Today’s classrooms, in Sweden and globally, are increasingly heterogeneous with students exhibiting a wide range of abilitiesand needs. This presents challenges for teachers. Differentiated instruction (DI) is recognised as a way for addressing thesediverse abilities and needs, fostering an inclusive classroom where all students have the opportunity to thrive and succeed.This study aims to describe and analyse experiences of Swedish teachers implementing DI to address the abilities and needsof gifted students and their peers in mixed-ability classrooms. Using the zone of proximal development as a framework (ZPD,Vygotsky, 1978), ten teachers (N=10) experienced in differentiated instruction were interviewed. Ethical approval wasattained. Inductive content analysis delineated categories, emphasising teachers’ principles and practices: (1) detecting andvaluing differences, (2) creating a safe and joyful classroom, (3) assessing students’ knowledge, (4) clarifying goals andencouraging students’ ownership of learning, (5) instructing students in study skills, and (6) promoting peer-to-peerinteractions and group work. Moreover, (7) engaging all students from the outset of a lesson or a classroom project, (8)using flexible and open tasks, (9) providing multimodal tools alongside schoolbooks, and (10) presenting and valuing differentanswers. These categories emphasise both fundamental principles and practices at a classroom level, and constitute a DIcycle. They offer insights for implementing, or further developing, differentiated instruction for gifted students and theirpeers in mixed-ability classrooms and it is relevant to pre-service teachers, educational practitioners, policymakers, andresearchers.