Personalize Learning (#plearnchat)

I was asked recently what it is about personalized learning that would make me want my children to learn in that environment. The question started me to think from a parent perspective about the va...

The Institute @ CESA #1 presents the fifth element in the Learning Independence Continum.  Independent learning is the promise we make to learners and one that we should keep.

 

"The last element, indeed, the ultimate goal is to create independent learners. Independent learners take responsibility for their motivation and growth, and are led by curiosity and the drive to build their knowledge and skills. Independent learners treat their learning as a prized possession that they must take care of, maintain, and cultivate. Independent learners understand when they need to learn more and are able to seek out the best methods and resources to accomplish this goal.

 

It makes sense that the end goal for education is a person who is proactive and able to anticipate their learning needs to understand a challenge or complete a task. As a nation and society, we need citizens and workers who are able to problem-solve, take initiative, be flexible and continue to learn. As long as learners are dependent on others to tell them when, what, and how to learn, they will never completely take charge of their learning fate and future. Unfortunately, our current education system places a heavy emphasis on dependence and compliance that too often works against the development of learning independence."

 

Thank you to The Institute @ CESA #1 for helping educators understand the process in the Learning Independence Continuum!

The Institute @ CESA #1 recently published an update of their Honeycomb Model title "Personalized Learning Elements" along with a matrix which compares legacy and personalized practices for each of the elements.

 

The Insititute @ CESA #1 introduced the Learning Independence Continuum a couple of weeks ago.  Motivation is the first element in the continuum and in this blog they focus on intrinsic motivation.

 

"The best way to stimulate intrinsic motivation is to design learning activities that are interesting, valuable and purposeful to students.

 

How do you do that?

 

First, you must know your learner. A learner profile may help develop this understanding. Tapping intrinsic motivating factors requires insight from the perspective of the learner.

 

Providing feedback on short-term goals and providing autonomy and learner choice are also strategies that have been shown to be successful in motivating students intrinsically.

 

Our next post will show how intrinsically motivated students will move along the continuum and become engaged students once they put that motivation into action."

 

This is the fourth in a five part series on the Learning Independence Continuum produced by the Institute @ CESA #1.

 

"Ownership implies that learners have a sense of control over their learning and often leads them to view learning as something that cannot be taken from them. Ownership of learning transfers responsibility for success from educators and other adults to the learner. As a result, learners tend to place greater value on and take greater pride in their learning.

 

A growing sense of ownership often leads learners to shift from a compliance orientation to commitment. The question in their minds moves from “How much must I do?” to “What do I need to do in order to learn this content?” While the traditional model of schooling depends heavily on compliance, unleashing a sense of ownership for learning can dramatically improve learner performance, even within the legacy education system.

 

Unsurprisingly, one of the key methods to building ownership for learning is a strategy also employed to build motivation, engagement, and efficacy. This approach offers learners choice and control related to their learning in areas valued by the learner."

 

The Insititute @ CESA #1 introduced the Learning Independence Continuum a couple of weeks ago. Efficacy is the third element in the continuum and in this blog they focus on importance of efficacy to help learners realize that they own their learning.

 

"Efficacy is the belief that one is capable of producing a result, meeting a challenge or accomplishing a task. For students, efficacy or self-efficacy is the belief that they can succeed and learn. Too often our students already come to us thinking “I’m not good at math” or “I can’t do this.” Our challenge it is to engage students in ways that help them to examine and change their thinking and build the confidence and strategies necessary to change their perspective and their approach.

 

Helping learners to see that effort, persistence, strategy, and good use of resources can increase their learning in ways that they control can make a key difference in the level of effort learners will give. This approach can also build learner willingness to persist and identify and try alternative approaches.

 

Learners with strong self-efficacy understand the connection between their efforts and actions and the learning results they experience. This understanding can build ownership for learning – they are more likely to understand that the success they achieve is theirs (ownership). Efficacy is a precursor and naturally builds into learners’ realization that they own their learning."

This is the second blog entry on Engagement from the white paper, The Learning Independence Continuum, published recently by the Institute @ CESA #1.

 

"Engagement is motivation in action.

 

Engaged learners are curious, committed and learn for a purpose. Learners who are engaged better retain what they learn, exhibit fewer behavior problems, and are more willing to participate in learning activities. There isn’t much need to build the argument for why we should strive to engage learners.

 

One of the ways to engage learners is to design tasks that are challenging – at the leading edge of the learner’s current ability. Learners who are constantly facing debilitating frustration and failure find it difficult to believe that they are actually able to be successful. Conversely, when learners are able to undertake these challenging tasks and accomplish them (because it is personalized and calibrated to their specific needs and readiness for learning) – they will begin to believe they can succeed with effort, good strategies and the correct resources.

 

This connection leads them toward the next element in the continuum: self-efficacy."

 

 

The Institute @ CESA #1 is introducing the stages of the Learning Independence Continuum in their blog following the release of the white paper, The Learning Independence Continuum.  In their first post they provide an overview with the remaining posts focusing on one of the stages of the continuum.

 

> Motivation

> Engagement

> Self-efficacy

> Ownership

> Independence

 

"In personalized learning environments, learning activities will fall all along this continuum – at times it’s more important for the educator to drive the work, at others, the learner will take the driver’s seat. However, in order for this to happen, all of the characteristics along the continuum should be developed and nurtured in each learner."

"One of the constant challenges facing educators is to find coherence in the work we are doing. We need to understand how our efforts relate to and support each other in pursuit of student learning.  This task can be difficult, especially in an environment where we are working to transform our education system while also trying to maximize student success in the current system. The relationship between efforts to implement Response to Intervention (RtI) systems and our work to personalize learning offers a good example of this dilemma.

 

The Personalized Learning Initiative advocates a different organization and approach to learning that is committed to getting learning right the first time. The goal of personalized learning is for students to experience their maximum rate of progress as the level of challenge and complexity in their learning grows so that falling behind is not a concern.

 

RtI and personalized learning differ from the perspective of the type of educational systems within which they are presumed and designed to exist. For the most part, RtI is designed to serve within the current system where batch processing of learners and learning is part of the design.

 

An educational system that is designed to support personalized learning is structured differently from the current system. Instruction is designed to wrap around the learner at all times. The framework of a personalized learning approach enables educators to position intervention to occur as soon as the learner needs it."