As recently as 1996 studies were being done to show the effectiveness of authentic teaching. with increased students involvement more flexibility and recognition of students difference this was a big shift from didactic teaching that had lasted in schools for a long time. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/444136

As education is being viewed more as a science there have been more and more studies looking at effectiveness but not all of these follow a truly scientific method and very quickly aspects of authentic teaching are deemed not good enough. I think we need to be careful with the use of various studies. Often they do not follow the pattern of the scientific method are not compared with controls but very quickly lead to reform in schools.

Differentiation was very much a process linked and develop in the era of authentic teaching but as shown in the link this is already seen as not what we should do in the classroom. Yet a little investigation shows that differentiation is simply a tool of adaptation and still necessary in the classroom. All of these methods have a place we just need to be confident to move between them.

Links: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/news/moving-from-differentiation-to-adaptive-teaching