Differentiated Instruction and provisions for students with special educational needs in STEM domains Curricula for Compulsory Education

Planning differentiated instruction (DI) aims at creating a learning environment, enriched with appropriate tools and materials, which allows students to pursue their personal, individualized learning path, through their participation in collaborative and interactive learning experiences. In the light of inclusive education catering for the needs of diverse learners, this paper presents how DI is gradually depicted within STEM domains Curricula for Compulsory Education in Greece. We examine the STEM domains Curricula since the Cross Thematic Curriculum Framework (CTCF) for Compulsory Education which came into effect from 2003. More precisely, we quoted any references made to DI in general and to teaching students with special needs and we illustrate how the concept of DI is increasingly represented in policy documents such as the “New Curricula” (2021). The study shows that in some curricula of the CTCF there are references to the special needs of students but not in the New Curricula and vice versa for the Differentiated Instruction, points that we think could be taken into account during the training of teachers.