How personalised learning benefits students and improves knowledge outcomes
There has been a huge rise in personalised learning in which instructional strategies and academic support strategies are tailored to meet the individual needs of each student rather than being uniformly designed.
The new generation of parents and students expect much more from education than previous generations. More ‘woke’ in their attitude, parents are now focused on enabling their children in ways that help them master their academic strengths.
Therefore, this admission season has seen a rise in parents looking to enrol their children in schools focused on personalised learning, which encourages subject mastery over rote learning practices.
Personalised learning offers many advantages as it focuses on connecting a learner's existing set of knowledge, experiences, and abilities with training materials to build connections between prior knowledge and new information with appropriate scaffolding.
Although proceeding through the curriculum at one’s own pace is suitable for anyone, the structure of a self-regulating, customised experience is a perfect fit for K-12 students in the current times.
Here is how personalised learning is benefiting stakeholders to ensure the best possible results:
Drive student engagement
Amalgamating personalised learning with schooling practices greatly benefits both educators and students. Studies have found that inculcating technology with personalised learning improves the results by an average of 30 percent.
Moreover, futuristic plugged-in students don't benefit from churning out textbook data and practice tests the old-fashioned way. Thus, there is a growing trend toward personalised learning in which instructional strategies and academic support strategies are tailored to meet the individual needs of each student rather than being uniformly designed.
The model has made it easier for educators to develop modules that are student-centred.
Higher retention rate
When the curriculum is designed in sync with the existing set of knowledge, skills and abilities, the student will retain more information and for a more extended period.
A personalised learning path seeks to connect dots supporting each other. This contextualises learning and aids the learner to better apply the concepts learnt to real-world scenarios.
Differentiated learning
The traditional one-size-fits-all approach to teaching does not suffice with the requirements of today’s generation. The classes move ahead uniformly until last year, regardless of how many students master a particular subject/topic/concept.
On the contrary, educators can devise differentiated learning plans to facilitate students to explore subjects of their interest in the way that works best for them. Learning must be assessed as a continuum and not at a point in time.
Increased motivation leading to better results
Personalised learning extends students’ freedom to choose the appropriate learning approach to their learning abilities and retention rate. It also removes the stress of peer pressure and rat race. If students can pick and choose what, how and when they would like to do a particular thing, they will eventually be dedicated and motivated.
However, students who lack motivation usually miss essential information and don't study with much interest; thereby, poor performance is visible even after schooling.
It is a myth that personalised learning demands more time and effort to develop the study material and modules. With the advent of schools that are extensively integrating technology, the platforms ability to understand and absorb individual needs are better discerned.
New emerging technologies in learning and cognitive development will lead to further growth in personalised learning.
Edited by Teja Lele
(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)