Episode 77: The Changing Face of Education — From Traditional to Personalized and Self-Led Learning

Ready to revolutionize your view on education? I dive headfirst into the realm of personalized and self-led learning in this enlightening episode. I venture into the 21st-century educational landscape to decode how digital technologies and personal intelligence are transforming learning. I then examine the pros and cons of these learning models, and reveal how they empower students to reach their fullest potential.

In the latter half of my conversation, I shift the focus to self-directed learning, a mode of education that cultivates active learners and prepares students for future challenges. Uncover the role teachers play in personalized learning and its impact on students with diverse learning needs. This episode promises to be a treasure trove of insights for educators, parents, and students alike who wish to harness the power of personalized and self-directed learning. So tune in, and let's transform your perspective on education together.

Listen to this episode on your Alexa-enabled device!

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:40

Welcome to another episode of K-12 Education Untangled. My name is Dr Kim Fields, former corporate manager turned educational researcher and advocate, and I'm the host of this podcast. I got into this space after dealing with some frustrating interactions with school educators and administrators, as well as experiencing the micro discriminations that I faced as an African American mom raising my two kids, who were in the public school system, I really wanted to understand how teachers were trained and what the research provided about the challenges of the public education system. Once I gained the information and the insights that I needed, I was then equipped to be able to successfully support my children in their educational progress. If you're looking to find out more about current information and issues in education that could affect you or your children, then you're in the right place. Thanks for tuning in today. I know that staying informed about K-12 education trends and topics is important to you, so keep listening. On today's episode, I'll be discussing what personalized learning and self-led learning are, as well as the benefits and issues with each. Did you get a chance to check out podinboxcom forward slash K-12 education untangled? Yet Go there after this episode and leave me a text message or voice message about how you're enjoying my show.

Speaker 1: 2:23

Personalized learning stems from the idea that students benefit from instructional materials that have been tailored to their needs. Self-led learning is learning in which the decision around what to learn, how to learn it and how to decide if something has been learned well enough are all in the hands of the learner. Let's get started First. I start out with a discussion about personalized learning and then follow that up with self-led learning. Personalized learning revolves around providing each student with the instruction that best suits them. It's often the foundation for many online learning platforms. At the core of personalized learning is the idea of helping each student achieve his or her full potential. The way that online learning platforms utilize personalized learning for each student is by adjusting the students' lessons based on their skill level or adapting to students' needs. Although some online learning platforms have shown little evidence for the effectiveness of personalizing students' education, there have been some encouraging results.

Speaker 1: 3:49

Customized and personalized learning programs are required when the focus is on 21st century skills that include critical thinking and problem solving, communication skills, cooperation skills and creativity and innovation skills. The focus is on teaching students by their aptitude and individualized training. Personalized learning is based on the development of students' personality and the improvement of their learning ability. It emphasizes student learning at the center, respecting students' learning needs, learning methods, knowledge, background, intelligence, interests, attitudes, values and other personalized learning characteristics. The goal is for students to obtain full freedom and holistic development in all aspects.

Speaker 1: 4:47

Personalized learning is analyzed and evaluated using five evaluation dimensions, including knowledge and goal for skill achievement, individual cognitive process, group cooperative learning, positive subject emotions and peer relationships. Big data relate to the digital learning environment that contributes to personalized learning. Big data learning analysis positively impacts stakeholders such as teachers, students and education administrators in personalized learning. The value of big data in achieving personalized learning is reflected in the following ways Protecting personalized learning files and analysis. Predicting individualized learning behaviors. Optimizing individualized educational decisions. Improving individualized learning assessments. Providing individualized learning feedback and suggestions. Big data have become a new way of thinking and upgrading the learning path. Personal intelligence has also had an impact on personalized learning practices. Personalized learning must grasp the learner's mental characteristics first and then provide the content, activities, paths and evaluations that meet the learner's individual needs for the entire learning process, in the end achieving self-directed, meaningful learning on the learning goals.

Speaker 1: 6:25

Personalized learning is the manifestation of a deep integration of technology and education at an advanced stage. Personalized learning and teaching focus on considering the learner's individual needs and providing a more targeted resource availability to obtain a more efficient learning process. The primary focus for personalized learning is individual needs. Individuals need to have a clear goal in order to have strong learning motivation. Personalized learning can be integrated into the FLPS classroom model. These strategies and resources can be provided before class and in the class. A problem-oriented task situation is created. Collaborative learning, independent learning and personalized guidance are carried out and the results are summarized, as well as personalized evaluations on how the problem was resolved, along with promoting knowledge and internalization about the process are all achieved. It's necessary in personalized learning to transform the typical classroom teaching mode and to present a more diverse classroom type. These types include free online learning classes and independent study. Personalized learning looks at the student as the main body and provides personalized resources and services based on the student's individual needs so that they maximize the learning effect. The internet, the emergence of big data in the educational arena and the popularity of artificial intelligence technology have all provided better support services for personalized learning and teaching.

