Individualized teaching is an educational approach that takes into account what each child brings to the teaching and learning situation. The premise of this approach is that no two children enter into an educational activity in quite the same way. Children bring their own experiences, interests, attitudes, skills, personality, etc. to an activity. To teach effectively – that is, to bring about some positive change – the teacher or parent must be responsive to these traits, which exist in unique combinations in each child. Teachers can learn many strategies to increase the amount of individualizing that takes place (and therefore the amount of learning), in classrooms with many children and even just one teacher. An important first step is to become aware of the many ways that individual children differ and how this impacts their ability to learn in various situations.

This course is organized in a way so that each dimension of individuality is a separate topic area. Strategies for identifying and responding to differences within each dimension are embedded in the topic area content.