Personalized learning is a fantastic concept! I think it is a great idea, and could be the best form of teaching for the vast group of children in a classroom. However, at the secondary level, it is very hard to implement. Secondary education is constant moving from block to block, running through the day trying to survive. High school teachers see over a hundred students a day, and that presents a real challenge for teachers to learn ‘where each student is.’ High school teachers have from 53-75 minutes with their students and from my experience time is already tight. Teachers have to prep for all their classes, keep their IEP students in mind (one of my teachers has 8 in one classroom) and still set the standard high for the rest of the class. This is a daily struggle and typically to keep things easier, IEP accommodations tend to standard of the lesson plan. I could possibly see where teachers could do a lot of heavy lifting at the beginning of the school year to develop personalized learning in their classrooms. But, I can also see how this heavy lifting could be done in vain. At the elementary level teachers get to know their students better and can develop personalized learning to fit their classroom.
I would like to see something like personalized learning succeed in our schools, but there are other issues that need to be addressed first- like class size, the amount of IEPs in one classroom and what the role of a secondary education teacher really is.
https://www.dreambox.com/personalized-learning
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