The Destigmatizing Effect of Personalized Learning
Do you know about personalized learning?
When I first heard the term, I thought it was just a new way of talking about differentiated or individualized instruction, but curiosity prompted me to investigate. I bought several books and signed up for a five week online course. I soon discovered that differentiated and individualized instruction are what ADULTS do to adapt instruction to student interests, preferences, prior knowledge, skills gaps and/ or disabilities.
Personalized learning is what STUDENTS do to adjust their learning to fit themselves.
Bray and McClaskey (2015) emphasize that in personalized learning students are given “voice and choice” in designing their learning. They describe three developmental phases that classrooms/ schools move through as they move from teacher centered instruction to student centered instruction.
Picture this in the third phase:
As students arrive in the morning, they consult their online dashboard to see today’s schedule – organized by time blocks with peer investigation groups, teacher mentor meetings, online or distance education tutorials, and personal learning/ designing time – not bells!
Using teacher mentoring, students design learning projects that combine Common Core standards from several disciplines, shaped by their personal interests or future career aspirations.
All learning activities foster 21th century skills like internet literacy, problem solving, collaboration, and entrepreneurial thinking.
Students choose what source materials they will consult, how they will learn, and how they will demonstrate mastery.
So what about students with disabilities?
Michele Perchess, Transition Specialist, Ridgewood High School in Norridge, a Chicagoland suburb, and I spoke following the DCDT Conference about possibilities and challenges of including students with disabilities in personalized learning.
She said, “I’m so excited for the positive implications of personalized learning for students with disabilities. Teaching self-determination requires students to understand, embrace, and advocate for their accommodations. While traditional learning may facilitate a negative stigma of receiving anything beyond traditional assistance, personalized learning truly mainstreams the process of every student – with or without disabilities – accessing the support he or she needs.”
“Nevertheless,” Michele continued, “state compliance is a major challenge for including of students with disabilities within a personalized learning framework. Since Illinois measures special education by a student’s access (in minutes) to a special education teacher, it becomes quite difficult to decipher how such students can truly enjoy the benefits of personalized learning within the legal confines that dictate, to a significant extent, the setting of their learning.”
Michele and I agree that personalized learning has the potential of destigmatizing the accommodations that set them apart in traditional learning environments, especially since the adjusted teacher role includes mentoring every student to know and use the learning approaches that work best for them. We are both hopeful that students will develop skills within personalized learning that will improve postschool outcomes. She also raised some important challenges that need to be resolved as schools move forward with personalized learning.
I’d like to further document the opportunities and challenges of special education services within personalized learning environments.
If your school is using that approach, please contact me!
