Here's what I wonder: Can my 12-year-old son Tucker, a kid who lives for anything having to do with basketball, learn just about every math concept he needs to be successful in life in the context of playing the game he loves?
I posed that question on my blog a few months ago, and the post elicited more than 60 responses from readers who connected basketball to the study of bivariate data, complex equations, statistical analysis, slope, variables, predicting outcomes, probability, geometric shapes, mean, median, mode, averages, arc, force, angles, percentages, fractions, linear inequalities, volume, speed, mass, acceleration, and dozens of other concepts that are no doubt part of Tucker's K–12 math curriculum (Richardson, 2010). And when I showed him some of the great ideas that teachers had left on my blog, he lit up. "Really?" he asked. "I could do that?"
Yes, I think he could. That's not to say that he wouldn't need good teachers to help him make sense of those concepts along the way. But now more than ever, Tucker (along with the rest of us) lives in a moment when personalizing the learning experience is not just a possibility—it's almost an expectation. We personalize our playlists through Rhapsody and iTunes, our reading through Amazon and Twitter, and our search results on Google and Bing.
But in the midst of this culture of customization, what about education? Are we personalizing learning for our students in ways that make school more relevant and inspiring? Largely, the answer is no.
Beyond Differentiation
In this era of access, personalizing learning means allowing students to choose their own paths through the curriculum. For schools and teachers, it means connecting our expectations to students' passions and interests as learners. That is both a challenge and an opportunity for educators working with 20 or 30 students in a classroom. The reality is that despite having talked about personalized learning for more than a decade, most schools and teachers have been slow to discover its potential through the use of the social web, interactive games, and mobile devices.
Why? For one thing, schools see the eruption of technologies and environments that allow for personalized learning as a "disruptive innovation," according to Scott McLeod, associate professor of educational leadership at the University of Kentucky (Richardson, 2009). The ability to learn what we want, when we want, with whomever we want as long as we have access creates a huge push against a system of education steeped in time-and-place learning. Notes McLeod,
Between adaptive software that can present and assess mastery of content, video games and simulations that can engage kids on a different level, and mobile technologies and online environments that allow learning to happen on demand, we need to fundamentally rethink what we do in the classroom with kids. (personal communication, October 1, 2011)
That rethinking revolves around a fundamental question: When we have an easy connection to the people and resources we need to learn whatever and whenever we want, what fundamental changes need to happen in schools to provide students with the skills and experiences they need to do this type of learning well? Or, to put it more succinctly, are we preparing students to learn without us? How can we shift curriculum and pedagogy to more effectively help students form and answer their own questions, develop patience with uncertainty and ambiguity, appreciate and learn from failure, and develop the ability to go deeply into the subjects about which they have a passion to learn?
Charting Their Own Course
At some schools, that shift is beginning to happen. Teachers at Hunterdon Central Regional High School in New Jersey have been moving to a more inquiry-based, personalized approach to learning for the last three years. Instead of working through a one-size-fits-all curriculum, students are allowed to chart their own course to meeting school and state expectations. For English teacher Cathy Stutzman, that means encouraging students to take ownership of their own learning and guiding them to course outcomes in individualized ways.
"We can take what could be very limiting common core requirements and put them in the hands of the students and, in return, they get to demonstrate growth by applying them to activities and assessments that align to their own passions and interests," Stutzman says. "If the teacher and the student are true partners in the learning process, there will be a lot of ...
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References
Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation. (2011). The right to learn. Bellevue, WA: Author.
Downes. S. (2011, September 28). Twitter.com post. Retrieved October 1, 2011, from http://twitter.com/#!/Downes/statuses/119001912736620544
Richardson, W. (2009, 1 September 1). Personalized online learning. District Administration. Retrieved October 1, 2011, fromwww.districtadministration.com/article/personalized-online-learning
Richardson, W. (2010, November 3). Basketball math [blog post]. Retrieved October 1, 2011, from Weblogg-ed.com at http://weblogg-ed.com/2010/ideas-wanted-basketball-math
