Approach
Student Centered Learning
As Education Evolving states,
“Education must help students find their unique contribution to a more thriving and just 21st-century world—and develop the knowledge, skills, and mindsets they will need to do so.”
This is explained in the Evidence of Student Centered Learning, as a result of the study conducted by Krista Kaput.
Personalized Learning
Personalized Learning is an approach to education that focuses on building students’ identities as lifelong learners, so that, over time, they develop a full-fledged sense of learner agency and ownership of their academic progress.
Ultimately, the model suggests it leads to improved academic outcomes for all learners. Within the framework of a formal curriculum and the Common Core State Standards, teachers offer learners choice and flexibility in what and how they learn, in order to facilitate intrinsic motivation, engagement in learning, and self-determination. They promote learner voice-oriented activities in order to foster learners’ influence, responsibility, advocacy, and leadership. Teachers set high expectations and adhere to high academic standards for everyone, in order to ensure that all learners reach their full potential.
Learner Paths
Learners can identify their cognitive and non-cognitive strengths and challenges, name and pursue their interests and passions, and develop skills in setting, monitoring, and reflecting on their own learning goals. Learners use quantitative and qualitative feedback (data) to assess their own progress, to evaluate the effectiveness of their learning strategies, and to set appropriate learning goals.
This knowledge and these skills are foundational to the development of intrinsic motivation and ownership of learning, and to learners making beneficial choices that will lead to mastery.
Evolving Learner and Teacher Roles
Learner and teacher roles shift as learners develop their competencies, as they assume greater responsibility for their learning, and as they pursue specific areas of personal interest. Teachers provide appropriate resources and scaffolds to support learners on their individual journeys toward mastery.
The role of the teacher is critical in evaluating learner progress and in determining when and how to give learners greater responsibility for their learning. Particularly for younger learners, as well as for learners new to Personalized Learning, teachers must skillfully gauge how best to foster the acquisition of independent learning skills that are the foundation for self-determination and learner agency.
Strategic Resource Use
The notion of learning resources is expanded to include the wider community (through mentorships and partnerships) and to harness the power of technology to enable and support learning across time and distance. Expanding resources in this way is critical to enabling learners to pursue their interests, to look beyond the teacher as the primary source of knowledge, and to learn valuable interaction and collaboration skills.
By creating a flexible classroom learning space, teachers can introduce learners to the concept that learning results from the learner’s own engagement with the learning process rather than the structure of the environment. This understanding reinforces the development of self-regulation skills.
Developing, Deepening, and Demonstrating Competencies
Learning is made relevant and applicable to learners’ interests and life-goals, with a focus on creatively identifying, analyzing, and solving problems. Learning is grounded in depth of understanding rather than breadth of content. Learners advance based on their ability to master a skill or competency at their own pace, regardless of environment.
Assessment is embedded in authentic tasks and may involve learners choosing assessment formats, developing rubrics, and providing self and peer feedback and evaluation. Increasing learners’ opportunities to participate in such voice-oriented activities is foundational to the development of learner agency that lies at the heart of Personalized Learning.
Watch the Video: Personalized Learning Explained!