Personalized learning is a term being used to describe those classrooms where engagement and purpose are part of the fabric of the classroom. The different learning needs of the students are met by accommodating and personalizing their education.
Technology is often used to facilitate the personalization of the student's learning environments.
The School Improvement Network identifies several key components of a “Personalized Classroom.”
These include:
Creating learner profiles
This is where instructors learn about the skills, strengths, interests, and aspirations of each learner through a combination of assessments, surveys, and relationships built inside and outside of the program.
In creating a profile, learners share information about who they are, challenges they have experienced, opportunities that helped them, and their aspirations and passions. In some cases, learner profiles give learners a say in what goes on for them at the program and in their learning
These profiles can be created and collected through various means. Teachers can use the data from these profiles to help guide students with the personalized choices they make about their learning.
One does not have to use technology to create a learner profile, but using technology can help facilitate the process. You can create a survey to find out more about each one of your students or have them create a project that depicts their personality.
(In LBS Ontario this starts with learner intake and needs assessment.)
Personal learning paths for each student
This involves creating an individual pathway for each learner based on his, her or their learner profile. Each learner has his, her or their own learning goals and objectives. Learning experiences are diverse and matched to the individual needs of learners.
(In LBS Ontario this starts with learning plan development.)
Individual mastery against clear goals and standards
Instructors continually assess student progress against clearly defined standards and goals. Learners advance—generally at their own pace—based on demonstrated mastery of these learning targets.
(In LBS Ontario this happens when learners self-assess learning, use portfolios to recognize progress, demonstrate learning, complete milestones and do culminating tasks.)
Flexible learning environments
Instructors include a diversity of options and approaches.
Learner agency (student choice and voice)
Learners should have some control over how they learn. With the help of their teachers, they should be involved in designing their own learning process and should be given a choice in how to demonstrate their learning through performance-based assessments.
(In LBS Ontario this starts with learning plan development.)
This is a resource that is being used at PTP with great success.
Right now this resource is free. Eventually there will be a paid version with some richer features.
The LinkR network is based on these principles:
Learning as part of a network increases interactivity and student engagement
Connected students and classes gain the freedom to interact and learn from each other
Students explore interests, communicate and connect with their peers while teachers monitor and facilitate learning
The Getting started with Personalized Learning guide nicely outlines principles and strategies.
Personalized Learning is an approach to teaching that encourages and enables each student to participate in the shaping of a course. In a classroom that embraces Personalized Learning, the instructor recognizes and responds to each student’s style and tailors course material and assessments to their interests and needs. Personalized Learning requires a pedagogical strategy that provides each student conditions to maximize their potential for learning based on their individual skills, backgrounds, and interests.
...technological advancements are helping many more teachers and students to partake in Personalized Learning, in higher education, language schools, and high schools. It is becoming easier for teachers to offer students access to personalized learning, in one or several of the core aspects of course design: curriculum and content, classroom activities and assessments.
There are three key aspects of a course that can be personalized; any teacher/professor can personalize, one two, or all three areas of a class:
Let students choose, within reason, material that is part of a course’s curricular content. Allowing each student to focus on self-selected material, rather than predefining all course content in advance, increases engagement and flexibility. While a curriculum in a personalized class will maintain structure presented by the teacher, and the teacher can co-curate additional material, a curriculum supplemented by material chosen by the student increases interest for student and teacher alike.
Provide in-class activities with space for each student to explore personal interests and bring individual skills to projects. Group and individual work benefits from personalization. Find ways to make lectures dynamic and depend in part on the way individuals in the classroom work and share interests their.
Let students shape the assessments they create, improving completion rates and increasing student interest in the assessment itself; completed personalized assessments involve the students in the experience of completing the assignment, rather than just “getting it done”. If the assessment is co-created by the student, not only in content, but in structure, it increases the ownership of the final product.
See the PDF here.
The LEAP framework was developed by LEAP Innovations for use in the K-12 school system in the US but the principles of personalized learning that are part of the framework are similar to those for adult learners.
You may find some of the strategies and ideas helpful when developing personalized learning curricula for adult learners.
Empower learners to understand their needs, strengths, interests and approaches to learning
Learners develop a deep understanding of needs, interests and strengths around academics, health & wellness, social-emotional development, culture & language, living situation, and cognitive skills; and they experience learning that is relevant, contextualized and designed for their individual needs, interests and strengths.
Enable learners to progress at their own pace based on demonstrated competencies
Learners begin at a level appropriate to their prior knowledge and learning needs; engage in productive struggle; progress at a pace that fits their learning needs; demonstrate competency when ready; demonstrate evidence of learning in multiple ways; and receive recognition based on demonstrated competency, not seat time.
Entrust learners to take ownership of their learning
Learners co-design their learning experiences; articulate their interests, strengths and needs; assess, monitor and reflect on their own progress; partner in setting their learning goals and plans; and advocate for support from teachers, peers, technology and other sources