Excellence Through Equity by Alan M. Blankstein & Pedro Noguera

Author:Alan M. Blankstein & Pedro Noguera [Blankstein, Alan M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Education
ISBN: 978-1-4166-2257-4
Publisher: ASCD
Published: 2016-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

* * *

Personalized Learning

Allison Zmuda

. . . . .

In every school, regardless of its resource, staffing, and leadership challenges, the one constant goal is creating a school and classroom culture that engages students to do their best work. What every educator knows, however, is that an appropriate assignment for one student may not be appropriate for the other students. Relevance, prior knowledge, current skill development, mindset, and other factors make it more or less likely that each student will accept the challenge and settle in and do the work. And for our struggling and disenfranchised students, they believe (and perhaps rightly so) their schoolwork is disconnected from the "real work" of supporting a family, pursuing aspirations, tackling complex problems, and navigating the world.

This chapter focuses on shifting toward a personalized learning structure: one where students collaborate with teachers as learning partners to have a mutual stake in performance. The origins of personalized learning can be traced to the Dalton Plan in the 19th century where each student could program his or her curriculum in order to meet his or her needs, interests, and abilities. The goal was to promote both independence and dependability and to enhance the student's social skills and sense of responsibility toward others. In contemporary classrooms, the heart of personalized learning stays much the same; learning is

owned by the student (student as the heart, teacher as the coach or adviser);

interdisciplinary in nature; and

grounded in the exploration of authentic and meaningful problems, challenges, and ideas that have significance to the broader world.

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