Personalized Learning - History

History

Personalized learning has been defined with different accents by different authors and here they are summarized in a chronological list.

Parkhurst and the Dalton Plan (19th century): According to the Dalton Plan each student can program his or her curriculum in order to meet his or her needs, interests and abilities; to promote both independence and dependability; to enhance the student's social skills and sense of responsibility toward others.

Washburne: Selfgoverment and the Winnetka Plan (first years of ‘900): The plan attempted to expand educational focus to creative activities and emotional and social development, using a program of a type that later became known as "programmed instruction".

Claparède in “L’école sur mesure” (1920) states that the schoolchild should have the opportunity to freely choose a series of activities, already predisposed by the teacher, to improve intellectual, social and moral growth and develop personality fully. (Claparède E., L’Ècole sur mesure, Genève, Payot, 1920)

Bloom and the Mastery learning (’50s-’60s) is an instructional method that presumes all children can learn if they are provided with the appropriate learning conditions. Specifically, Mastery Learning is a method whereby students are not advanced to a subsequent learning objective until they demonstrate proficiency with the current one.

Gardner (’80s) Gardner's Theory of multiple intelligences states that not only do human beings have many different ways to learn and process information, but that these are independent of each other: leading to multiple "intelligences" as opposed to a general intelligence factor among correlated abilities.

Keller within the Personalized System of Instruction (’60s) directs instruction on the base of the students’ requirements allowing them to work on course modules independently. It is an individually paced mastery oriented teaching method. The Personalized System of instruction also fits slightly with social constructivism by requiring students to work in teams of peer support with a proctor answering questions on the studied contents.

Hoz The first one that coined the term PERSONALIZATION in the contest of educational science is Victor Garcìa Hoz, in 1970. His most important work in this contest is “Personalized Education” published in 1981.

Kilpatrik “Project Method” (early 21st Century) is child-centred, is problem solving oriented, and the teacher direction is minimized. The teacher acts more as a facilitator encouraging selfdecision and selfcontrol of the learner, more than delivering knowledge and information.

Historically, the term was used in a 2004 speech in Britain by David Miliband, Minister of State for School Standards for the United Kingdom (U.K.), who, in a chapter later published in an anthology on the topic, stated that “personalised learning is the way in which our best schools tailor education to ensure that every pupil achieves the highest standard possible. Our drive is to make these practices universal. This speech was driven by a more general desire of the government of the day (Tony Blair’s Labour Party) to reorganize the way services were delivered. Blair worried that public institutions and government lacked legitimacy in the eyes of the public and sought to develop new strategies to create greater confidence in the public sector. Over time this reorganization has entailed moving away from the universal provision of services by government, towards a much more adaptive approach hinged on the individual citizen’s needs and actions. Parts of this reorganization have aligned with new policies emphasizing the role of markets and the private sector in addressing social needs. Estelle Morris was the first minister for education in England to enact a personalized learning agenda.

Dr. David Hargreaves, another early key architect of the idea, referred to ‘personalizing’ learning rather than ‘personalized’ learning, in order to emphasize that it should be more of a process than a product. The former chairman of the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency BECTA, Hargreaves has been instrumental in trying to claim and define this space by establishing nine gateways to personalized learning. These nine gateways were student voice; assessment for learning; learning to learn; new technologies; curriculum; advice and guidance; mentoring and coaching; workforce development; and school design and organization. Charles Leadbeater is also a key architect of the notion with his work, and gave advice to Tony Blair, on the personalization of public services in the U.K.

Dr. David Hopkins considers personalized learning to be one of the four primary pillars of systems-level reform. Dr. Michael Fullan suggests that the concept is most commonly associated in the United States with differentiated instruction. Personalized learning is often affiliated with the acquisition of what has been described as 21st Century Skills.