that guides instructional design, while DI is the responsive approach where I, as the teacher, continuously adjust content, process, product, and environment based on my students' specific readiness, interests, and learning profiles.

Both approaches align with Sparapani's (2013) argument that every brain—and by extension, every learner—is unique, processing sensory information and translating it into a "unique response". This uniqueness necessitates instructional flexibility.

Crucially, readiness extends beyond mere cognitive ability. Learning is deeply affected by the interplay of emotions and motivation. Emotional readiness and intrinsic motivation heavily influence a student's ability to access the curriculum. Teaching is therefore a truly complex art that requires attending to both the head 🧠 (cognition, readiness) and the heart ❤️ (emotions, motivation). Ultimately, effective teaching hinges on knowing our students well—their interests, strengths, and specific needs (learning, behavioural, emotional)—to help them learn in the most effective ways possible.

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When I first learned about differentiation as a preschool teacher, I had the wrong perception that it only meant giving children slightly different tasks or grouping them by ability. I often made small adjustments, such as preparing easier worksheets or adding visual cues, thinking that was enough. Now I understand that differentiation is much deeper. It is about adjusting what, how, and how much we teach so that every child can learn at their own level and pace.

Using the CPPE model (Tomlinson, 2005) helps me see that differentiation is not just about the task, but also about the content, process, product, and learning environment. For example, I can vary what a child learns, how they learn, how they demonstrate learning, and how the classroom is set up to support them better.

Through the Retrofit approach, I realised that I used to make surface-level changes without truly meeting individual needs. My “aha” moment came when I noticed that I was differentiating just for the sake of it, without a clear purpose or meaningful impact on learning.

As a SENO, my understanding has become clearer and more intentional. Learning about Universal Design for Learning (UDL) has deepened my awareness of how to support all learners. I now see that the goal is to help children become expert learners in purposeful, motivated, and independent. UDL encourages me to plan lessons that anticipate diverse needs from the start, instead of trying to fix barriers later.

I have learned to view learning difficulties as challenges within the environment, not within the child. By reducing barriers in goals, materials, and teaching methods, I can create a more flexible and inclusive classroom. Moving forward, I aim to combine UDL principles with differentiation, Cole’s model, and the Retrofit approach to plan lessons where every child feels included, supported, and challenged at their own level.

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The lessons gave me insight on the HOW and WHY of DI. It also made me reflect if DI is "common", based on my experience.

For instance, the video on "station rotation" showed us how differentiation can play out across students with different learning needs/profiles and how to make lessons multi-sensory/different modality, fun and motivating. UDL is also a great framework to decrease barriers to learning. It allows us to look at the design of the environment and not the student. Most importantly, by using UDL, it allows students to learn how to take charge of their own learning ; a pivotal goal in education.  CPPE, Cole’s model and UDL are pivotal for us as educators, it helps guides us on which elements we can tap on to introduce differentiation.

One of the pointers from the SingTech article was that DI tends to be carried out in a fragmented manner, mostly as “one-offs” that are done when there is sufficient time. Likewise, students are rarely given a choice or opportunities to self-direct or assess their learning. This writing aligns with what I experienced as a student and also what I see during my stint of school classroom sit-ins. Of course factors such as classroom ratio, time required for planning and execution, lack of training and opportunity to practise learning – all these are barriers to adopting DI.  Such barriers are real; adding in the insights we gained from 109 projects on DI, we also learnt the importance of how one’s “lived experience” and worldview of DI impact the adoption of DI despite the barriers.

Thus if more of us, be it teachers, parents, or students, see and experience the impact of DI, it will no longer be seen as a “one-off” activity, but will become more readily and voluntarily included for all , if not most settings.

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I still remember the first reactions that my ex-colleagues and I had when we first heard about incorporating Differentiated Instruction (DI) into our lessons. We were apprehensive and somewhat sceptical. Questions like 'How is it possible to adopt differentiated learning to a class of around 40 students?' 'Do we have the time to catch up with the demands of the curriculum deadlines?'

Over the years, DI has seemed feasible and necessary for students with diverse needs. More strategies and ideas on how to implement them surfaced. In fact, it should be the norm because no matter where we are from, we are all diverse learners. It is important to look at the students' Readiness, Interest, and Learning profile to offer a deeper and more efficient learning process. Regardless of how the students learn according to their differences, they are working towards the same ultimate goal. They reach the same destination using different modes.

