AI, Differentiated Instruction and Inclusive Learning

This practical workshop explores how artificial intelligence can help educators respond more effectively to differences in students' readiness, prior knowledge, language, pace, interests and learning needs. Particular attention will be given to learners experiencing difficulties with reading, writing, comprehension, attention, organisation, working memory or communication.

Participants will use Singapore's Student Learning Space (SLS) and other school-approved AI tools to design accessible explanations, targeted scaffolds, differentiated pathways, formative feedback and varied ways for students to engage with learning and demonstrate understanding. AI will be treated as a support for professional judgement - not as a diagnostic system or substitute for specialised intervention, teacher-student relationships or appropriately challenging learning.

Objectives and Contents

• Distinguish differentiation, personalisation, accommodation and adaptive learning.
• Identify barriers arising from content, instructions, language, task complexity, pace and response format.
• Use AI to adapt texts, examples, questions and resources while preserving essential concepts and common learning goals.
• Create scaffolds such as chunked instructions, vocabulary support, worked examples, guiding questions, visual explanations, checklists and progressive hints.
• Design core, supported and extended pathways for different levels of readiness.
• Explore multimodal and voice-based approaches that enable students to access and express learning through text, speech, images and other formats.
• Use formative evidence to identify patterns, misconceptions and students requiring additional support or extension.
• Design personalised feedback that encourages revision without completing the student's thinking.
• Preserve productive struggle, intellectual challenge and learner agency.
• Evaluate risks involving inaccurate adaptations, lowered expectations, fixed labelling, bias, privacy, dependency and unequal access.

Practical Learning Experience

The workshop will combine concise presentations, demonstrations, collaborative analysis and an extended design studio. Participants will bring or select an existing lesson and develop a classroom-ready differentiated learning experience through the following process:

• Learning-goal protection: Determine what every student should understand or be able to do, what can be scaffolded and what must remain intellectually demanding.
• Resource adaptation: Use AI to create alternative explanations, reading levels, examples, visual supports, vocabulary preparation and accessible instructions. Check every adaptation for accuracy, tone and conceptual integrity.
• Pathway design: Develop targeted support, core learning and extension opportunities using SLS subgroups, prerequisites and differentiated access where appropriate.
• Dialogue and feedback: Configure or simulate AI-supported questioning, hints and feedback that respond to student needs while requiring learners to reason, revise and explain.
• Learner testing: Test the differentiated experience from the perspectives of students with contrasting strengths and difficulties, identifying remaining barriers or unintended disadvantages.
• Professional review: Apply an inclusion and responsible-AI checklist before presenting the completed design for peer feedback.

Singapore Context and Learning Outcome

Activities will demonstrate relevant SLS capabilities, including subgroups and differentiated access, the Adaptive Learning System, Learning Assistant, Annotated Feedback Assistant, Short Answer Feedback Assistant, Data Assistant, Authoring Copilot and Speech Evaluation Tool, alongside other approved multimodal and accessibility tools. SLS can support personalised pathways, iterative feedback, analysis of misconceptions and differentiated intervention, subject to teacher configuration and oversight.

Participants will leave with a differentiated lesson or learning sequence, reusable AI prompts and design templates, and a practical framework for using AI to increase access and participation without compromising curriculum expectations, student independence or professional responsibility.

Who Should Attend

Primary and Secondary School Educators and Allied Educators