Differentiation, adjustment and modification

The Melbourne Declaration (2008) and the reaffirmation in the Alice Springs (Mparntwe) Education Declaration state the goal to promote excellence and equity and enable successful learning opportunities for all students (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2015). Inclusive education is a system where all students, regardless of disability, background, or difference, learn together in general classrooms.

There are three key terms used in inclusive education:

Adjustment: changes that remove barriers and ensure equitable access and participation.
Differentiation: varying instruction, processes, supports, or products while maintaining the standard learning expectations.
Modification: altering the learning expectations, reducing conception demands, or changing the achievement standard.

Each of these processes relies on a teacher anticipating potential barriers and embedding flexibility and supports within the structure of each lesson in a teaching sequence.

Adjustment

Adjustments are “actions taken to enable a student with a disability to access and participate in education on the same basis as other students” (NCCD, 2022). The level of the adjustment will vary according to the needs of students and is based on active and ongoing monitoring and feedback. Adjustments may involve:

minor adjustments, including differentiated teaching, assessment, or activities.
additional instruction, planned health, and personal care or specialised technology that will enable students to participate in activities or the playground.
personalised support for one or more areas of communication, modification to school environments, or support from specialist staff.
intensive, individualised instruction in a highly modified classroom or school environment.

Differentiation

Planning curriculum clarity

Developing a strong understanding of curriculum content and how to teach it allows teachers to know what students need to know, understand, and do as they progress through the teaching sequence. Teachers should consider:

the key concepts, skills, and reasoning processes that underpin each lesson in the teaching sequence.
how these concepts and ideas progress throughout students’ education.
the expectations for achievement at each age and stage.
the alignment between intended, planned, enacted and assessed curricula.

Understanding these elements allows teachers to plan for the conceptual and procedural demands of the curriculum, rather than planning a series of individual activities or tasks that need to be differentiated. Using the LIA Framework, the core concepts can be divided into smaller chunks that build over time. The complexity of the content and skills in the tasks should grow throughout the teaching sequence so that cognitive load barriers are removed, rather than reducing overall cognitive expectations.

High-quality instruction should incorporate variability as a routine part of the pedagogical planning of a sequence, rather than a last-minute adjustment for individual students or tasks. This variability includes:

flexibility in engagement, representation, and expression.
anticipating the support required to improve access and participation.
removal of predictable barriers (linguistic, procedural, or attentional) before the lesson is delivered.
development of routines and environments that promote engagement.

Effective differentiation requires regular diagnostic check-ins of the practicing classroom. This may include observations, formative assessment, analysis of student work, and monitoring of students’ conceptual and procedural development. Some students may require extended teacher modelling, more explicit explanations, smaller group instruction, or increased opportunities for rehearsal. The process of interpretation, planning, implementation, and review should be ongoing and planned rather than making ad hoc changes during individual activities.

The LIA Framework allows teachers to plan entire teaching sequences for differing levels of modelling, guided practice, prompting, and feedback. The teaching sequences in Primary Connections are exemplars of the Framework and include supporting information on both pedagogy and science content. The gradual release of responsibility illustrated throughout each sequence, from modelling to guided practice and then to independent application, should be responsive to a teacher’s classroom observations of students’ capabilities. Some students may require sustained guided instruction or additional lessons in the Inquire phase for repeated opportunities to consolidate understanding before progressing, while others may move more quickly towards independent application.

Classroom environment

Differentiation is shaped by the learning environment in which instruction takes place. Intentional planning of classroom routines, the physical environment, students’ sensory load, the pacing of lessons and social norms can influence a student’s learning. Developing classroom norms that support collaboration and cooperation, organising materials to ensure clarity and accessibility, and attending to overwhelming sensory factors will promote equitable access and participation.

Modification

Modification processes for different abilities

Every classroom contains students with a range of abilities and capabilities. Teachers know their students best and are in the best position to use the LIA Framework to design learning experiences that enable all students to maximise their capabilities. Key factors to consider when modifying the experiences for students of different abilities include:

What are the students’ interests? Students differ in the ways they engage with science. This may be influenced by their prior experiences, special interests, and attitudes to learning. Identify individual students’ interests when adjusting the processes used in the learning experiences.
What can students do? It is important not to make assumptions about a student’s abilities. Their capabilities may have progressed since the last task they completed. Identify students’ interests, strengths, and areas of need when designing each phase of the LIA Framework.
How will students approach a task? Most large tasks can be broken down into a series of smaller steps. Could this scaffold be provided verbally, or does it need to be written down?
Who can students work with? Consider how the class could be grouped to ensure that all students have access to the task at hand. Is it appropriate to group students according to ability so that instructions can be scaffolded in different ways, or will mixed-ability groups provide opportunities for students to use complementary skills and peer-to-peer mentoring?
How can students communicate? There are multiple ways (other than written work) that a student can communicate their learning. Consider a multimodal approach to enable students to represent their learning.

The Australian Curriculum Standards outline the Science Inquiry skills and content expectations for students at each age and stage. These can provide a guide for teachers to modify the approach to inquiry.

For example, when a Year 6 student is planning and conducting an experiment, they will have built upon their skills in the previous year levels.

