PERSONALISED LEARNING OR PERSONALISED SCHOOLING

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PERSONALISED LEARNING OR PERSONALISED
SCHOOLING? Maurice Galton University of
Cambridge
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PERSONALISED LEARNING?
Putting citizens at the heart of public
services (Tony Blair at the 2003 Labour Party
Conference) High expectation of every child,
given practical form by high quality teaching
based on sound knowledge and understanding of
every childs needs (David Miliband at North of
England Education Conference, January 2004) A
system that should focus on the needs of the
individual child with intensive small group
tuition in literacy and numeracy for those
falling behind and extra stretch for the gifted
and talented. (Higher Standards, Better Schools
for All,DfES 2005)
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Why Personalised Learning Now?

• Attainment levels have reached a plateau. Boys
  lag behind girls in literacy (74 reach Level 4
  compared to 84 girls). In maths 75 boys achieve
  Level 4 compared to 74 girls
• Over the period of New Labour attitudes to core
  subjects have declined. This is particularly
  true of maths (boys and girls) and science
  (girls). The more successful the school in League
  Tables the bigger the dip in attitudes.
• The curriculum has been squeezed because of the
  Literacy and Numeracy hours. Fitting in
  Citizenship, PSHE, more Sport to counter obesity
  etc., is proving problematic
• Motivation has changed. Pupils are reluctant to
  do further work once they have achieved the
  required level.
• Under the highly structured curriculum with its
  learning objectives, targets etc., creativity has
  suffered.

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PL- Key Components

• Assessment for Learning.
• Effective teaching and learning strategies.
• Curriculum entitlement and choice.
• School organisation.
• Strong partnerships beyond the school with
  parents, the community, Health and Social Carers
  and with business.
• (A conversation about Personalised Learning,
  Standards Unit website)

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PL- A USEFUL CONCEPT?
What personalised learning is I dont know.
Many of the ideas that have affixed themselves to
the term make good sense. Pupils should have more
opportunities to participate in the assessment of
their work collectively as well as individually.
Teaching should be responsive to the differing
motivation of learners. The school curriculum
does need to get away from the stranglehold of
discrete subjects and equip learners to lead a
flourishing personal and civic life. These
statements need to be explicated further.Plain
language helps chart the way ahead. Personalised
learning and the jargon it has generated just
gets in the way. (John White 2006)
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PERSONALISED LEARNING WHAT SCHOOLS ARE DOING
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Empirical Evidence Base

• Questionnaires51 primary, 35 secondary, 11
  Special and 3 PRU responded.
• 13 case studies - 5 primary, 5 secondary, 1
  middle, 2 special. Included
• - analysis of documentation
• - interviews with managers, teachers, TAs
• - interviews (group) with pupils
• - interviews with parents/governors
• - lesson/activity observation

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Definitions of PL

• Wide range of definitions
• Much re-badging/legitimising current/future
  activities
• 80 of respondents agreed that PL involved
• Assessment for learning/ Learning to learn
• Fulfilling every pupils potential/differentiatio
  n
• Inclusion
• Every child matters (ECM)
• Flexible curriculum/work-related learning
• Pupil voice/ pupils ownership of learning.

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Initiatives introduced specifically for PL
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What does PL involve?
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PL and Curricular choice
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PL and school organisation
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Partnerships outside school
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Personal, social and emotional support
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PL Target Groups
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PL IMPACT ON STANDARDS
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Priority given to PL
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Constraints on developing PL
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Percentage of schools reporting INSET on PL
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Intention to give greater priority to PL in future
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Characteristics of schools that seem to use PL
effectively

• Student voice/aspects of AFL etc., strongly
  embedded.
• Curricular flexibility with links to community
• Features of good schools in general e.g.
  effective use of data, thinking organisations,
  high aspirations, clear, well-articulated vision
  and communications, distributed leadership etc.

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Some emerging themes

• Definitions wide ranging but might this
  flexibility support positive development?
• In most schools, existing activities being
  extended few new ones
• Secondary and Special schools see PL as more
  relevant
• Student voice/councils/participation seen as key
• Uncertainty over individualised vs.
  personalised learning