Speaker 1: 8:19

The teacher-student role in personalized learning focuses on the student as the primary participant. The teacher's role is merely to guide and support using a personalized teaching curriculum which can be more flexible and allows the teacher to pay more attention to a student's individual development. Personalized learning is designed to address the disengagement of today's students and be proactive in closing the growing achievement gaps occurring in far too many schools. The goal of personalized learning is to engage students in the learning process, build on their interest, aptitudes and strengths so that they build on their intrinsic motivation for achievement and success. Students often feel empowered when they are involved in goal setting and decision making processes. A primary key to effective personalized learning is sparking that innate curiosity of students through active engagement with their environment. The focus on learner's strengths is integral to engagement and empowerment in the learning process. Today's education opportunities may occur with YouTube videos, lunch and learn, training, case study, review, gamification, problem-based activities, podcasts, coursera and other web-based learning tools. The digital tools implemented vary depending on the learner's needs and demographics. Individual personalized learning can occur in a variety of settings and formats.

Speaker 1: 10:02

The digital transformation of the educational landscape and the employment needs of the global 21st century society present a need for a revolutionary transformation in education. Educators need to be preparing students for jobs that have yet to be identified. The global economy has moved from physical tasks to cognitive tasks and the need for more digitized skills. The need for social emotional skills, leadership and willingness to take on initiatives, accompany with greater cognitive creativity and problem solving abilities, is predicted to significantly increase, emphasizing the need for all students to become lifelong learners. This presents the issue of an urgent need for reorganization of educational content and delivery structures. Personalized learning addresses these needs by making changes in transformation, by connecting and empowering learners, educators and students.

Speaker 1: 11:12

Personalized learning is not a temporary fact. Instead, it's been developed with the goal of building relationships, validating identity, promoting engagement and enhancing motivation. Personalized learning programs are proliferating in schools across the United States by philanthropic dollars, various industry lobbying, marketing by third-party vendors anxious to enter the K-12 education market and a policy environment that provides little guidance and few constraints. Linking personalized learning with proprietary software and digital programs puts important educational decisions, like whether a child has attained a specific competency or grade leveling, to private hands, and this can also compromise the data privacy of children and their teachers. Because of the lack of support and accountability, schools and policymakers might want to pause their efforts to promote and implement personalized learning programs until rigorous review, oversight and enforcement mechanisms have been put in place.

Speaker 1: 12:31

One of the primary movers in the push for widespread adoption of personalized learning is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which provides a contemporary working definition of personalized learning that describes a tech-friendly version of an individualized, data-heavy, mastery-based educational system. The Foundation's definition communicates a common sense logic to educators and policymakers that emphasizes the need for continual data collection in order to enable competency-based learning. This logic, however, embeds a number of unstated assumptions about children's learning, assessment and technology that are evident in the core recommended practices and guiding questions that decision-makers are encouraged to adopt. These assumptions on the surface appear to be child-centered, but a deeper analysis suggests that they are anything but. This model relies heavily on the assumption that children's primary interests and efforts are, and should be, focused primarily on themselves rather than on classroom or other communal interests and goals.

Speaker 1: 13:45

The Gates Foundation's working definition of personal learning assumes relationships between standards, mastery and competence. Standards are goals, or what students are expected to know and be able to do at specific stages of their education. Mastery refers to students' demonstration that they've acquired some information or attained some skill set, and competence is the quality or state that arises from mastery of some set of standards and having the capacity to function or develop in a particular way. The assumption here is that when students successfully master standards building on others they came before, they demonstrate competency to perform a particular job or to understand higher education. This assumption narrows teaching practices and curriculum. Not surprisingly, the Gates Foundation's working definition of personalized learning advocates for the increased use of digital technology in schools. It also promotes a regime of continuous assessment, record keeping and feedback that relies on ever-increasing amounts of quantitative data.

Speaker 1: 15:03

One caution here is that it's unhelpful to lump all models of personalized learning together as effective or ineffective. A better approach would be to treat each individual case as its own unique set of characteristics and potentials, because models of personalization are as diverse as the students and teachers engaged with them. There is little known about the active design, elements and practices within personalized learning environments, and even less is known about the impact of these environments on student outcomes, especially for students with disabilities and other diverse learning needs. While K-12 education systems are advancing the adoption of personalized learning, very little research has looked at personalized learning in the real world. Blended K-12 educational settings, personalized learning for students with disabilities, is important, although it's still an emerging practice. In general, research has found that all learners can be successful in personalized learning settings.