The Retrofit Approach, which provides struggling learners with access to the prescribed curriculum by making accommodations or adaptations, makes learning more interesting and meaningful to them. It looks for mismatches between students' facts and class and lesson facts, after which recommendations and interventions would be carried out for the students. This approach will increase the efficacy of classroom lessons for the students. With each success achieved by the students, he will be even more motivated to learn.

It is interesting to know that Universal Design for Learning (UDL) helps anticipate and plan for all learners at the very start of the lesson. Students are allowed to choose from the pool of tools and resources that are already available, and they are given much freedom in how they want to use them. Eric, the teacher who is using UDL for his students, believed that he would have learnt better if he had been taught under this approach when he was young, as he was a learner with special needs. I believe that many of us second this belief. UDL brings out the uniqueness that each student possesses. Each could bring their talents and gifts into the classroom because there is nothing to stifle them. They are also given the liberty to choose the seats in the classroom, depending on the group dynamics they want. Students learn to take charge of their learning with teachers' support.

Despite the benefits of DI and UDL, I believe it takes time for our students to adopt them. Sometimes, I feel that our children/students are over-instructed and that takes away some sense of responsibility and creativity from them. Families must agree to these strategies and work hand-in-hand with the schools so that these learning habits can be generalised and maintained in the long run.

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Differentiated Instruction(DI) and Universal Design Learning (UDL) are teaching approaches that support diverse range of learners. When educators use DI and UDL together, these help children with various levels of learning abilities to progress at their own pace and understand the context while working towards achieving the same learning goal.

DI and UDL are teaching frameworks designed to support diverse learners with different approaches, but they complement each other. DI is an approach where teachers modify the process, modes of learning and the learning environment to fit the students' readiness, interests and learning profiles. It allows the educators to target specific student needs by designing tasks that align with various levels of Bloom's Taxonomy, that is, from remembering to analysing, applying to creating. This is to enable each student to work at an appropriate level of challenge. Whereas UDL is an approach that allows flexibility in the curriculum. The educators provide multiple ways of engagement, representation and expression to accommodate the variability in how students learn. UDL also supports Bloom's Taxonomy by encouraging diverse ways for students to access content, show understanding and move toward the higher-order thinking skills.

In conclusion, when educators create inclusive classrooms where instructions are both accessible and challenging by using both DI and UDL together, this will allow students to progress toward their learning goals in ways that suit their needs more effectively.

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My journey as a future Special Educational Needs Officer (SENO) has been shaped by a shift in mindset, seeing learner variability as THE rule, not the EXCEPTION. Coming from Air Traffic Control, where precision, anticipation, and responsiveness are key, and being a drummer who understands rhythm, dynamics, and creativity, I now see how these experiences connect to inclusive education. Both Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Differentiated Instruction (DI) have helped me reframe how classrooms should function, not expecting students to fit rigid structures, but designing flexible spaces that respond to diverse learner profiles.

UDL has shown me how planning ahead can prevent learning obstacles before they appear. Its main idea, providing multiple ways to engage, access information, and demonstrate understanding, fits with my belief that students should have choices in how they learn. It reminds me of a drum kit, each part is different, in size, tone, and sound, yet together they create a rhythm, music to my ears always. Similarly, students may need different ways to reach the same goal, but the expectations stay the same.

DI works hand in hand with UDL by giving teachers flexibility while students are learning. Cole’s Nine Types of Adaptations provide practical ways to change content, process, product, and the learning environment. For me, the key is that differentiation is not just a strategy, it is a way of thinking. It requires constant observation, reflection, and adjustment. Effective differentiation feels like playing live music, reading cues, adjusting tempo, and shifting approach based on what students show in the moment.

Moving forward, I plan to use structured supports, think-alouds to model problem solving, and SRSD strategies to help students regulate their own learning. These approaches will strengthen accuracy, understanding, and autonomy.

I am also more aware of the emotional side of learning. Music has taught me that rhythm and flow builds confidence. Learning should help students feel capable, valued, and included. Self Determination Theory reinforces this, students thrive when they feel competent, autonomous, and connected. I aim to create a classroom culture where strengths are celebrated, effort is recognised, and students feel safe to take risks.

