Personalised Learning

Personalised learning refers to a different ”variety of educational programs, learning experiences, instructional approaches, and academic support strategies that are intended to address the distinct learning needs, interests, aspirations, or cultural backgrounds of individual students.” (Education Reform, 2015)

Personalised learning is viewed as an alternative to so-called “one-size-fits-all” approach. Through personalised learning, the activities planned by the teacher are more towards student centered learning. The main purpose of the educator should be to encourage individual learning rather than what might be preferred, more convenient, or logistically easier for teachers and schools.

Personalized learning is applied in order to facilitate the academic success of each student by first determining the learning needs, interests, and aspirations of individual students, and then providing learning experiences that are customised for each individual.

In order ”to accomplish this goal, schools, teachers, guidance counselors, and other educational specialists may employ a wide variety of educational methods, from intentionally cultivating strong and trusting student-adult relationships to modifying assignments and instructional strategies in the classroom to entirely redesigning the ways in which students are grouped and taught in a school.” (Educational Reform, 2015)

Barbara Bray and Kathleen McClaskey came up with a chart that shows the difference between personalisation, differentiation and individualisation lies in the shift in focus from the teacher to the learners. These approaches are all beneficial to the learners in different learning situations.

I agree that personalised learning should be implemented in the classrooms. Through this learning process children are more engaged in their learning activity as it is catered for their learning needs. The students are provided with materials which suits them best. For instance, if a child learns more through a video explanation, s/he should be provided with that material but another child might be learning if s/he is presented with a model. Hence, educators should know their learners and try to cater for their different learning styles.

References:

New Classrooms Personalized Learning Instructional Model – Part 1. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6BPXhGTg00#action=share

Partnership, G. (2019). Personalized Learning Definition. Retrieved from https://www.edglossary.org/personalized-learning/

PDI Chart, v3. (2019). Retrieved from http://kathleenmcclaskey.com/personalization-vs-differentiation-vs-individualization-chart/