Reflection on the role personalised learning plays in Education.

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Personalized learning seems to be one of the best ways to really get through to students of any learning ability. Consider education at any level where the teacher lets the student focus on what interests them most. As I write, I think about my education going through the public school system. There were an inordinate amount of lectures which I found difficult to sit through and focus on. Personalized learning for every student should be the goal of public education and not just for those that require special education. In Finland’s Formula for Education success, we see this is an important part of their curriculum

In the video “How are you smart? What Students with Learning Disabilities are Teaching Us” we see a teacher engage his class with individualized lesson plans. Specifically, we see 4 students, 3 of which have a different impairment. In a normal school, they would probably be hard pressed to get through the day. With individualized lesson plans they are not only able to survive but thrive. They are also able to analyze their impairment in terms of how affects their interactions with others. What I find most interesting is that through this individualized lesson planning, each student has come to the realization of or has been taught to a point where they are able to not only embrace their disability, they find the strengths in them, and are able to understand and utilize their learning disabilities.

For those with a learning disability or even just those who have a hard time in the current education system something different is needed. An Individualized Learning Plan gives each student a large pool of options, which they can choose from to complete most tasks. This offering of choice allows the student to gravitate naturally to something they prefer and in a sense gravitate toward who they are. If the student is consistently free to choose their own path, if they are not forced into a concrete mold of “one lesson plan to rule them all”, would we not find our schools graduating complete individuals and not just creatures that regurgitate information? The video, New York’s School of One, shows happy focused students, something all teachers’ desire.

What would happen if these individuals would they themselves continue the process? Not merely being consumers but progenitors of education for the next generation? If someone with Asperger’s can, through a series of individualized lesson plans, self-analyze their condition, and succeed, wouldn’t they be a prime candidate to teach others along those same lines?

The future of education has already been shifting away from the established public education, here I point to charter and voucher schools. I also look at the availability of information so overwhelming that even the University model may not hold up much longer. At this point there will probably be a paradigm shift from teaching tests to teaching the individual. If the goal of higher education changes, then the goal of high, middle, and elementary schools will change as well. Here is where IEP’s will become the norm across all abilities, those with learning disabilities or otherwise.

For the learning disabled and the normal students Individualized Lesson Plans seem to be key to unlocking the major issues that face education. I feel that my earlier examples as well as the Finland video give a good account of the power of personalized learning. The direction of education and the video New York’s School of One strengthens the merit of my position, that if  we’re no longer teaching the test, then what better direction to turn than toward the individual?

 

 

 

Reference List

 

  • How Are You Smart? What Students with Learning Disabilities are Teaching Us
  1. (2012). How Are You Smart? What Students with Learning Disabilities are Teaching Us – YouTube. Retrieved 0, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdqaUcq7YVQ

 

  • Finland’s Formula for Education Success:
  1. (2012). Finland’s Formula for School Success (Education Everywhere Series). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsdFi8zMrYI

 

  • New Yorks School of One:
  1. (2010). SCHOOL OF ONE. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSTrI6nj5xU

 

 

  • A Day in the Life of a Special Education Teacher:
  1. (2008). A Day in the Life – Special Education Teacher. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcWtAmVB9-o

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