HOWEVER, the systemic reality in Singapore cannot be ignored. Despite more flexible pedagogy, high-stakes exams still favours the speed and narrow demonstrations of knowledge. This limits opportunities for students with diverse needs. As a SENO, I see my role as advocating for incremental assessment innovation, introducing multimodal demonstrations, performance-based tasks, and accommodations aligned with UDL principles, so all students can fairly show what they know.

I also recognise the need to work collaboratively and realistically. Teachers face heavy workloads and multiple demands. Pushing for full scale changes overnight is neither fair nor effective. Instead, I aim to support teachers with practical, high impact strategies, flexible grouping, visual scaffolds, structured templates, and alternative response formats. Small changes can make a meaningful difference.

Ultimately, UDL and DI have changed how I view inclusion. It is not about helping students catch up, it is about recognising their strengths and designing spaces where they can thrive. Like a band, every instrument has a role and contributes to the whole musicality. And as an educator, there is no single way to learn, just the right to learn in ways that work.

As I continue my journey at NIE and in MOE, I am committed to being a reflective practitioner who listens to students' voices, acts on evidence, and advocates for equity. Inclusion is intentional, ethical, and rooted in the belief that every learner deserves dignity, agency, and opportunity. That is the educator and the advocate I am becoming. And like music, my work will bring diverse rhythms together into something stronger, richer, and deeply human.

"If a child can't learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn"

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When teachers consider about providing differentiated instructions, they would be tailoring materials specific to one or a group of students. However in the universal design for learning, it focuses on giving the student autonomy in discovering how he or she learns best. I believe both strategies are useful and necessary when supporting our students in their learning. UDL appears to be a great classroom learning experience in the form of flipped classroom where students identify their own learning strategies to best engage with the content. As students engage with different resources, and through group discussions/sharings, they are able to learn from different point of views and have greater flexibility in learnt content. However for students who are unable to have independence in identifying their learning style and effectively engage in learning resources provided, teachers should still offer differentiated instruction and provide more structure to guide the student in their learning.

It is important for teachers to be aware of students' learning progress and areas of struggle to provide sufficient scaffolding and support to effectively engage in learning. However, in Singapore's education system, there is a huge student to teacher ratio which puts stress on teacher's ability to differentiate resources. The curriculum and class structures may also be difficult for teachers to set up varied resources in the class that replicates how UDL looks like in the fifth-grate classroom of Understood Teacher Fellow Eric Crouch. Despite this, we should not use it as an excuse to stop us from creating an inclusive learning environment for our students. Teachers can still create small group learning activities with varied resources for students to engage in during certain parts of their curriculum. By letting students have a choice in their learning, it allows them to feel in-charged and increases engagement to content.

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As a SENO, I think all of us need to know DI and UDL strategies inside-out and have it at our fingertips. We may not be able to utilise each strategy with our students - especially the ones relating to classroom contexts - but from what I observed in my stint school experience, we may need to provide consultative suggestions to teachers, especially when they approach us with their challenges regarding students with needs. If we can get their buy-in to apply DI and UDL strategies in class, I believe it will benefit not only our SEN students, but the learning of the class as a whole.

Both sessions 10 and 11 have allowed me to gain new perspectives on applying DI and UDL. As some of my classmates have mentioned, many of us used to think DI and UDL are only applicable to students with additional needs. However, we now understand that DI and UDL can benefit all students by catering to the variability in their learning needs. Using the retrofit template may help us find accommodations to support our students with SEN when we are in schools. At the same time, knowing Cole's 9 types of adaptations will be useful to help us apply differentiation to support each student's needs. Learning about UDL has been enriching, but I still wonder how applicable they are in Singapore context, especially in our positions as SENOs. I think they may be more applicable for teachers who have more liberty in designing learning environments to ensure students can access learning at their various levels, although it does require a lot more effort. It would be amazing if SENOs can work collaboratively with teachers to create such UDL-enhanced learning environments and if this idea is adopted as a whole-school approach, or even a nation-wide approach, instead of just constantly chasing the curriculum as how it feels now. I can only imagine how many more students can benefit from such an inclusive approach and how much students will enjoy learning then.

