3 Educators Discuss Personalized Learning – Part 2

Recently we posted part one of our interview with Chris Wejr (CW), David Wees (DW) and Chris Kennedy (CK), on the topic of Personalized Learning. We hope you enjoy the second part of our interview.

4Moms1Dream:   Will you share with us an example of personalized learning taking place in your classroom, school or district?

DW:  I taught a unit last year on cell biology with my 8th grade class. I wanted them to remember the parts of the cell and their function, so I asked them to "do something creative to help yourself remember these cell parts." Some students created haikus, some students did raps, some students created PowerPoint presentations, some students created videos, and some students took detailed notes on the parts of the cell. Some students even created flash cards. I didn't grade these assignments; they were formative work to help the students prepare for a summative task. 

Several months later, one of the students found her rap video. She looked at it and decided she could do a better job. She pulled together her friends again, and they worked on their rap video again and improved it. I can't imagine a student ever redoing a teacher driven assignment because their found it in their notebook. 

CW:  We are doing a few things at Kent that align well (please click on the links for more info).  

Our CHOICES program provides teacher with the autonomy to choose to teach anything in which they are passionate and then students get the autonomy to choose the activity in which they are interested.  Students, parents, and teachers enjoy this as everyone is so engaged and excited about learning!  The long term plan for this was to have students have more even more input into the activities that we have during CHOICES.

We are focusing on Assessment For Learning which works to include more student voices/ownership in their learning and make the shift from standardized grading to more personalized descriptive feedback.  This is a powerful shift in mindset that puts students at the centre of their learning.

We have added a great event to our school called "Identity Day" (from the work of @gcouros) that encourages our students do complete a project based on themselves.  It was one of the most powerful days I have ever had as an educator as kids were so excited to teach others about a talent, or interest (and were not “motivated” by grades or criteria).

We also have ended the tradition of awarding a select few students at the end of the year/month for things they have done to a philosophy and practice that honours each student for who they are. In addition, in my final years as a high school PE teacher I realized the power of including students in the design of a curriculum.  We will continue to build upon these practices to make learning more personalized for our students.

CK:  In several of our primary classrooms they have changed their approach to home reading.  Instead of having students read books and have parents sign a log the students read their books (either paper or digital) then go online and list the name of the book, how they liked it and some other comments.  This is the start of building community and rather than having students try to read the most books – it is about their reflections.  Teachers can then help guide them and other students can recommend other books they may like.  For parents, they help with the typing for the youngest students  - and it changes the conversation – it is not about did you read your books or how many books did you read – it is about what did you think of the book – what books that others read do you think you might like.  It becomes a much more reflective process.

4Moms1Dream:   What is the role of parents/families in personalized learning and how can they support their child?

DW:  Parents need to give their students more ownership over their learning, but at the same time become learners with their children. Instead of thinking that learning is something that finishes when you graduate from high school or college; we should all become life-long learners. It's not to late for parents of any age to decide to become continuous learners. This role-modeling of the types of learning we want our students to do will go a long way to supporting your children's learning.

CW:  Families play a major role in their child’s learning.  With the movement to more personalization, I hope that families can be more included in curriculum and assessment.  Learning activities can be designed with the family in mind (and with their input).  Families can be involved in the design of learning goals for students so they are more relevant for the student.  Many teachers are already doing this (but you can see the challenge when you have 30+ students) but personalized learning makes the relationship with the family that much more important as we move away from trying to fit the student into the box and toward altering the learning environment so it fits the child. Having said all this, before we can get there, we must work to create trusting relationships between the school and family.

CK:  I think the changing role of parents is perhaps the most challenging aspect of the personalized learning approach.  They need to become partners in learning.  They need to have more skills and abilities to guide, support and engage with their child.  This is particularly challenging – as issues of equity, language and skill come into play.  If we are truly created a new system for a new time we need to think big about what could be.

4Moms1Dream:   There are individuals out there that are happy with the status quo and do not believe that the education system needs to change – If it is not broken then don’t fix it.   How do you respond to that type of mindset?

DW:  It is so painfully obvious to me in many ways that the education system needs to change. 

Take math education for example. We have an adult population who have almost to a person spent 11 years in school learning about math, but who never use anything more advanced than arithmetic and possibly proportional reasoning in their lives. If our math education is so successful, why don't more people use mathematics, the elegant language of the universe, in their day to day lives? Why do we have so many people who "hated mathematics in school?" I'd argue that the reason is obvious, the way we teach mathematics leads people to believe that it is all about memorizing a bunch of algorithms, and not about problem solving. 

CW:  We need to start using, as Carol Dweck describes, a “growth mindset” rather than a “fixed mindset”.  We continue to celebrate our successes but understand that we have to challenge our current system and grow together as la community of learners. We need to ask powerful questions around student learning and how we can make “schooling” more about education.  

A key challenge to change is that we rarely hear the voices of those that have been marginalized and disengaged by the system.  We often hear input from those who know how to "do school" well.  We need to start engaging people who do (did) not fit into our system in conversations on the problems with school as we know it.  

As educators, we need to model the importance of learning; if we believe that our current system does not need to learn and adapt to the needs of our current students, we are teaching our students to be prepared for the past.  Strong leaders (students, parents, staff) need to work together to challenge the status quo.  

The change needs to be systemic and societal and is going to take time but Patrick Larkin (@bhsprincipal) introduced me to a phrase by Steven Pressfield that says “Don’t prepare. Begin.”.  Although the dialogue is powerful, it means nothing without action.  Let’s begin.

CK:  I get it.  British Columbia has an outstanding system – we are the envy of jurisdictions across Canada and around the world.  There is also something reassuring that our kids’ schooling looks a lot like our own schooling.  Of course, the world our kids are entering is very different than the world we graduated into.  We need to give our students an education that prepares for the world of today and not the world of 1990.  In order for public education to stay relevant we need to continue to evolve our system.

4Moms1Dream would like to thank Chris, David and Chris for answering our questions. We hope this will clear up some of the confusion out there about personalized learning as well as further the discussions with those involved in your schools – students, staff, parents/family and community. We would also like to hear from our readers how they are bringing the discussions around personalized learning to the table.