Science Inquiry: Planning and conducting V9

Year 4	Year 5	Year 6
Students pose questions to identify patterns and relationships and make predictions based on observations. They plan investigations using planning scaffolds, identify key elements of fair tests and describe how they conduct investigations safely. They use simple procedures to make accurate formal measurements. They construct representations to organise data and information and identify patterns and relationships.	Students plan safe investigations to identify patterns and relationships and make reasoned predictions. They identify risks associated with investigations and key intercultural considerations when planning field work. They identify variables to be changed and measured. They use equipment to generate data with appropriate precision. They construct representations to organise data and information and describe patterns, trends and relationships.	Students plan safe, repeatable investigations to identify patterns and test relationships and make reasoned predictions. They describe risks associated with investigations and key intercultural considerations when planning field work. They identify variables to be changed, measured and controlled. They use equipment to generate and record data with appropriate precision. They construct representations to organise and process data and information and describe patterns, trends and relationships.

If an investigation needs to be modified for a Year 6 student or group of students, they may first be provided with a scaffold to organise data and sentence starters to identify patterns and relationships. This may be followed by a second inquiry cycle that provides an opportunity to collaboratively process data and describe trends before the students are asked to work independently.

Modifying content

The Australian Curriculum Standards outline the Science Understanding, Science as a Human Endeavour, and Science Inquiry content that students seek to achieve. Many of the Science Understanding descriptors can be broken into the core concepts that build as students progress through their schooling.

For example, Physical Science is broken into two core concepts:

Forces affect the motion and behaviour of objects.
Energy can be transferred and transformed from one form to another and is conserved within systems.

A student in a Year 4 class should identify how “forces can be exerted by one object on another and investigate the effect of frictional, gravitational, and magnetic forces on the motion of objects” (ACARA, 2026).

If modification is required, a teacher could use the core concept of forces to identify Primary Connections teaching sequences that examine the same concept at earlier year levels. This will provide a series of less complicated lessons and activities that cover the same core concept of forces. For example:

Describe how objects move and how factors, including their size, shape, or material, influence their movement (Primary Connections Year F).
Describe pushes and pulls in terms of strength and direction and predict the effect of these forces on objects’ motion and shape (Primary Connections Year 1).

A selection of these lessons appropriate to the student’s content or skills could form the early inquiry cycles of an LIA framework for Year 4. This approach allows all students to progress in their learning.

Modifying products and the evaluation processes

The Australian Curriculum provides achievement standards that are the reference point for the evaluation process for teachers. Schools are required to assess and report on the achievement and progress of each student.

When designing for the modification of the outcome of the Act phase, consider different ways and modes that students could show their learning. The core concepts and key ideas can provide a guide to the resources that can be used to support teachers in this way.

For example, the Year 6 Earth and space science achievement standard states that students should “describe trends in patterns of global climate change and identify causal factors”. This is part of the core concept of “the Earth is part of an astronomical system; interactions between Earth and celestial bodies influence the Earth system”.

This core concept is visited in Year 2 (“recognise Earth is a planet in the solar system and identify patterns in the changing position of the sun, moon, planets and stars in the sky”).

Revisiting the earlier Primary Connections sequences based on the core concept may provide alternative approaches to the Launch, Inquire, and Act phases that could be modified to build students’ knowledge and skills, allowing Year 6 students to meet the required standard.

Discuss with your colleagues

What are the different learning needs of students in your classroom?
What differentiation or modification strategies do you currently use for these students?
How do you evaluate the success of these strategies to improve the students’ learning?

References

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (2015). Student diversity. ACARA. https://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/student-diversity

Australian Education Research Organisation. (2025a). Escalated Behaviour: Creating Calm, Focused Classrooms. Australian Education Research Organisation Limited (AERO). https://www.edresearch.edu.au/guides-resources/practice-guides/escalated-behaviour-creating-calm-focused-classrooms

Australian Education Research Organisation. (2025b). Physical Differences: Supporting Students’ Diverse Needs. Australian Education Research Organisation Limited (AERO). https://www.edresearch.edu.au/guides-resources/practice-guides/physical-needs-supporting-diverse-needs

Australian Education Research Organisation. (2025c). Planning: Supporting Students’ Diverse Needs. Australian Education Research Organisation Limited (AERO). https://www.edresearch.edu.au/guides-resources/practice-guides/planning-supporting-diverse-needs

Australian Education Research Organisation. (2025d). Sensory Differences: Supporting Students’ Diverse Needs. Australian Education Research Organisation Limited (AERO). https://www.edresearch.edu.au/guides-resources/practice-guides/sensory-differences-supporting-diverse-needs

Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership. (2017) “Tom Porta – Seymour College” In the Classroom – Differentiation. Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership Limited (AITSL). https://www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/improve-practice/in-the-classroom/differentiation.

Barr, A., Gillard, J., Firth, V., Scrymgour, M., Welford, R., Lomax-Smith, J., Bartlett, D., Pike, B., & Constable, E. (2008). Melbourne declaration on educational goals for young Australians. Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs. PO Box 202 Carlton South Victoria, 3053, Australia. http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/93985/20090206-1100/www.mceetya.edu.au/verve/_resources/National_Declaration_on_the_Educational_Goals_for_Young_Australians.pdf

Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). (2022). What’s reasonable?. The Australian Government and Education Services Australia Ltd. https://www.nccd.edu.au/wider-support-materials/whats-reasonable

External evaluation survey