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Reading the UDL, it kind of blends in the online and offline teaching practices. Before joining NIE, I had been tutoring my 4 children with their academics as tuition fees were costly. Looking at the materials, some of them I had been doing with them. For example, as children nowadays are more attracted to computers, i had created an online revision notes and test questions for each Subject. Feedback from them were good as they prefer to see the computer compared to the books. However, when it comes to teaching them, i used traditional way of using the books rather than the computer. Just to balance out the learning. In another example, for science topics on circulatory system, questions like "How does the digestive system and circulatory system work together to provide energy?" I used the analogy concept of the "Lazy pool" concept where we are the disgested food and the lazy pool is the blood stream. The lazy would transport us to all parts of the water park just like the blood steam transports the simpler substances to all parts of the body. Then I brought them to the water park to have a sensing of what i meant. They were able to visualize it. As Malay proverbs, "Buah Tangan", to make them understand, i had to explain that when visiting to the hospital, we cannot bring unhealthy food but only healthy food. So i showed them a picture of a "buah tangan" (food hamper), and explained it that we give fruits to patients not oily food. they caught it fast.

Sometimes, I used Youtube vides to explain certain concepts to them. Or related certain scientific concept like Magnetism to comic characters from the X-Men named Magneto who has the power to will magnet.

In conclusion, as educators, we must be able to see the different routes set out for different students, but all aiming for the same goal. I think UDL can help them learn in ways that works for them.

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The Bloom’s Taxonomy would definitely be pasted on my desk as a reminder of the levels of skills required before students are able to independently apply their learning on their homework, life and assessments. It is also a good diagram to use when discussion happens between teachers and myself on students with SEN as we are able to identify where the student’s current level is at, which would lead us to find out why the student is struggling at any tasks (e.e. social, academic etc…). When we are able to scaffold, we are in better position to also scaffold the learning for the students.

DI and UDL essentially have the same purpose - To allow diverse learners to learn the topic at hand. I think the misconception that many people have including myself initially was that DI and UDL are only for students that have needs. However, after deep diving for my group report in 109 and after reading articles and watching the videos on UDL, I now know that it should be applied to the whole class. Applying it in schools in future, I think that it is important to get teachers to acknowledge that every student in the classroom is different. Each student is also entitled to choices and their learning preferences. On a ministry level, lesson plans should be curated in a way that provides various teaching materials and ideas so that teachers can use those ideas to modify to suit the diverse learners in the classroom. This would reduce the time spent planning for ideas, which may encourage more teachers to try out DI/UDL as workload increment would not be as taxing for them if they were to newly design ideas to suit the curriculum.

For our students in Singapore to really learn and showcase their maximum potential, it is vital for the whole system to change, especially when we use written examinations across all subjects to determine if one has understood and is able to apply the content learned. I am glad that at this point, Singapore has introduced DI in as part of the professional development for teachers. It is hopeful that moving forward, the method of testing students, the way lessons are taught would also move towards a more flexible and student-needs centred design. Just like how assessments are done in EIPIC/SPED school, mainstream schools should adopt using pre-assessments to determine the child’s strengths, areas of needs and learning profile.

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Session 10

During our group activity, I found it really interesting to see how my classmates expressed their understanding of differentiation through their mind maps. As I looked at what everyone came up with, I realized that many of us shared very similar ideas — focusing on the importance of catering to students’ individual needs, learning styles, and abilities. It was quite eye-opening to see that, even before diving deep into the theory, most of us already had an intuitive sense of what differentiation meant in practice.

What struck me most was how the concepts we discussed in class, such as Cole’s nine types of adaptation and the principles of differentiated instruction, actually validated what we already believed. It felt like the pieces of the puzzle were finally coming together — our personal experiences and prior understanding now had a strong theoretical backing. I could see how these principles can be applied in real classroom situations to make learning more meaningful and accessible for every student.

This activity also made me reflect on my own teaching mindset. I realized that differentiation is not just about modifying lessons or creating different worksheets — it’s about understanding my students as individuals and being flexible in how I teach. Seeing how my classmates approached the same concept in slightly different ways reminded me that there’s no single “right” way to differentiate. It’s about being responsive, thoughtful, and intentional in how we support diverse learners.

Reflection on 2019 SingTeach:

After reading the 2019 SingTeach article on “Differentiated Instruction: Perspectives from Singapore,” I felt encouraged to see how some schools have started to incorporate differentiated instruction into their teaching. It’s heartening that schools are making an effort to accommodate their students’ diverse learning needs and ensure that lessons are meaningful and accessible for everyone. I believe this approach benefits not only students with special educational needs (SEN) but also typically developing students who have different learning styles and strengths. However, I also understand that it can be challenging to get full buy-in from teachers. Implementing differentiated instruction takes time, effort, and planning, and teachers already have many responsibilities to manage. Introducing something new can be intimidating because teachers are the ones directly responsible for making it work in the classroom. Despite this, I believe that with proper support, training, and collaboration, more teachers will feel confident to embrace this approach. Overall, it is inspiring to see schools in Singapore moving towards a more inclusive and student-centered direction that values every learner’s growth.

