I have been chatting with a local teacher about what they call "Differentiated Instruction" that teachers here in Mass. are now starting to be taught. Wiki seems to define this as something that just allows different methods to be used for children who learn in different ways, but on some various websites describing the method, it sounds as if they really do try to allow kids of different abilities to progress more at their own speed. I am not sure if there's a limit to exacly how different a student can be and i suspect that teaching algebra while everyone else is learning multiplication might not be something they are expecting.
I wonder if it's a matter of designing support systems to track indiviual kids so the teacher don't have to or if there's really a need to have one teacher responsible for all instruction regardless of the level. To be honest, there are a lot of teachers failing the most basic certification tests never mind spanning multiple levels of a subject.
Lots to ponder.
Poppa
