Addressing Self-Efficacy and Off-Task Cellphone Use in Art 1 with Differentiated Instruction to Increase Student Achievement

The following study looks at the impact differentiated instruction can have on students in a high school Art 1 course. This study includes three Art 1 classes from the spring of 2024. One class was taught with differentiated instruction methods, which focus on creating authentic learning experiences that allow student choice and are tailored to students' particular learning needs. Two other classes were taught with a more traditional teaching method which I have used in previous semesters before the shutdown of COVID-19. Quantitative and qualitative data from traditionally marginalized low achieving students in these three classes was collected over the period of eight weeks. The tools used to collect data include a modified Sources of Academic Self-Efficacy Scale (Usher and Pajares, 2006), a written semi-structured interview about school, creative and problem-solving tasks, focus group discussions about attitudes towards cell phone use in class, a record of observation of off-task cell phone use during class time, researcher notes, and grades on projects. This data was then examined to compare students in the differentiated instruction class to students in the traditional instruction class. The findings from this research indicate that when individual student cell phone use and self-efficacy scores are compared between classes, differentiated instruction has decreased off-task cell phone use, increase self-efficacy, and increased overall student achievement in the high school Art 1 classroom.