Personalized learning

While we are one

the essence of each

adds to the beauty

of the whole

Education should be such that while it imparts common knowledge, it instills in each learner the ability to trust their instincts. To me, the most important role of personalization in education is to help each child fully develop and express their creativity.

Personalization in education is an intention - that educators/parents need to be mindful of and can be exercised in various forms, to varying degrees. Self-directed/free-schools have a high degree of personalization. Even within the structure of a more traditional school - personalization can bring in elements of self-directed learning.

Personalization can have several aspects to it - you can personalize what somebody learns, when they learn, how they learn. Personalized attention from the teacher/parent helps understand the whole child and curate a learning plan that best suits them. Technology has definitely helped by making so much free content available online, to promote self-paced and self-directed learning. It does not take away the role an adult plays in moderating the experience for the young learner.The teacher/parent/adult helps balance different aspects of learning to keep it holistic, keep the child motivated, challenged and most importantly stay creative.

Personalized learning in a classroom

This is more in the context of young learners in preschool and elementary school.

Curriculum personalization

Fundamentals in numeracy and literacy are important - they give you more degrees of freedom to understand the world better, build more, express more. For example, learning to recognize the alphabet and learning to read are the fundamentals that open you up to a new world of wonder— books. Math and number skills also helps you see the world in a new light, build, measure, scale in the real world and open up new ways of expressing your creativity. Writing is an important skill that lets you express and build on more complex ideas. Curriculum is meant to serve as a map of common knowledge that could lay out paths for journey of a young child.

Curriculum can be personalized by setting it in a context that is relevant to the child and interesting for the child. For instance, Math concepts can be taught in the context of an existing interests and reading lists/books can be relevant to the interests of the child. For instance, if the child is interested in vehicles, dinosaurs, football, wildlife or numbers - both numeracy and literacy concepts can be taught in a relevant context before moving to abstract symbols.

The child should be allowed to go deep in areas they show natural interest in while continuing to build muscle in others. Personalized curriculum should meet the needs of the child and the child should not be restricted by the curriculum. Our job as educators/parents is to provide a holistic experience - that can then be curated to satiate the curiosity of each learner.

Personalized projects

Projects in early/elementary education may need more parental/teacher involvement and may be limited in scope as the child may not read fluently/write as much or be able to research online. Projects in this age may also need to be short-term as children have a limited attention spans, altough each child is different and some may have larger attention spans. Nevertheless, with the involvement of an adult you can help the child define an end-goal in their area of interest and help them achieve it.

The idea behind project-based learning is to help the child define the scope of an effort, visualize an end goal and get a sense of completetion from it. They should be allowed to work as independently as possible with support/information as needed from adults. For preschoolers - it could be as simple as building a vehicle station using blocks, designing a play-dough bakery or using stickers for wild life. For elementary you have scope to do more - creative, research or even business projects. The idea is to help them state what they want to do, support them in their journey and gain satisfaction from a self-directed project. Along the way they get to understand how the concepts they learn lend them-selves to real world application.

Self-paced learning

Life unravels at its own pace, there is no right and wrong time for a child to become interested in a concept. Children learn at different paces and should be allowed to revisit concepts at their pace. When they get interested they can make a lot progress. Everytime they learn a concept they should have the 'aha' feeling of understanding it. One should not be burdened with the fear of falling behind, losing out as long as one is giving their best to learning. A child should not be burdened with additional homework, missing out on group activities - to 'make-up' for where they are lagging behind. If a child is motivated to work harder, choses to have more work that can be encouraged but these should not be imposed. One must not stifle creative instincts to 'keep pace' with common knowledge.

Every child needs the right mix of free play, self-directed work, leisure in addition to building muscle in fundamental knowledge. Some children need/want more structure, some prefer to work independently. More independent time at school can help children be self-directed and self-paced. This independent time is not just for work they have to do, but work they want to do. The context for this time can be set by the teacher so that the children have the right stimulus, distraction free environment, collaboration and mentorship needed to be most productive. 

Personalized attention

One on one attention of an open minded empathetic adult can be very beneficial to the child especially in early/elementary education. An adult can help nurture individual creativity, encourage reasoning/critical thinking, tap into their intentions and patiently work with them on their fundamentals. A child is more likely to focus on reading, writing and math - if they have the company of a mindful adult.

Role that parents can play

Despite the best intent of the teachers - only so much can be done in a school setting. Some activities are better suited for groups and some activities are best done in a focussed mode alone. A school gives children a sense of community, teaches them how to be with others. While teachers can tell you how a child tracks and design the best environment for learning, as parents we can give them that dedicated 1-1 time to nurture creativity, build concepts and provide care. A connection between parent and teacher is vital to preserve the understanding of the whole child and ensure a meaningful learning continuum that is joyful for the child.

Conclusion

Personalization can be a powerful theme within education to nurture individual creativity and preserve the spirit of freedom in learning.