After teaching a lesson on finding the area of a rectangle to a class of 23 third-grade students, the teacher encountered a wide range of understanding. Five students were clearly confused, prompting the teacher to spend fifteen minutes using math manipulatives to clarify the concept. Meanwhile, five students grasped the material quickly, completed their assignments early, and began distracting others out of boredom. Seven students demonstrated partial understanding. They could apply the formula for area (length × width), but struggled to distinguish between area and perimeter. Four students incorrectly used addition instead of multiplication to find the area, and the teacher was only able to reach this group with five minutes left in class, leaving some confusion unresolved as the bell rang. And, one student was absent, and another missed the lesson entirely due to a late arrival.
Reflecting on the lesson, the teacher recognized the importance of differentiated instruction and pacing. Manipulatives helped some students. Others needed more foundational support or extended time to grasp the concept fully. The early finishers highlighted a need for enrichment activities to keep them engaged, while the struggling students revealed the challenge of addressing misconceptions within limited class time. Moving forward, the teacher considered incorporating more formative checks during the lesson, using small group instruction, and preparing tiered tasks to better meet the diverse needs of all learners.
That’s a lot happening all at once! And scenarios like this happen several times a day.
Educators know the joys and challenges of meeting students at their unique levels. With varied prior knowledge, current understanding, behaviors, and attitudes toward learning, no two students will ever be at the same exact point. What’s a teacher to do to support each child’s individual growth?
Thanks to advances in technology, adaptive learning offers a solution that can help meet a variety of student needs at the same time.
What is adaptive learning?
Adaptive learning is an educational approach that personalizes learning experiences for each individual based on their unique needs and performance. The focus is on data-driven instruction to adjust learning paths, pace, and resources. The goal is to create a custom learning journey for each student, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
With adaptive learning, software guides students through a customized learning journey, personalizing content and providing feedback based on students’ responses and demonstrated understanding. Using artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, adaptive learning platforms respond in real time with tailored practice and learning paths based on previous responses.
Supporting differentiated STEM with adaptive learning
Adaptive learning supports differentiated STEM instruction by providing individualized learning pathways and real-time feedback, allowing educators to tailor teaching strategies to meet diverse student needs. This approach helps address achievement gaps, particularly in STEM subjects, and promotes personalized, student-centered learning experiences.
Teachers are empowered to implement true differentiation by dynamically adjusting content, pacing, and instructional methods based on each student’s readiness level, learning style, and progress. In a typical STEM classroom, students often vary widely in their prior knowledge, problem-solving skills, and conceptual understanding. Adaptive platforms help bridge these differences by delivering content that is neither too easy nor too difficult, ensuring that each learner is appropriately challenged.
How do students and teachers benefit from adaptive learning?
Edtech resources are excellent ways to customize learning because they continuously analyze a learner’s performance, identifying strengths, weaknesses, and learning patterns to adjust the difficulty, pacing, and type of content presented. For example, if a student struggles with math fact fluency, Reflex continuously monitors progress to quantify student responses and adapt accordingly. What about students who demonstrate mastery? Reflex meets each student where they are by delivering the right facts at the right time. Learners at all other levels benefit just as much, with adequate levels of challenge and personalized sequencing that would be hard to accomplish in a whole-group setting.
As much as they try, teachers can’t be in multiple places at once. Adaptive learning focuses on each student in ways that educators need. Technology makes space for on-demand differentiation that would otherwise be impossible for a single teacher in a class period.
Adaptive learning also provides teachers insight into student performance, allowing them to “devote their attention where it will have the most impact.” Teachers can monitor data to clarify misconceptions and measure curriculum effectiveness as a whole. Plus, adaptive learning saves educators time by reducing the need to create a vast collection of differentiated materials.
Why does adaptive learning matter?
