Adaptive teaching means giving every pupil the same ambitious curriculum and the same task, then changing the support around that task so everyone has the chance to reach it. A worked example, smaller steps or a word bank are all scaffolds, and each one is meant to come away as the pupil gets more independent. The goal stays the same for the whole class. Only the route and the pace change.
That’s the short answer. The rest of this post covers why the term replaced “differentiation”, what adaptive teaching looks like in a real lesson, and what to do when it isn’t enough on its own.
What is adaptive teaching?
In England, adaptive teaching is the term used in the Teachers’ Standards (Standard 5 asks teachers to “adapt teaching to respond to the strengths and needs of all pupils”) and in the Early Career Framework (now part of the combined initial teacher training and early career framework) that new teachers train against. If you’re an ECT, a mentor or a leader writing a teaching and learning policy, it’s the phrase you’ll be held to.
The idea underneath is simple. Former headteacher Matt Bromley, who presents our course on the subject, describes one destination with different methods of transport. You want every pupil to reach the same end point of your curriculum. Not all of them will, but they should all get the chance. Some will need a longer run-up, or more help on the way.
How is adaptive teaching different from differentiation?
Differentiation was never meant to mean easier work. In most schools that’s what it became: three worksheets, a “mild, medium, hot” task, lower expectations for some pupils and, quietly, lower outcomes at the end. Or it slid into the adult doing the work for the child, and the child learned to wait for help.
Adaptive teaching turns that round. Everyone does the same task. Everyone is assessed against the same expectations. What you adapt is the support, so a pupil who would struggle to start can still get going.
It matters most for pupils who start with less. Water the curriculum down for them and the gap to their classmates doesn’t close. It’s built in.
What does effective differentiation look like now?
If you’ve searched for “effective differentiation”, this is what you’re after: high expectations held steady, with help that’s planned and temporary.
Bromley compares it to scaffolding on a building. It’s there so you can reach the higher floors, and it comes down once the building can stand on its own. A task scaffold works the same way. If it’s still there in July, something has gone wrong.
The EEF’s guidance on making the best use of teaching assistants describes the same movement. A lot of adult input comes first, then prompting and clueing, then pupils scaffolding their own work. The aim is to hand the learning back to the pupil.
Adaptive teaching methods: the scaffolds that work
Scaffolds come in roughly three kinds, and most teachers already use some of them without calling it adaptive teaching.
Visual scaffolds:
- a task planner, or a list of smaller stepped instructions
- a worked example pupils can follow and copy the shape of
- dual coding, with icons or diagrams alongside the words
Verbal scaffolds:
- breaking instructions into chunks and giving them one at a time
- recapping or re-teaching a key idea for the pupils who need it
- questioning as a coaching conversation, to help a pupil work out the next step for themselves
Written scaffolds:
- a word bank of key vocabulary with short definitions
- a writing frame
- sentence starters, so a pupil has the beginning of an answer to build on
Here’s how that plays out. Say the whole class is answering “How does the writer create effects in this paragraph?” Every pupil gets that question. One works from the question alone. Another has a word bank of techniques. A third has a sentence starter (“The writer uses… which makes the reader feel…”) and a worked example from a different paragraph. Next time, the worked example goes. The time after that, the starter goes too.
Adaptive teaching ideas: look past the label first
Before you plan any adaptation, look past the label to what’s going on in your lesson.
“Pupil premium” or “SEN support” tells you something about a pupil’s circumstances. It doesn’t tell you what’s getting in their way on Tuesday morning in Year 8 science. Labels miss pupils too. Eligibility for free school meals shifts when benefit rules change, even when a family’s circumstances haven’t, and plenty of disadvantaged children never carry a label at all.
So ask what the barrier is, here, for this pupil. Very often it’s vocabulary. The course makes the point that many disadvantaged pupils start school knowing far fewer words than their classmates, and the gap shows up in every subject. You can act on that. Pick out the words a unit depends on and teach them explicitly before pupils meet them in a text or a task.
A few more ideas from the course that cost very little:
- teach pupils to read, write and speak like a scientist or historian, by modelling it and thinking aloud as you write
- ask more “why” and “how” questions, and fewer “what”
- check that your examples and analogies draw on things your pupils actually know
When adaptive teaching isn’t enough: interventions
For some pupils, good classroom teaching with adaptations won’t close the gap on its own. That’s when an intervention outside the lesson earns its place.
The best ones are short. Don’t put a fixed group into an intervention in September and leave them there all year (that mostly tells you it isn’t working). Think roll-on, roll-off instead. Your formative assessment in lessons shows who hasn’t grasped a particular idea. They get a short, focused burst of help, perhaps two or three sessions a week of 20 to 30 minutes, then go back into the lesson having caught up.
Good interventions look a lot like good lessons. Someone trained and experienced plans and teaches them, and they respond to what pupils do. And like scaffolds, they should come to an end.
Who joins your clubs and trips?
One more question from the course, which isn’t strictly about the classroom but belongs here. Your clubs, trips and enrichment are open to everyone. Who actually takes them up?
If you audit attendance, you may find some groups missing: pupils who can’t afford the kit or the trip, who have a sibling to collect, or who don’t think the activity is for them. Bromley argues that when places are limited, the pupils who’d gain most should get first call. Not everyone will agree. It’s worth talking about as a staff team.
Adaptive teaching CPD and training
If you’re looking for adaptive teaching training for your staff, or for yourself, our course Adaptive Teaching and Interventions is a recorded session with Matt Bromley, a former secondary headteacher with 25 years in teaching and leadership. It covers why the attainment gap widens through school, the shift from differentiation to adaptive teaching, scaffolds that fall away, short interventions and fair access to extracurricular activities. There are reflection points you can use on your own or in a department meeting. If you also want to stretch the most able, Differentiate Effectively: Teaching to the Top sits well beside it.
More on planning, assessment and classroom practice is on our teaching and learning page.
The course suits classroom teachers, ECTs and their mentors, teaching assistants, and leaders working on inclusion or the pupil premium.