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PL - Teachers Comments
Personalised learning shouldnt be an isolated
issue implemented by a series of actions. We
havent done anything to support PL but we do
lots of things which improve learning and give
students more choice. We dont see PL as a
separate initiative but as a way of making sense
of current school developments. Weve created
two middle management teams as part of workforce
remodelling PL and Every Child Matters. This
replaced Heads of Faculty. So weve got AFL,
Pupil Voice and Learning without Limits agendas.
Theres a growing groundswell where people are
saying, Tests arent the measure of our
children. I dont see any conflict if we use PL
to bring these three agendas together. Students
are involved in teaching appointments .They
observe candidates and give feedback. PL is
not a phase used in this school. Most of my
colleagues couldnt describe it. Were working on
several initiatives but havent labelled them as
PL up to now. Its a complex process built
about a value system. Its about mutual respect,
whether youre talking to adults or children. And
its about believing in peoples capabilities
which is something you cant take away from a
staff meeting
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PL - Pupil Comments
It teachers you not to be shy and to talk to
different people and not yourself all the
time. The teachers just let us speak and they
dont know what were going to come up
with. Its better. You can control what you do
and how much research you need to do. The rest is
drummed straight into you. You have rules
like do this and dont do that but they were on
two bits of A4 size paper, really long and people
didnt read them. So now theyve changed them to
one sheet which has got five values thats all to
do with respect. This came from the school
council. We started talking about it last year
and decided that the one thing students should
give to other students and teachers is basically
respect. That everyone should be treated fairly
and have respect for everyone else. You learn
how to play with each other in the playground
because thats also learning. Most teachers
here are nice to you and when you get stuck they
take time to help you. Basically you can be a
friend with that kind of teacher and at the same
time do the work. I think teachers need a set
of rules as well as kids.
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PERSONALISED LEARNING THE FUTURE AGENDA
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PL - The dilemma
All schooling involves a compromise between two
competing principles MAXIMISING POTENTIAL
Based on the mastery principle (Carroll 1963,
Teachers College Record, 64 723-33) which
states Any individual can learn anything given
sufficient time. So the more time made available
in school the more pupils excel at what they do
best AFFORDING EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY At the
heart of the comprehensive principle is the
notion of entitlement hence the idea of a common
curriculum, If pupils are allowed to pursue their
own interests it may deny them later
opportunities because they lack important
knowledge, skills and attitudes. SO WHAT DOES
ONE DO WITH A POTENTIAL WAYNE ROONEY OR AN ANDY
MURRAY? Do they get extra PE time at the
expense of English, maths and science? What are
the implications for the school day? For stage
vs. age models of school organisation? For the
use of ICT? For all-age schools to avoid
transition dips?
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PERSONALISED OR INDIVIDUALISED?
First we can identify two essential conditions
without which there can be no pedagogy having
generalised application. One is the recognition
of the human capacity for learning. The second is
the recognition that the process of learning
among human beings is similar across the human
species as a whole. I want to suggest that by
focussing on the individual child it becomes
impossible to derive an effective pedagogy. If
each child is unique and requires a specific
pedagogical approach appropriate to him and her,
and no other, the construction of some general
principles of teaching becomes an impossibility.
To start from the standpoint of individual
differences is to start at the wrong position. To
develop an effective pedagogy involves starting
from the opposite standpoint, from what children
have in common as members of the human species
to establish some general principles of teaching,
and in the light of these, to determine what
modifications of practice are necessary to meet
specific individual needs. Individual differences
only become important if the pedagogical means
elaborated are found not appropriate to
particular children (or groups of
children). Brian Simon, Why no pedagogy in
England?
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A SKILLS BASED APPROACH TO LEARNING
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A KNOWLEDGE BASED APPROACH TO LEARNING
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LINKING LEARNING WITH TEACHING AND ASSESSING
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PL- 2020 Vision
Put simply, personalised learning and
teaching means taking a highly structured and
responsive approach to each child and young
persons learning. Personalised learning is
learner centred, knowledge centred and assessment
centred. Personalised learning must focus on
improving the consistency of high quality
teaching, matching this teaching to the different
and developing abilities of pupils and
undertaking regular monitoring of progress and
rapid response at the point pupils fall behind.
(Report of the teaching and Learning in 2020
Review Group)
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Some References
Alexander, R. (2005) Towards Dialogic Teaching
rethinking classroom talk, 2nd. Edition, York
Dialoguos, UK Ltd. DfES (2006) 2020 Vision,
Report of the Teaching and Learning in 2020
Review Group, Nottingham DfES Publications. Mose
ley, D., Elliott, J., Gregson, M. and Higgins, S.
(2005) Thinking skill frameworks for use in
education and training, British Educational
Research Journal, 31 (3) 367-390. Sebba, J.,
Brown, N., Steward, S., Galton, M. and James, M
(in press) An Investigation of Personalised
Learning Approaches used by Schools, Final Report
to the DfES, January 2007. Simon, B. (1981)
'Why no Pedagogy in England?' in Simon, B. and
Taylor, W. (Eds) Education in the Eighties, The
Central Issues. London Batsford. White, J.
(2006) Individualised Learning? Lets cut the
conclusion, The Times Educational Supplement,
News Opinion section, page 21. 7th July.