Personalized Learning

Personalized learning is the big push in schools today. After all, if the measure of a good teacher is whether the students learn, then it’s only natural to tailor instruction to meet individual students where they’re at. Instead of having an open house, Hutchison High School recently had a personalized learning night. Here is an interesting article I found relating to personalized learning in Social Studies. It includes the idea of a classroom debate over an issue. I love this idea and may seek to implement it in the Spring.

Personalized Learning in Social Studies—Moving Away From Ferris Bueller Teaching

The article made a lot of good points from the difficulty of defining personalized learning to areas where we can look to enact it. I wish it had given some examples/ideas of personalized learning in its list of ten because the article failed to leave me with any concrete takeaways.

One question I’m left with is this: What is the ultimate goal of a school? Is it for students to learn the material? If so, then they have failed because most of what any student learns in high school is lost after they leave (or even take the test). However, if the goal is to teach them how to learn and become curious, thinking adults, then maybe personalized learning is quite useful if it produces those sparks. On the other hand, might it be useful to push students outside of their comfort zone to learn? Is that a necessary life skill required in college and the workplace?

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