Page 42 - Looking_after_school

Looking after school: a critical analysis of personalisation in education

method is adjusted to the specific learning needs of different students.
Individualisation then means that the needs of the students are the
starting points, from which individual learning paths can be designed
in order to reach outcomes that are the same for everyone. On the con-
trary, they argue that personalisation starts from the learner: it leads
to a co-production of the learning environment and to formulating
and evaluating personal goals in dialogue with the teacher. Terms like
personalised education or personalised learning express the idea that
this is not another variant of differentiation or individualisation, but
rather a new vision on education and learning. Often, different find-
ings are brought to the fore in support of this vision, such as findings
from neurological research which have shown that the brain activity
and networks which are activated during learning processes are as
diverse and unique as DNA or fingerprints (Bray & McClaskey, 2015).
A good example of personalised learning and personalisation in edu-
cation can be found in the educational policies of the United King-
dom. It is no coincidence that there are many similarities between
personalisation as we have described it in context of the experience
economy and the reforms of the public sector. According to Hartley
(2007), personalised learning is not only an educational concept that
was developed by Charles Leadbeater and David Hargreaves, among
others, but it is clearly a key component of a radical reform of educa-
tion in the public sector. And indeed, former UK minister of educa-
tion David Miliband does not deny that personalised learning is for
education what customisation is for the private sector and for other
forms of service. Personalised education reshapes the organisation
of education by taking the experiences, preferences and needs of the
learner into account.

“It means building the organisation of schooling around the needs, inter-
ests and aptitudes of individual pupils; it means shaping teaching around
the way different youngsters learn; it means taking the care to nurture the
unique talents of every pupil. […] Personalised learning is not a return
to child-centred theories; it is not about separating pupils to learn on
their own; it is not the abandonment of a national curriculum; and it is
not a license to let pupils coast at their own preferred pace of learning.
The rationale for personalised learning is clear: it is to raise standards by
focusing teaching and learning on the aptitudes and interests of pupils.

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