Your views on personalised learning

BBC education correspondent Mike Baker asked whether the future of education lies with "personalised learning". Here is a selection of your views.

As a current student myself (I am taking the new 'Diploma in Higher Education'), I can fully understand the need for Personalised Learning - this is where the education system is heading, I believe. For the students it is a much better way of learning as s/he learns at their own pace and in a way that they understand. However, for the teachers/tutors it can be a bit of a nightmare! If this is to be brought in for EVERY student, the amount of consultation (with students and /or parents), planning, and implementation involved is going to increase 25 fold at least.

Currently, I believe, only students with some difficulty are taught in this way - and that is only right and proper - and I'm not saying that this should not be the case for all students. However either the classes will need to be smaller or the teaching staff will need a tremendous amount of help in order to implement this. More thought is needed, I think.
Carolyn Spencer, Newcastle upon Tyne, England

It really annoys me that teachers only seem to be able to teach one way and if a child cannot cope with this way they get sent out or in trouble for not listening etc. If you asked the majority of teachers they don't understand the definition of dyspraxia, ADHD or the like and definitely not the uncommon diagnosis of Klinefelter's syndrome that 1 in 500 males have that generally goes misdiagnosed in childhood. If picked up on could make a huge difference to so many children's lives hence making the teacher's life easier.

We need more staff that really care not just about the money but the children, especially if the child hasn't got supportive parents. I have seen so much since my son started secondary school and, even with my younger one at primary I am having to tell the teachers about special needs. They are the ones getting paid, not me.
Lisa Burridge, Putney, London

One of the things that make it so difficult for (some) teachers to get excited (as I think they should) about this is that it's just going round the same course again. You may feel that the 70's was 'anything goes', but that was based on a few publicised extreme cases. What went on then was something called 'child centred education'. It was hard work, developing the curriculum for the kids in front of you rather than just delivering what's become called Pizza Box lessons as prescribed centrally - but it certainly felt right.

Of course, then we were all told we'd 'dun it rong' and things changed to the current rather arid and disconnected experience many kids have. What would be good is if society decided what it wanted education to /do/, what it is /for/, and the let the service work out the best way of achieving it.
Marshal Anderson, Chesterfield, Derbyshire

Except the fact that this article was written in English, it was as though I was reading about an issue over which French specialists of education have been debating for so long now... without reaching an agreement yet!
Sandrine Leclerq, future teacher in France, Lescar, France

I would like to fully endorse Mike Baker's article on personalised learning.

As Head of ICT in a Secondary School I see that ICT could play a major role in personalised education in the future. However, many other changes would have to take place alongside any attempt to truly tailor learning to every individual.

Firstly, the government needs to ask, "What do we really want our children (our future) to have achieved by the time they emerge from the state education system? What sort of people will our country need in say five, 10 or 15 years time?" This question should be comprehensibly answered every year whilst ever the world is in so rapid a state of change.

Secondly, students should be using similar tools, albeit adapted specifically for learning, to what they will be using in the real world.

Thirdly, with these two foundational things in place, personalised learning could begin to happen. The main role of the teacher would then be one of setting up a learning plan with each individual student and adjusting it with them on a weekly basis. To allow time for this, the "one size fits all" approach where the teacher teaches from the front would need to be substantially reduced. Targets and assessment would still be in the form of self, peer and teacher based types, but would use computer technology and software which already exists, but hitherto is grossly underused.
Martin Chamberlain, Leicester

Personalised education can be provided by having small-size classrooms. Small classrooms would allow teachers to provide more one-to-one instructions and teacher could make sure one child is left behind. That was my experience when I taught in Australia.

In this modern society children are constantly exposed to TV, video games and internet-based games and I think it would be counter-productive to use video games to aid students' learning. It would be a great idea to add a bit of nature concepts to curriculum and it could help students to have more down-to-earth approach to life.
Aswathaman R, Toronto, Canada

My first reaction to the term 'personalised learning' could be summarised as 'Oh, no, now they want classroom teachers to negotiate and write Individual Learning Plans with SMART targets for each child they teach'. I still suspect this will be the de facto result. The 'oh, no' reaction comes from my experience as a Skills for Life tutor in adult education, where we are required to use a model which was developed for special needs learners who are unlikely to take exams at any time and who may make only very slow progress. I understand that the inspectorate are in favour of this model.

In theory this model could work at any level, but in practice it is very time-consuming to administer and I believe that using SMART targets can actually limit learning for average and more able learners. If, on the other hand, 'learning plan' is interpreted to mean selection of materials, modules, topics for independent study and agreed assessments, and is set for reasonable periods of time, the system could be workable. I note that this model is used by professional IT trainers and in professional development schemes. In some American primary schools, a learning plan indicates the choice of options such as music or sport and probably reflects parental choice as much as learner choice. Assuming that some kind of written learning plan will be required to monitor any flexible learning system, it will be interesting to see which model is imposed on schools and teachers, the special learning needs model or the professional model.
Cheryl Thornett, Birmingham, UK

I am very against the enquiring minds idea. I think that students will take advantage of that and not learn as much. America made this same mistake and now kids are not learning as much as they did in the 1950's. In the 1950's, kids where reading very important literature that influenced life on the whole. Some examples of literature that kids were reading was non-watered down versions of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Today, unfortunately, kids are not. Students decided that reading this literature was not important and that we should cut out some forms of learning.

Also, students are not getting as much homework as they once were getting in the 1950's. In the 1970's, kids were asked the same question on how they would like to learn. Today, public schools are not as great as they once were in America. This is also due to budget cuts in America, but, it is also due to the generation that grew up not caring for education as much because schools changed.

I am also very against the idea of using video games as a resource for education because of what video games have done. A lot of video games such as mafia games with and having sex with violence. I also think that kids should be writing, reading, and doing things creatively with their hands. People are starting to get lazier and figuring out ways to be more lazy. Examples of this are spell-check on the computer and internet lingo. Internet lingo is internet language such as not using whole sentences, abbreviations such as "lol", misspellings of words to how they sound like the word "your" which people use "ur" instead in America. If video games are used though, I don't think educational video games will be very satisfying for some kids.
Vivian Hall, age 14, Eugene, Oregon, USA

I'm a secondary school teacher. I would love to teach my pupils to think critically and to develop independent learning skills. Instead, I must show them how to pass an exam.

Schools are currently churning out cohorts of students who look great on paper but who can't actually think for themselves. I teach so many teenagers who can regurgitate great chunks of curriculum-driven facts, but sit silent when asked a common sense question about the subject. "I dunno" has become the classroom mantra. It's not teaching, it's not learning and it's very worrying.

This cannot change, however, whilst the current obsession with exam grades persists. The dumbed down requirements and over-reliance on coursework don't help either - you can pick up an "A" with just a trivial understanding of a subject. I'm just waiting for the backlash in a few years time...
Clive

At least we could attempt to make the system fit more of the individual students, rather than the other way around. Changing what is happening inside classrooms is the best way of doing this - but some of the teachers (and most of their union leaders) are always the most resistant to change. There are some quality teachers tailoring their students' learning environment and the curriculum to individual students and using new methods of teaching and new technologies - but many teachers are churning out the same lessons every year for 20 years - the teachers are bored (and boring) enough, no wonder their students are not engaged in much learning .
John Dermott, Wellington NZ