I would want to hear some specific examples of how they have used differentiated instruction to support gifted learners (there's a good overview in Susan Winebrenner's book about teaching gifted kids in the regular classroom). Will teachers pre-test before starting a unit? Is instruction "compacted" or "telescoped" for students who are already familiar with much of the material of a particular area? Do they offer "menu" options for completing work in different formats to meet the needs of more visual or other kinds of learners? Do they use ability-grouping for some subjects/topics in order to let high-ability kids work together? Are kids working at different grade levels in the same classroom, or are they using enrichment activities that extend or deepen same-grade-level work? Are there appropriate reading materials available for advanced readers?
I would also ask why they prefer to use diffentiated instruction exclusively--their answer might give you some hints about how they view the needs of gifted learners, since many gifted experts aren't convinced that differentiation can meet everyone's needs in all circumstances.
And if they would allow you a classroom observation that could be tremendously helpful in allowing you to see if you can detect ongoing differentiation at work. In one classroom I visited a teacher told me that she differentiated in math instruction by having different kids answer different numbers of questions depending on how much practice they needed--but the students who required very little repetition weren't given any additional work to do other than free reading when they finished. In another class, one student worked from an above-grade-level math textbook but didn't receive any instructional support if he had questions. And in both instances, in classes of nearly thirty kids, I'm not sure how the teacher could have put in place a more robust system of differentiated instruction while also addressing the behaviour challenges and administrative work that continue during instructional time. I worry that differentiation-for-giftedness is asking teachers in very heterogeneous environments to work miracles...but perhaps that's too pessimistic. I'm looking forward to hearing more positive appraisals!
As you can tell, I'm a bit suspicious about claims to meet gifted learners' needs through differentiation. I'd love to hear stories from people who've found it works.