Session 11

What resonated most personally was the idea that when a lesson is designed with flexibility (for how students learn, how they show what they know, and how they get motivated), it really opens up learning opportunities for everyone, not just the students who struggle or have special needs, but even those who are already doing well but might benefit from a different pathway or expression. It reminded me that as a future SENO, I need to think proactively: design the learning environment from the start in a way that anticipates diversity, rather than retrofitting it later.

In Singapore, currently, students who require further support can be given access accommodations for their exams. However, in my opinion, given the way exams are structured in Singapore, the challenges faced by students with learning needs cannot be fully addressed solely through classroom accommodations or lesson modifications. Even if teachers put in extra effort to adjust their teaching methods, provide additional support, or create inclusive learning environments, these measures may not be sufficient if the exams themselves remain unchanged. Standardized assessments often do not account for the diverse ways in which students learn and demonstrate their understanding. As a result, despite all the support provided during lessons, students with learning needs may still struggle to keep up with their peers and fall behind in academic performance.

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Session 10

The lecture focuses on the concept of differentiation in teaching and learning, emphasising why, what, and how teachers can tailor instruction to meet the diverse needs of students. In this face-to-face session, learners explored the meaning of differentiation through group discussions, mind mapping, and reflective thinking. The lectures highlighted that differentiation involves adjusting content, process, and product based on students’ readiness, interests, and learning profiles to ensure every learner is appropriately challenged and supported. A classroom video on “station rotation” illustrated practical strategies where students learned the same content through varied modalities: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic and demonstrated how differentiation enhances engagement, motivation, and achievement.

Session 11 on UDL and Singapore DI:

To me, teaching is all about making sure every student feels like they belong and can succeed—and that’s where both Differentiated Instruction (DI) and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) come in. DI is about adapting our teaching to meet students where they are, whether that means changing the pace, the format, or the kind of support we give. UDL takes that even further by encouraging us to design lessons from the start that offer multiple ways for students to engage, understand, and express themselves. It’s not about fixing students. it’s about fixing the barriers in our teaching. In a diverse classroom like those we see in Singapore, these approaches aren’t just helpful, they’re necessary. When we give students choices, use tools like text-to-speech, and let them show what they know in different ways, we’re saying: “I see you. I value how you learn.” And that’s the kind of classroom I want to build.

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When each of our groups put up our own definition and understanding of what Differentiation is, it made me aware of how the meanings may differ for each person through their shared lived experiences. What stood out to me was the individualised and customisation of things for our students. This differs as individualised is more towards how each student has different needs. In contrast, customisation is more towards items like worksheets, where there is the flexibility to customise the learning methods suited for the child. However, while it is important to implement differentiated work and teaching for the students, it may pose a problem to the teachers who are doing it. Teachers are used to the way they have always taught, but being asked to implement a new system and one that might be more in-depth and rigorous may lead to them seeing it as troublesome and ultimately not wanting to carry it out. We can offer our help on how to ease their affairs and slowly fade away our help. For Lecture 11, lessons need to be made more accessible for students by simply altering the delivery of instructions. Making things more engaging for students can change the way they learn to be more effective. Teachers can make use of technology and applications to engage them. During my stint, my mentor SENO used a website that helped with literacy and language skills called 'NESSY', which made her students practice their literacy and language skills learnt more often, even at home and more consistently. Eventually, his language and literacy skills improved a significant amount. Hence, the engaging application made a difference in his learning.

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Session 10

The session made me feel more assured to know there are areas to guide me when I support the teachers in differentiation and possibility for me to get buy-in of the teachers in addressing possible myth of differentiation — that we do not have to differentiate most or everything in view of the teachers' already heavy workload and it may not be beneficial for the student as well. I like the idea of how differentiation means basing it on the learning profile, readiness and interest of the students, and for us to also remember to slightly challenge the students to expand their zone of proximal development and learn more while we motivate them to improve with their prior knowledge.

