Personalised learning…. Is it a Myth?
Personalised learning, thinking skills and the importance to teach for 21st Century learning. The Reality. * Are these achievable in everyday classroom settings? * Are they compatible with the curriculum? * Are we ready and willing to change? * Do schools really want to embrace all that they mean? * Are we perhaps just paying lip service to the ideas, but not ready to completely implement the concepts? * Do we need to?
The presentation was based upon Yvonne’s own experiences as a head teacher, moving a school from traditional learning towards the 21st century approach and as a classroom practitioner faced with the challenge of applying the theory of personalised learning into practice at the same time as ensuring students are prepared for and achieve in traditional exams.
Note: The report below highlights the key points of discussion and debate between a few educators some of whom attend the Keynote (Wednesday 23rd at Lincoln Community School, afternoon session) It was argued that there were certain phrases that become almost “dead” in the mind of teachers. They represent big ideas and processes that we probably haven’t mastered and pay lip service to - “Personalised learning” and “Independent learning”. The evidence and misconception of the majority of colleagues over the two terms above was rife. Some dismissed the term “personalised learning” stating that there was no doubt some benefit to the power of one to one interactions with students but could not subscribe to the fact that this was the key to “personalising” learning. Instances were given of colleagues spending acres of time with each student and berating themselves and the limitations of timetables when they felt they had let their students down by “not getting to them”. Some questioned the idea that a curriculum could be truly