Differentiated instruction in a class of 50: practical strategies for Nigerian teachers

Most advice on differentiated instruction assumes a class size that is not realistic for a lot of Nigerian primary schools. When you have 50, 60, or more pupils in one room, you cannot run six different activity stations or give individual feedback to everyone in a single period. Differentiation still matters in a large class. It just has to work differently.

Start with grouping, not individual plans

Trying to plan for every pupil individually in a class this size is not sustainable. Instead, group pupils into three rough bands, high achieving, average, and those who need more support, based on recent classwork rather than a fixed label. Keep the groups loose and revisit them every few weeks, because a pupil's group should change as their understanding does.

Three bands is enough. You do not need six.

Adjust one worksheet three ways, not three separate worksheets

Building three completely different worksheets for one lesson eats the exact time differentiation is supposed to save. Instead, design one core worksheet and change the entry point for each group:

• Struggling learners get the same questions with a worked example at the top, or a visual aid alongside each question.
• Average learners get the worksheet as designed.
• High achieving learners get the same worksheet plus one or two extension questions that ask them to explain their reasoning or apply the concept to a new situation.

This is a fifteen-minute adjustment to one document, not three separate lesson preparations.

Use peer support deliberately

In a large class, your most reliable extra pair of hands is the pupils themselves. Pair a pupil who has grasped a concept with one who is still working on it, and give the stronger pupil a specific, small task, like checking one part of the answer, not teaching the whole topic. This works best when it is structured rather than left open, otherwise it can turn into one pupil doing the work for both.

Quick formative checks that do not require marking 50 books

You do not need to mark every book every day to know who is following and who is not. A few checks that work at scale:

• Show of hands with fingers, one to five, indicating how confident pupils feel about a concept just taught. This takes ten seconds and tells you immediately where the room stands.
• Mini whiteboards or slates, if available, where pupils write a one-word or one-number answer and hold it up together. You can scan fifty answers in the time it takes to ask one pupil aloud.
• Exit tickets, a single question pupils answer on a small slip of paper before leaving. You can sort these into three piles, understood, partially understood, not understood, in a few minutes, and it tells you exactly who needs the first five minutes of tomorrow's lesson.

Protect your own time

None of this works if it adds hours to your evening. The point of grouping loosely, adjusting one worksheet instead of building three, and using quick checks instead of full marking, is to make differentiation sustainable across a full term, not just for one showcase lesson. Ready-made worksheets that already include a built-in extension question, and lesson plans that already flag where to slow down for struggling learners, remove a lot of this planning load before you even start.