I was introduced to the idea of UDL and differentiation during my school stint when the TSNs shared about how their lessons could be differentiated. I recalled struggling to support a teacher I was buddied to, to support in differentiating his math lesson as I was not quite sure how it works, which I reflected on how I may also require to have knowledge of the teachers' lesson objective and the students' profile in order to support in differentiation, and how it is a very collaborative approach for SENO to assist in the process. The session on differentiation helped me to better understand what differentiation constitutes to better consider how I could guide the teachers in adapting to their lessons. Understanding that we do not do differentiation for all the aspects of Content, Process, Product, Learning Environment felt reassuring as I considered how it would be tedious and be more difficult to receive the teachers' buy-in with their heavy workload.

The idea of having the whole class together and providing differentiated instructions for learning based on colours felt encouraging, when I attended a sharing by MOE kindergarten @ Mayflower on how they based their learning materials on the different colour codes and how it could facilitate the students' learning effectively as they similarly move across the different stations, received materials based on their learning profile, and could later demonstrate their learning through the different learning materials.

Session 11

The UDL sessions allowed me to relate how lessons could be made more accessible for the whole class through considering the goals and variability aspects when considering their students' ability and barriers. I considered how Dr Liz mentioned that teachers learn most as they have to think about different ways of engaging the students, which made me consider how it may be tapped on to categorise the learning materials that the teacher had found — to see whether and how it could cater to the learning profile of the students as ways to present information to the students (Representation) and allow them access to choices (Engagement). The teachers could also tap on ways for the students to demonstrate their learning e.g. getting some students who may not be strong in writing to present verbally in class while the others may present through written means (Action and Expression).

Both differentiation and UDL felt like there could be more effort was put in to preparing the materials, which I wondered how it could be feasible for teachers who may seem to work more independently on their specific lesson plan — whether SENO's role may include empowering some teachers to come together in lesson material preparation to ease the load and for the students' benefit.

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Session 10

This lecture on differentiation, particularly through Cole’s model and the Retrofit approach, has deepened my understanding of how differentiated instruction can effectively cater to individual learner differences. It reinforced the idea that differentiation is not about creating entirely new lessons for every child, but about making thoughtful adjustments so that all students can access and engage with learning in ways that suit their abilities, interests, and needs.

Having worked previously as an early childhood educator, I’ve seen firsthand how complex and demanding classroom teaching can be. While I now fully recognise and value the importance of differentiated instruction, I also understand the practical challenges that teachers face in trying to implement it. The amount of planning, preparation of materials, and energy it requires. It can easily become overwhelming, and I can empathise with teachers who may see differentiation as an ideal that’s difficult to sustain in reality.

As SENOs, it is important how we view our role in supporting teachers. It’s not just about encouraging them to differentiate or providing a list of strategies, it’s about understanding their context and working collaboratively to make differentiation doable. Rather than adding to their workload, I see the value in helping teachers weave inclusive practices into what they already do, connecting strategies naturally to their existing lessons and routines. This way, differentiation becomes part of their practice, not an extra task.

This lecture reminded me that effective inclusion depends on both pedagogical understanding and practical collaboration. As SENOs, we should aim to continue bridging that gap, promoting differentiation while also supporting teachers with empathy, realistic solutions, and shared problem-solving. Ultimately, differentiation should support both students and teachers.

Session 11

My key takeaway from this session is that learning barriers often lie not within the learners, but in the design of instruction itself. I’ve learned that small, intentional changes, such as offering choices, presenting information in different formats, and allowing varied ways for students to demonstrate understanding, can make a significant difference in accessibility and participation.

This also reminded me of my school stint, where my mentor introduced me to several interactive learning platforms. I found them extremely useful as they genuinely captured students’ attention and motivated them to learn. It made me realise how important it is to integrate technology in today’s classrooms, not just for convenience, but as a way to connect with students’ interests and learning styles. Since many of today’s learners grow up immersed in technology, using digital tools strategically can make lessons more engaging and relevant, aligning perfectly with UDL’s principle of providing multiple means of engagement.

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Session 10

In this session, we learn about the importance of differentiation in education.  Recognising that every student is unique, teachers address students’ diverse needs by differentiating the four elements: content, process, product, and learning environment based on students’ interests, learning profiles, and readiness levels. Differentiation is about fairness, which provides equity instead of equality to support students with SEN in their learning. Some examples of the modification include adjusting the complexity of the content, applying AT in learning and extending various strategies/ support to help students learn better. I think using Retrofit to check the mismatches is helpful for SENO.

