Teach Middle East Magazine Sep - Dec 2020 Issue 1 Volume 8 | Page 12

Sharing Good Practice
A VISION OF PERSONALISED LEARNING
THAT EMPOWERS
BY DR JUNAID MUBEEN
of technologies that, by themselves,
can be isolating.
I
‘
f we teach today’s students as we
taught yesterday’s, we rob them of
tomorrow’. So goes the quotation
attributed, likely falsely, to John
Dewey. It has served as a rallying-call
for those who celebrate the integration
of new technology in the classroom.
But what is the cost of diving headfirst
into new educational practices? And
how can we make sure that what we
implement in the classroom is really
there to help students and teachers,
instead of just being the ‘bright and
shiny’ fad of the day?
‘Personalised learning’ has become
a buzzword in education, attracting
support from high-profile venture
philanthropists
including
Mark
Zuckerberg and Bill Gates. The
implementation
of
personalised
learning is facing increasing scrutiny,
however, in November, students in
Brooklyn walked out in protest at the
Zuckerberg-funded Summit Learning
Program. Their objection: students
being tethered to a computer screen
for hours on end, with little input from
teachers who, for their part, were
reduced to the role of ‘facilitators’. The
ideals of personalised learning appear
to be getting lost in the details of
implementation.
has been stuck in a ‘factory model’
that is focused on a mythical ‘average
student’. As Todd Rose, President of
the Center for Individual Opportunity
at Harvard, points out, ‘every student
has a jagged learning profile’, and our
one-size-fits-all models of instruction
are not currently equipped to meet
their diverse learning needs.
This is where personalised learning,
enabled by technology, comes in. By
continuously assessing students and
deploying algorithms to target content
according to their specific needs and
abilities, these technologies possess
a remarkable capacity to replicate
the experience of one-to-one human
tutoring. There has been some
evidence already that these systems
can significantly improve learning
outcomes.
A fatal assumption of programs such as
Summit Learning is that personalised
learning does not begin and end
with technology. The problem arises
when we crowd out more traditional
mainstays of teaching like peer-
learning, group discussion, and the
teacher-student relationship in favour
Personalised learning is, at heart, about
tailoring education to the student. It is
motivated by the belief that education
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Class Time
There is far more to personalised
learning than digital products alone
can capture. Caring for a child’s
personal educational needs includes
allowing them to learn socially, form
a proper bond with the teacher, and
benefit from discussion with their
peers. Virtual tutors can play their
role by allowing students to progress
through core material at their own
pace. But the thinking skills imparted
by these technologies remain limited;
no virtual tutor yet exists that can do
the full breadth and depth of learning,
despite what the headlines might
say. Dewey’s quote should resonate
because if the sum total of learning is
reduced to virtual tutoring, students
will not acquire those deeper cognitive
skills that are required of them in
today’s world.
Personalised learning does not
actually have its origins in technology,
and those involved in education and
teaching, need to make sure it does
not become reduced to a purely
technological approach.
Personalised learning has much to
offer, but only if we recognise that it
comes as part of a greater whole. As
one commentator has said, it is time to
‘take personalised learning back’ and
integrate it with all other facets of the
education experience. In other words,
personalised learning must account
for all moments of instruction, online
and offline. It must work for teachers
as well as students, otherwise it is
doomed to alienate both.
Technology providers must embrace
this sharper definition of personalised
learning that integrates with all
facets of learning and teaching.
As the students of Brooklyn have
shown us, any technology that fails
to empower students and teachers
will be consigned to the dustbin of
educational gimmicks.
Dr Junaid Mubeen, Director of Education at Whizz Education, holds a doctorate
in mathematics from Oxford University, a master’s degree in Education from
Harvard, and is also a Countdown series champion.