Learner diversity refers to both group and individual differences in students, which exist in every classroom and can have a powerful effect on learning. Learner differences should be measured and taken into account when designing effective learning experiences. Examples of diverse learners include students who differ in the ways in which they learn, have different learning styles, modalities, interests, disabilities, or limited English proficiency.
It is important to address the needs of diverse learners because students in classrooms today are more diverse across many categories, including linguistics, culture, geography, and socioeconomics. In a classroom of 24 students, between 10 and 12 students (40-50%) are living in poverty, have a disability or learning difference, are English learners, are gifted or talented, are experiencing challenges at home or in their communities that result in trauma, or some combination of the above. Research shows that each of these students needs differentiated approaches to learning.
A pedagogy of transformation takes learners out of their comfort zones, as a result of which they form new frames of understanding, ways of meaning, capacities to act, and expressions of identity. The Learning by Design project addresses learner diversity in a number of ways, including designing the Learner Resource side of the Learning Element for self-paced individual learning or self-managed group learning, asking the question of prior learning on the assumption that the answer will not be the same for all, and bringing diversity into the learning experience through experiencing the known.
In summary, learner diversity refers to the differences in students, which exist in every classroom and can have a powerful effect on learning. It is important to address the needs of diverse learners, and effective learning experiences should take into account learner differences. A pedagogy of transformation takes learners out of their comfort zones, and the Learning by Design project addresses learner diversity in a number of ways.
