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Individual Differences can be defined in the classroom as achievement level, academic level or intelligence, gender, learning style, ethnicity and culture. Invariably all students are unique in the way they learn. In order to teach our students we need to know the different approaches that we can use to accommodate individual differences among our students.

Achievement level affects a student's learning in many ways. Achievement is defined as accomplishment, or the completion of something. In education, achievement is not only accomplishing academic standards, but fulfilling the student's educational needs, or their learning needs. Academic standards are assessed by standardized tests in content subjects such as math, science, social studies, reading, and comprehension. There are more ways of assessing students such as self-assessments, grading rubrics, peer assessment, and teacher assessments. Student portfolios are an excellent form of assessing student's progress. Academic level can also be called intelligence. Some students are below level in certain content areas, while they may be on level or above level in other content areas. Through abilities grouping, the students are able to meet their educational needs while mastering the skills that they need to possess to be successful in their learning.

Many elementary school teachers focus on individualized instruction rather than teaching the whole group. Cooperative learning groups, individualized instruction, peer tutors and computerized instruction are some common practices in classrooms that most teachers use as a way to deal with individual differences in ability. Computer Assisted Learning is used in individualized instruction. It provides self-paced learning that allows students to learn at their own pace. Intelligent tutoring systems can "adapt a unique dialogue to deal with each learner's diagnosed misconceptions. While there is evidence that allowing students to proceed at their own pace does lead to more effective learning, there is not as great a body of evidence to suggest that minute diagnosis of misconceptions leads to substantially better learning than can be achieved with a more shallow approach." (http://www.cee.hw.ac.uk/~alis on/ctl/ctl96/INDDIFF.html) In addition, elementary school teachers group students together for reading and for math exercises. Groups can be divided by ability level, to allow each group to receive instruction at its own level and to progress at its own rate. Abilities

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