Personalized Learning

By Nadesan Pillai

As educators, we have come to realize that Personalized Learning has great potential. It reshapes how education is done, and is actually an approach to learning. However, the term ‘Personalized Learning’ may be misused and used as a convenient label for anything remotely bearing a resemblance to the real thing, and then risk becoming another fad-term in the future.

Different aspects of Personalised Learning

There are several aspects of Personalized Learning already in use in our schools now. Competency-based, or Ability-based learning can help educators determine the education path of the student over the long-term. Couple that with a better understanding of the learner profile of the student, and a much more comprehensive education journey can be plotted for the student.

There are tools aplenty to help schools — both real and virtual — to embark on the customized educational journey of their students. The biggest and most powerful tool in our bag is technology. Do not mistake that as simply the use of computers, tablets and AV equipment in the classroom, for students to learn at their own pace.

There may be lists of tools assigned to students to enable them to learn, but the desire to really learn should stem innately from a love to know more in the student. The role of the educator is simply to spark them on that journey of discovery, building up an insatiable desire to know more, and using the right tools to find it out.

It is not all-on-your-own

However, Personalised Learning does not mean learning all-on-your-own. On the contrary, students must be encouraged to find out relevant facts, make conclusions, share this information on a group basis, and then present their findings to the entire classroom.

In this process, a myriad of educational and social skills are learnt first-hand by the child. The child learns to have a sense of general enquiry, develops curiosity, delves into research, offers findings to the group and argues for their inclusion into the end-product, and then develops the self-confidence to present a coherent total product.

The role of the educator then becomes one of a facilitator, adjudicator and overall coach. The students call their own play. In this scenario, apart from knowledge-seeking, the students learn to engage with each other and collaborate.

Through collaborating, students do not just learn from a teacher, but also from each other — it is important that children know that information can come to them from any number of sources. But the student must then learn to assess the relevance and veracity of this information before accepting and using it. Through this journey of discovery, a student also may discover where his passion lies, either in the subject matter being discussed, or even the research process or project management and coordination.

You need a road map!

Many different educational and social skills can still be learnt through Personalized Learning. The important thing is to map out the direction for the child to follow and monitor the progress as we go along. It will only be a matter of time before we see them blossom into independent, knowledge-seeking, critical thinking and well-rounded individuals.

This article was sponsored by SMART (Programmes) — www.avidreaders.com.sg