Speaker 1: 16:15

In order to operationalize a personal life learning, five specific elements need to be present 1. Highly self-regulated environment. 2. Transparent, continual and actionable data. 3. Continual feedback and weekly meetings, which are critical to support learner growth and understanding. 4. Integrating learner voice through encouraging such practices as self-reporting. And 5. Multiple means of taking action or demonstrating understanding.

Speaker 1: 16:56

Research has shown that Montessori education is one of the most visible models that incorporate numerous aspects of personalized instruction and also shares many common elements with personalized learning. While personalized instruction suggests strategies for implementing the concept of personalized learning, montessori education actualizes the principles of personalized learning. A more formal definition of personalized learning is that it's a process in which schools help students assess their own talents and aspirations, plan a pathway toward their own purposes, work cooperatively with others on challenging tasks, maintain a record of their explorations and demonstrate their learning against clear standards in a wide variety of media, all with close support of adult mentors and guides. Personalization is broader than individualization or differentiation, because it allows the learner a certain degree of choice about what's learned, when it is learned and how it is learned. It requires instruction that is differentiated and attends to the needs of the learners, as well as being shaped by the learning preferences and interests of the learner.

Speaker 1: 18:18

Early educational researchers and Dr Maria Montessori share the belief that the development of knowledge is a spontaneous and natural process occurring through action that makes up logical structures. Dr Montessori believed that learning occurred through the interaction between nurture and nature, moving from concrete to abstract at the child's own pace, emphasizing the child's cognitive needs, repetitive behavior, self-direction and changed role of the teacher. While educational researchers tend to focus on the theory of learning, dr Montessori was committed to the practice of learning. One of the key attributes of both personalized learning and Montessori education is social construction, which describes how students build ideas through relationships with others in their pursuit of common learning goals. The goal of both Montessori education and personalized learning is to develop self-regulating learners who are able to make independent choices, direct and plan their own learning and tailor the learning process according to their needs, interests and preferences. In Montessori education, goal-setting and goal-achieving practices are designed to foster student feelings of control over their education and their sense of autonomy, instead of working for the sake of pleasing a teacher or surpassing peers. In personalized learning, the teacher's role shifts from teacher as lecturer to facilitator of the process of learning. They become subject matter, coaches, consultants and facilitators, spending less time lecturing and more time demonstrating, giving feedback to students, preparing and analyzing. Teachers assist learners in setting goals and designing or selecting tasks. They facilitate task performance and learning, as well as helping to evaluate performance and learning by serving as mentor learners In a Montessori environment.

Speaker 1: 20:26

Properly prepared environment consists of a structured and orderly environment that cultivates sensory sensitivity, independence and self-assurance. With the possibility of choice, the Montessori method allows students to move through the curriculum at their own pace in an encouraging atmosphere. The goal of both personalized learning and Montessori education is to build a learning environment that best suits the needs, the developmental stage and the interests of each student. A key difference in Montessori education and personalized learning is that Montessori education emphasizes the importance of observation, connected not only to students' learning, but also to their behavior, well-being and everything related to their development as a person. In both Montessori education and personalized learning, teachers and students work together to develop an environment that's best suited to the needs and characteristics of students. Students are free to make their choices in the learning process in an environment that promotes interaction, dialogue, learning by doing and thoughtful reflection. Thus, the student is driven by intrinsic motivation. Collaborative and interactive learning environments are necessary for both personalized learning and Montessori environments because they promote interaction, dialogue and thoughtful reflection.

Speaker 1: 21:58

Montessori education allows for more flexibility in timing and age range compared with personalized learning, which still uses traditional timetables and aged-based classrooms In multi-aged groups. In Montessori schools, children move through the classroom and are exposed to older and younger peers, thus facilitating both imitated learning and peer tutoring. Both personalized learning and Montessori education encourage curriculum that supports purposeful learning. Rather than assessing student competencies, as in traditional personalized learning classrooms, montessori teachers observe children's work. Although personalized learning stresses that the primary purpose of assessment should be the improvement of student learning, a lot more emphasis is placed on the assessment itself.

Speaker 1: 22:56

One of the main barriers to implementing personalized learning technologies in schools is the lack of infrastructure within the school system. Another challenge to implementation is that the research still has not really reached a consensus on the definition of personalized learning. Given this, educators, school administrators and policymakers are at a loss for how best to implement these programs. Approaches and technologies that incorporate personalized learning goals include competency-based learning, adaptive learning and blended learning. These practices have the potential to advance equity in education by enabling teachers to connect historically underserved populations, increasing motivation and engagement by helping students understand their own learning. Access to high-speed internet is not equally distributed across schools, and this hinders efforts to scale personalized learning across all K-12 educational settings. Schools need data and research that demonstrate efficiency of learning strategies in order to help them select effective supporting technologies. Certain companies are working with schools to help fill these gaps. Facebook, for example, has partnered with California Charter Schools to pilot and refine personalized learning platforms. Teacher Feedback is continuously incorporated to improve the offering, with the end goal of eventually giving the software away to other schools.

