For education, it is experiencing a major shift. Hence, schools and teachers are moving from the traditional practice of educating all learners using the same method and adopting a model of teaching that is suitable for every child depending on his or her potential, abilities, or interests, which is called personalised learning.
Now let me explain what is meant by the term ‘personalized learning’. Personalized learning is a model and a pedagogy that places the learner at the heart of the learning process. Instead of the conventional model where all students in a classroom are expected to learn at the same rate, pace and in the same manner, personalized learning focuses on how to present curriculum, methods of teaching and classroom environment that will cater for all students. The aim is to foster each child’s talents and interests while at the same time making sure the child acquires necessary skills and information.
One of the strengths of the personalized learning is that instruction is individualized according to student characteristics. This means providing students with a range of choices of how to learn, such as videos, group assignments, online classes, and then presenting knowledge in a way other than through exams and written assignments. The other useful elements of formative assessment are the dynamic feedbacks that also assist the teachers to adapt to the changes. Also, the classroom space, as well as the technology used in the learning process, is constructed to meet the needs of students under the personalized learning model.
Personalized learning, as opposed to the traditional factory model of education where students sit and listen to teachers, can be an exciting activity for the students. They are more independent in learning and interact with teachers and other learners as well. Personalized learning also helps students learn important metacognitive skills as they are required to think about their learning styles as well as their strengths and areas of difficulty. This results in more passionate, self-employed individuals who continue learning throughout their lives.
Benefits of Personalized Learning
It is crucial to note that there are so many benefits that are being associated with the shift to a personalized learning model. First and foremost, it has been established that personalized learning enhances the achievement and other related results in learning institutions. The Mathematica Policy Research study conducted in 2012 on the impact of personalized learning in over 160 schools in the United States reflected on the improvement of scores in mathematics and reading comprehensions among students.
This means advanced learners can progress faster, while other slow learners are provided with interventions to help them catch up instead of lagging even more. Many students can work at their intensity level of difficulty. It is for this reason that personalization of learning is based on personal mastery and meaningful learning rather than grade letter and standard achievement benchmarks.
The use of personalized learning thus inherently lends itself to differentiation within the classroom as well. A teacher is in a better position to address the needs of the learners who have one or many learning disabilities, students who are gifted and therefore require more challenging tasks, or the learners who are learning English as a second language. Personalised instruction also addresses the needs of students from diverse cultural backgrounds, gender, ability and interests. Data obtained from previous studies reveals that when content covers academic content derived from the students themselves, then the level of engagement and retention increases.
Another key area highlighted within the broader concept of personalization of learning is the promotion of fairness in access to education. Through guided instruction and learning activities that fit a particular individual’s requirements, the teachers can ensure that each student is given opportunities to succeed despite the existing gaps in opportunity and achievement. The Oakland Unified School District, which began adopting the personalized learning model earlier this year, has already observed some positive changes in relation to equity goals in more schools that have shifted to this model of education.
Although much of the instruction is one on one there is still an important value placed in individualized learning and peer collaboration. Building effective interpersonal and communication skills are the key principles of a learner approach together with cultivating student’s interests, questions, and facts. The schools that have adopted the personalized learning model also show an enhanced school climate and improved students’ school related relationships as noted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Challenges With Personalized Learning
Thus, there are several issues connected with the efficient implementation of personalized learning. Differentiated as it is, it is also more challenging and requires teachers to monitor the progress and provide individualised instructions and feedback to numerous students. If schools lack adequate staff training and support for the staff then this can lead to feelings of work-related stress among teachers. However, teachers’ engagement and willingness to conduct more student-centered lessons is essential. District administrators may also have to modify professional development practices to ensure teachers have specific time for learn from each other through co-planning on curriculum or observing model of personalized classrooms.
The transition to a more personalized approach to learning may also be costly initially since updating the education technology infrastructure and applications may also take a significant amount of money. But in fact schools don’t have to go as far as 1:1 device-to-student technology to make this work. The availability of basic reliable technologies together with online learning management systems support student-centered approaches to teaching. Selecting high quality resources for the K-12 digital learning content and assessments can also present challenges – including how to make sure they feature student voices. Therefore, to build sustainable sources of funding and support for longer personalized learning interventions, one must develop a convincing vision to stakeholders of what has been done before and the effects produced.
This new model also signals a huge change from the traditional ways in which most parents and students expect school to operate which can foster anxiety. It is possible to make the transition easier by designing onboarding resources and events intentionally. Allowing the families to see the particular classroom and explaining how the child is assessed and how the grade is earned also becomes part of demystifying. It also helps to seek student and parent input, questions and concerns before incorporating it in the next round of rollouts or training of the personalized learning rolls.
Future of Personalized Learning
Although well involving in personalized learning might require human and financial resources, the long term benefit make it lucrative to invest in. If students are allowed to be more in control of skills that they want to learn as learners, not as reactors, with the teachers as coaches and not as dictators, then what we have is school, as something that students would want to attend every day and not something they are forced to go to every day.
Current models of personalized learning and beliefs will only keep on evolving as well. Intelli-gence is already being incorporated selectively in some forms of education technologies and applications for evaluating students’ performance and suggesting particular sequences of materials. Several teachers foresee a future where machine learning and AI capabilities will expand to the level where virtual tutors can deliver personalized instruction so that the teachers can engage in more interpersonal level interactions. Other related technologies such as virtual reality field trips will also make learning more interactive and personal.
Even in the last decade, however, personalized learning has already moved out of pilot at scale for a variety of initiatives. It is important to note that school districts are already posting very encouraging results. A recent study on a network of personalized learning schools observed increases in reading proficiency and an 11 percentile point improvement on tests. Some have even entire states launching initiatives based around scaling the concept of personalized learning. For instance, Rhode Island has recently shared their state-wide strategic plan for learning that targets personalization.
While positive research goes on growing, education policymakers are furthering their endeavor and expenditure as well in order to translate models for the future of learning into realities for more classrooms across the country. Organization of education based on students and their individual needs and styles, including approaches how to teach every child, regardless of his or her academic level, origin, or preferences, is fascinating. This has the ability to not only address persistent equity gaps but also graduate diverse generations of lifelong learners ready and empowered to own their potential of the full.
Conclusion
Personalized learning is a form of student centered approach that is transforming education systems today in the modern world. In this approach, curriculum, the rate of instruction, mode of delivery and classroom settings are adapted to the needs, interests and abilities of the individual kids hence fostering students’ strengths in a personalized learning environment while at the same time targeting on the development of important skills. The shift to this education model has been promising in boosting achievement, participation, interest and, overall enjoyment in learning among diverse students but comes with costs for training teachers and procuring education technology. As more positive research is conducted, personalized learning is quickly growing in more schools across the country and is even starting to influence state-wide education reforms due to its student-centered approach and ability to address equity issues.
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