In this Elementary School Journal article, Penny Bishop, John Downes, Steven Netcoh, Katy Farber, Jessica DeMink-Carthew, Tricia Brown, and Rachel Mark (University of Vermont) report on their interviews with a number of elementary and middle-school teachers on personalized learning. The researchers define personalization "as an approach that encourages partnership between individual students and teachers in the design of learning that emerges from students' interests, questions, needs, and preferences to foster self-directed learning." Assessments may take the form of portfolios of student work, authentic performance tasks, and exhibitions of learning in which students demonstrate their skills and understandings.
Teachers in the study described the shift from running adult-centered classrooms to supporting students as they brought their interests, needs, and different levels of readiness to the classroom. One teacher drew a distinction between personalization and individualization, the latter being about getting all students "to arrive at the same spot through different means."
Synthesizing what they learned from interviews, the researchers identified four roles teachers played in personalized classrooms:
- Empowerer - Teachers sought to increase students' independence and ownership of learning by letting them lead, offering choices, enabling students to work at their own pace and level, increasing student talk, and learning with and from students.
- Scout - Teachers often needed to seek out resources to support students and figure out next steps in their learning progressions. This involved ascertaining students' interests, aligning the curriculum with those interests, curating digital and material resources, and connecting students with helpful people inside and outside the school. "We can't offer everything," said one teachers, "but it's not our job to offer everything. It's our job to explain how to navigate the world."
- Scaffolder - Teachers constantly worked to ensure that students engaged productively in learning. This involved structuring routines, time, and learning experiences, fading the support when students didn't need as much, modeling possible approaches, and asking questions. "Okay," said one teacher to her students, "you have your team leaders. You have your roles. You can do it. Sign up on the board if you need my help." She then "floated" around the room.
- Assessor - Teachers said it was important to distinguish between assessment and evaluation (with the latter, offering lots of narrative feedback to students,) provide ongoing formative assessment (a lot of over-the-shoulder checking for understanding and redirection) and be clear about learning targets and rubrics posted around the room.
"Teacher Roles in Personalized Learning Environments" by Penny Bishop, John Downes, Steven Netcoh, Katy Farber, Jessica DeMink-Carthew, Tricia Brown, and Rachel Mark in Elementary School Journal, December 2020 (Vol. 121,#2, pp. 311-336); Bishop can be reached at Penny.Bishop@uvm.edu.
(Please Note: The summary above is reprinted with permission from issue #871 of
The Marshall Memo, an excellent resource for educators.)
