I was once told that perception is reality. So what teachers perceive is reality, at least to them. Therefore, teacher perceptions play an imperative roll in the way they teach. What teachers think about their teaching can have an impact on student learning (Chia & Goh, 2016).
While we know the importance of using differentiation in the classroom, from my research, I found that although teachers agree that differentiation is crucial to helping all students learn, they do not perceive all multimodal strategies as being all that important. This seems to be an odd juxtaposition. I would think that a teacher who believes differentiation is necessary would find all multimodal strategies to be important. However, what they perceive is true is reality to them. So in their reality, only certain multimodal strategies are effective.
The following graphs show the results of a teacher survey I did regarding their perceptions of multimodal strategies. It is interesting that for some strategies, teachers found them to be only slightly important or moderately important. From these teacher perspectives, I determined that supports and training are needed for teachers to better understand multimodal strategies. These supports and trainings will allow for larger gains in learning by all students.
Note: The graphs above show survey results of showing teacher perceptions of multimodal strategies. From "Action Research: Analyzing Data, Presenting Results, and Planning Design,” by S. Martin, 2021, p. 9.
Additionally, below is a link to a multimedia presentation regarding teacher perceptions.
References
Chia, L. W. & Goh, C. C. M. (2016) Teachers’ perceptions, experience, and learning.
Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 369(1), 1-4,
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