Education Insights • 2024 • Volume 2 • Issue 1 4 requirement and was more aligned with Gardner’s views as it encouraged teachers to meet the individual needs of students.14 Differentiation became more of a focus, which again allowed for a focus of individual growth. The importance of investigating appropriate practices continues to escalate post Covid-19. After closures of schools and other learning spaces have affected more than 94% of the world academic population, the urgency to close the achievement gap has increased.15 The focus has now shifted to building back our education system to provide better equitable learning for all students. The more educators know about their students’ needs, the better their learning goals are met.16 As we build our education system, there is still a need for more research on its effectiveness of educational instructional practices. Ability grouping continues to resurge and has become a strategy that some schools employ to customize learning to address the individual needs of students. However, evidence suggests that ability grouping does not lead to a consistent increase or decrease in student achievement.17 The selected literature below specifically examines concerns related to ability grouping practices, the effects that ability grouping has on achievement and students, as well as the perceptions of administrators and teachers toward this practice. Research Concerning Practices of Grouping The curriculum and manner in which instruction are organized within the school affect learning as well as achievement.18 Examiners have discovered that best practices of grouping differ by school, class, teacher, and student. Kulik and Kulik found academic achievement varied based on the type of grouping practices and successive curriculum established for groups.19 He suggested there are three different types of grouping practices utilized in schools: whole class instruction, between-class separation, and within-class or flexible grouping. Whole group instruction is presented to the entire class with little differentiation in content or assessment. This teaching approach benefits some students, but it may overlook the specific academic needs of others. Decisions made in education that includes one program, instructional technique, or group 14 Morgan, “Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences Theory,” 121-41. 15 Pokhrel and Chhetri, “A literature review on impact of COVID-19,” 131. 16 Susan B. Goldberg, “Education in a Pandemic: The Disparate Impacts of Covid-19 on America's Students,” Office for Civil Rights, US Department of Education. Accessed February 1, 2024, http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/ocr-coronavirus-factsheet-12-2020.pdf. 17 Wynne Harlen and Heather Malcolm, “Setting and Streaming: A Research Review." Revised Edition. SCRE Publication 143, Using Research Series 18. "Using Research Series" formerly "Practitioner Minipaper Series," (1997); see also Laura Sukhnandan and Barbara Lee, Streaming, Setting and Grouping by Ability: A Review of the Literature (Slough, UK: National Foundation for Educational Research, 1998); Ireson and Hallam, Ability Grouping in Education. 18 Ireson and Hallam, Ability Grouping in Education. 19 Kulik and Kulik, “Meta-analytic findings on grouping programs,” 73-77.
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