Remember Vygotsky and the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)? The ZPD is the “distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development” (Vygotsky, 1978). When given proper support and scaffolds, a student experiences a boost to complete a more challenging task. Adaptive learning provides that lift through personalized features that respond to in-the-moment performance. A learner receives just the right amount of challenge and proper levels of support to advance on their unique learning journey.
Other benefits of adaptive learning:
- Students feel more in control of their learning. They don’t have to worry about falling behind or rushing ahead of the group, instead focusing and thriving at their customized pace. Lowered stress and increased self-direction are also common.
- Student engagement, confidence, and motivation are increased. Students experience success, see visual progress, gain rewards, and receive helpful feedback with adaptive learning platforms.
- Data drives instruction. Teachers can use insights from adaptive learning platforms to impact future lessons with targeted skill practice. They can also track data to showcase progress.
Enhance your classroom with adaptive learning technology
ExploreLearning math and science solutions go beyond simply enabling or empowering users. They challenge, support, and reward learners, helping both students and teachers recognize growth and celebrate success along the way. Students begin to understand connections to STEM concepts, which fuels motivation, encourages persistence, and fosters a genuine sense of achievement. Our solutions ignite curiosity and drive learners to apply their knowledge in meaningful ways. Coming soon for grades 6-8 – Gizmos Investigations! These ready-to-use and student-driven lessons give STEM teachers engaging and repeatable ways to bridge gaps in science instruction.
ExploreLearning has STEM covered from kindergarten through graduation. Science4Us gives the youngest learners in grades K-2 a head start in STEM. Starting in grade 3 and moving all the way to AP high school courses, Gizmos continue to help students build and maintain critical STEM knowledge. For math fact fluency, teachers rely on Reflex. What about fractions? Students finally understand them with Frax.
Let’s revisit the 23 students studying area, this time with the power of adaptive learning through edtech resources.
- Confused students incorrectly answer the first few practice questions, but the adaptive learning system responds with a visual model to reinforce the proper calculation steps. Students experience that “ah-ha” moment and start moving forward.
- Advanced learners show mastery in solving the area of rectangles. Adaptive learning technology responds with advanced word problems involving composite figures. These peers are engaged and motivated thanks to the appropriate level of challenge.
- Students incorrectly calculate the area of rectangles using addition, but they’re immediately reminded, thanks to adaptive feedback, that area requires multiplication. The students correct their mistakes with fact practice and advance to more problems.
Thanks to differentiation and adaptive learning with the effective tools, teachers can rest confidently long after class is dismissed.
Getting started with adaptive tools
There’s no need to feel intimidated by the idea of adding new technology to class. Adaptive learning tools are user-friendly for teachers and students. ExploreLearning offers professional development to eliminate any concerns AND show teachers how to make the most of each resource – on demand, on your time! Powerful reporting tools that allow real-time insights into each student's learning journey make it easy to know when and where to provide extra assistance or enrichment. By integrating adaptive learning into STEM instruction, educators can move beyond one-size-fits-all teaching and create a more inclusive, equitable, and effective learning environment where every student has the opportunity to thrive.
Research-based for powerful results
It’s not enough to have adaptive learning tools that are fun and engaging. That’s why ExploreLearning resources use research-proven, evidence-based strategies. Rigorous research studies and surveys are consistently conducted by our research team to deliver solutions that are as effective as they are fun.
Get hands on with math and science.
Gizmos are virtual math and science simulations that bring powerful new interactive STEM learning experiences to grade 3-12 classrooms.
Explore Gizmos
Solve the math fact fluency problem.
Adaptive and individualized, Reflex is the most effective and fun system for mastering basic facts in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division for grades 2+.
Explore Reflex
Make fractions finally make sense.
Frax stops the fraction struggle through an adaptive, game-based system that helps grade 3+ students build the skills, knowledge, and understanding of fractions for ongoing success in higher mathematics.
Explore Frax
Give kids a head start in STEM.
With 1000s of online and offline science activties, Science4Us introduces foundational science concepts that engage grade K-2 learners' natural curiosity and set them up for STEM success
Explore Science4Us