Session 11

Based on the UDL framework, lessons are planned with flexibility and students with different learning abilities can access and use the different learning tools/ styles to learn. Eg: the teacher sets up different learning stations where they can rotate and make choices about how and what they want to learn, using different learning tools or strategies. Students can rotate and make choices about how and what they want to learn, helping them build and internalise their own understanding.

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Lesson 10, Part 1, I noticed that each of us had our own way of understanding Differentiation, probably because of our different backgrounds and experiences. I actually enjoyed the gallery walk since it gave us a chance to try out what we understood about the topic through our presentations. The first video, where the young children were grouped by colours and rotated around stations, was interesting. But as I watched it, I kept thinking about my own experience during my secondary school stint in March 2025 for four months. Honestly, I feel that this kind of activity would be quite hard to carry out in a Singapore secondary school. From what I saw, time is always very precious for teachers, and the classroom setting is not very personal since teachers and students are always moving from class to class. Trying to get students into groups and settle them down would take up a lot of time, and sometimes teachers end up spending more time managing behaviour than actually teaching. Most teachers just come in and get straight to the lesson. I really cannot see how this grouping method would work in our secondary schools. The students would probably figure out the meaning behind the colour groups very quickly, and instead of motivating them, it might even have the opposite effect. After that, we learned about the three learner factors: Readiness levels, Interest-based levels, and student profiling. I feel that these factors do not work on their own, but need to go hand in hand. For example, if a student is ready but the teaching method does not interest him, especially if he learns better through visuals and not just theory, then he will not be engaged. In this case, the teacher would not be able to create space for learning. So, I remind myself to pay attention to student profiles during my practicum. Then, we discussed Bloom's Taxonomy. I find it quite interesting to see how it has changed from the 1950s to the 1990s and now to the digital age. The shift from nouns to verbs, and the use of more creative verbs for teachers to use with students, really helps to connect instructions to daily tasks. Nowadays, children are exposed to the digital world much earlier than we were. The amount of vocabulary they pick up from online games, video games, and social media is much more than what we had. As a teacher or SENO, I think it is important to use terms that they are already familiar with, so they can relate and understand what is expected of them. I feel that the evolution of these verbs and terms is very creative and useful.

Lesson 10, Part 2, I realised that I really need to pay attention to the three factors when gathering information for my Practicum: Readiness levels, Interests, and Learning Profiles. The P.E. example in the slides was quite helpful because I could see how the methods were both structured and practical. The retro-fitting table also looks like a useful tool that I can use to guide me during my Practicum. I appreciated Prof Liz’s response and clarification to my questions, because I always want to be sure about what I hear and what I can do later on. When I get posted to my new school, my plan is to observe the school’s culture, and see how students and teachers interact and communicate. I do not want to rush in, but would rather take my time to see how the SENO there works. I would also like to get their opinions on some of the ideas I have as a SENO. For example, I am thinking of 'planting' myself along the corridors or greeting parents at the school porch during drop off. I mentioned before that I want to be a bit 'kepoh' (busybody) so I can find out what is being taught to the students, and then align my lessons for the SEN students. My hope is to help reduce the gaps that SEN students are facing.

Lesson 11, UDL. I like how they changed the term from 'disability' to 'variability'. I find this very creative. It made me realise that all of us have some kind of difference in us, and using 'variability' makes it easier to understand. In the video, I noticed that it encourages us to give information in more than one format and in different ways. It said that to get students to focus, we should pose a question and get them to think about the solution. I saw how the students went through the process of finding solutions and discussing with each other. Having clear goals is important, and setting up the class so that items are accessible to them also helps. UDL allows students to learn by giving them choices and autonomy, and by including their interests. But for me, I am not fully convinced that this will work in Singapore’s context. It really depends on the lesson plan and how much support the school leaders are willing to give. The teacher talked about giving autonomy to those who deserve it, but what about those who do not? Will they feel left out or not motivated? I think this is something that needs to be addressed. Still, I agree that giving students responsibility to take on roles they might grow into is a good idea. Even though the teacher gave autonomy, he still stayed with the groups to guide and teach them in smaller groups. I feel this method can open up creativity. But again, setting up the classroom before the lesson may not be possible in most Singapore schools. Overall, I think UDL is good because it gives students a chance to work together, unlock their creativity, and prepare for future roles. I feel this is the way forward for education.