Speaker 1: 24:37

Now let's switch the discussion to self-led learning. Self-led learning and self-directed learning are terms that are often used synonymously. Self-directed learning is a construct where students are given opportunities inside and outside of class to remember, understand and apply to the tools that they learn, as they are aligned with course learning objectives. This often leads to students who are more self-regulated learners and may provide the foundation for self-leadership. Simply defined, self-directed learning is a learning in which the decision around what to learn, how to learn it and how to decide if something has been learned well enough are all in the hands of the learner.

Speaker 1: 25:34

Self-directed learning is best introduced to students as they transition from high school to college. It should be reinforced throughout the college experience. However, it doesn't end there. The benefits of self-directed learning include critical thinking skills, cooperative learning skills, freedom and learning, research skills and other useful skills. In the 21st century, young adults are challenged to keep up with a fast-changing world of knowledge so that they stay relevant. Part of staying relevant is to develop some core 21st century skills, like self-led learning skills and critical thinking skills. Critical thinking is a skill that can be developed. It's a process of making sense of external experiences through analysis of issues and using available information.

Speaker 1: 26:33

In self-directed learning, students are taught how to go about their learning without the help of others, to find learning resources, to seek help to evaluate their own learning and to be actively involved in both the teaching and learning process.

Speaker 1: 26:51

Self-led learning gives students the ability to become active learners, acquire knowledge inside and outside the classroom, to excel in their studies and to get prepared for future challenges, in other words, at least to academic success. Self-directed learning is often the outcome of interaction between their personal characteristics and the learning environment, and is often associated with students' motivation and a teacher's facilitation strategies. Students need to be assisted to become self-directed and own their learning. The role of the teacher is basically that of facilitation of learning and explicitly teaching students how to become self-directed learners. One way of doing this is to teach students how to find relevant learning resources, set and evaluate learning goals, work in groups and individually in a self-directed manner. The teacher's role is basically to encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning. This is the main characteristic of self-directed learners. Taking personal responsibility for their own learning means that a student is prepared to take charge of his or her learning by deciding what resources he or she needs, how to get it and how to progress with his or her learning, evaluating the learning along the way to know if learning goals have been achieved or not.

Speaker 1: 28:31

There is also a social context of learning to consider. Factors within the social context of learning include cultural and social norms, power dynamics, social relations, etc. A student's motivation can be adversely affected by negative learning social environment. Here are some action steps you can take regarding this topic. As a parent, you can encourage your child to be intentional about their learning experiences by teaching them to own what they learned as well as to have pride in the product that they produce from their learning. For example, when they've completed an assignment, you can quiz them on what the important points of the assignment were and you can ask them if they're proud of the work they produced. Their motivation toward completion of the work shows in their attitude toward completing that assignment. Here are these episodes' takeaways Decision-making power and agency in the classroom are critical to personalized learning.

Speaker 1: 29:52

Agency is an individual's capacity to make choices that affect their life. A student's ability to enact agency is dependent on their use of self-regulatory behavior, including planning, strategizing, control of physical actions and self-monitoring. Individual agency develops over time, but it is influenced by this surrounding social environment. Personalized learning is ripe with opportunity and a hope for a better system of schooling to drive learners and educators to determine their own path as each moves forward. Personalized learning revolves around providing each student with the instruction that best suits them. It's often the foundation of many online learning platforms. At the core of personalized learning is the idea of helping each student achieve his or her full potential. The way that online learning platforms utilize personalized learning for each student is by adjusting students' lessons based on their skill level or adapting to students' needs. Although some online learning platforms have shown little evidence for the effectiveness of personalizing students' education, there have been some encouraging results.

Speaker 1: 31:23

Self-directed learning is a learning in which the decision around what to learn, how to learn it and how to decide if something has been learned well enough are all in the hands of the learner.

Speaker 1: 31:37

In self-directed learning, students are taught how to go about their learning with or without the help of others, to find resources, to seek help, to evaluate their own learning and to be actively involved in both teaching and learning process. Self-directed learning gives students the ability to become active learners, to acquire knowledge inside and outside the classroom, to excel in their studies and to get prepared for future challenges. Did you enjoy today's episode? If so, then leave me a rating or review or a comment on Apple or PodChaser. Leaving me a review is a great way to support me and to help me grow my podcast. Remember to share this episode with anyone that you think you find valuable, so be sure to tell your friends, family and your community about my podcast. Thanks for listening today. I hope you'll come back for more K-12 educational discussions with even more exciting topics to untangle. Be sure to stay tuned. On the next episode, I'll be discussing how you can deepen learning for your children. Until next time, aim to learn something new every day.