The Degree of Application of the Principles of Differentiated Education by Middle School Science Teachers

The study aimed to identify the degree of application of science teachers in the intermediate stage of the principles of differentiated education. To achieve the objectives of the study and answer its questions, the researcher used the descriptive approach and prepared for this purpose an observation card to measure the degree of application of science teachers in the intermediate stage of the principles of differentiated education. She prepared a list of the principles of differentiated education and sources for constructing the list of principles. The card included (21) indicators of differentiated education, distributed over three areas; The researcher applied the observation card in its final form to the study sample, which consisted of (44) science teachers for the intermediate stage in the Riyadh region, during the first semester of the academic year 1444/1445 AH, corresponding to 2023/2024 AD. The most prominent results were: The arithmetic averages of the degree of application of the principles of differentiated education by intermediate science teachers came at an average level of practice, and the field of planning for differentiated teaching came in first place, with an arithmetic average of (3.35), and a standard deviation of (1.15) at an average level of practice. The field of implementation of differentiated teaching came in second place, with an arithmetic average of (3.20), and a standard deviation of (1.27), at an average level of practice. As for the field of evaluating differentiated teaching, it ranked third and last, with an arithmetic mean (2.56) and a standard deviation (0.25), at a low level of practice. The results indicated that there were statistically significant differences between the arithmetic means of the degree to which intermediate science teachers applied the principles of differentiated education, according to the variables: professional license and years of experience, and that there were no statistically significant differences between the arithmetic means of the degree to which intermediate science teachers applied the principles of differentiated education, according to the variable of academic qualification. In light of these results, the researcher presented a set of recommendations, most notably: training teachers on planning differentiated education and how to implement and evaluate it in light of teaching and learning situations, and including the principles of differentiated education in the intermediate science curriculum..
Keywords: Science teachers, differentiated instruction principles, middle school.