Just what is Personalized Learning?
Personalized learning is a partnership between students and teachers in the design of learning that emerges from students’ interests, questions, needs, and preferences, towards an aim of self-directed learning (Bray & McClaskey, 2014). The best personalization is both personal and social, filled with purpose, and rooted in community.
It’s a great way to meet the developmental and cultural needs of middle school students, as it’s engaging, active, personal, relevant, and social.
Food for thought
- Look at how one Physical Education program is personalizing learning for students. What do you notice?
- Setting goals is an important part of personalized learning, but it can also drain some students’ motivation. Here are some tools to help avoid that!
- Call them what you want: passion projects, genius hour, curiosity projects, but these personalized learning projects are a way to jump into personalization and engage students.
Now tell us
How do *you* define personalized learning? Tell us on this padlet, below. (We’d love you to sign this with your name and school, or location, but over to you). While you’re there, check out the amazing range of responses. Do any really resonate with you? Did any make you rethink your own definition?
Let’s go
Now let’s move from our definition of personalized learning over to examining your own.
Chapter 1:
- Defining Personalized Learning
- The Three Pillars of Personalized Learning
- The Definition of a PLP
- New Student & Teacher Roles