January 22, 2012
Posted by Barbara Bray in Educational Models, Learning Environments, Personalized Learning
Personalization vs Differentiation vs Individualization (Chart)
This chart is cross-posted on our new site at Personalize Learning.
After writing the post “Personalization is NOT Differentiating Instruction,” I received some very interesting feedback and more hits than any other of my posts. I think I hit a nerve. 
So Kathleen McClaskey and I did some research on what personalization is and the differences between differentiation and individualization. We found very little information on the differences. And what we did find, we disagreed with many of the points. That lead us to create this chart:
Personalized Learning Chart
Download the chart here: http://eepurl.com/fLJZM
Personalized Learning Chart by Barbara Bray and Kathleen McClaskey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
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We appreciate the responses to this blog. We received this comment from a teacher from CESA#1 in Wisconsin where they are moving to a personalized learning system.
« I am in Wisconsin and we are part of CESA 1 NxGL. I team teach with 42 kindergarten kids and we are using personalized learning. We are working through the tangles of being able to personalize with kids who are just learning to read, write and compute. It has always been a struggle to be able to differentiate the difference between true personalized learning vs. differentiation and individualization. You have done a beautiful job of creating a chart that makes this clearer for all stakeholders. This chart will be useful for helping colleagues, administration and parents see the true definition of personalized learning and the potential that it holds. »
Could you write on the blog the found bibliografic references? If is possible. Thank you.
Eduardo – Kathleen and I are putting together a bibliography of all the resources we are finding on personalization and any research on the terminology. I welcome any resources or research. We started a group on LinkedIn on Personalized Learning. Please join us! My email is barbara.bray@gmail.com if you want to write me directly. Thank you!
Thank you so much for creating the chart explaining the differences between these three approaches to learning and/or teaching. It will be a great aid in helping me explain to my colleagues why I needed to drop out of high school twice and college once before I eventually — to the surprise of many, including myself — became a teacher when I was 50 years old, and why many other students also need to get their minds out of the inch-deep, mile-wide relentless flow of American public schooling.
I am a great believer in self directed individual learning and it seems to me that if one is practicing self-directed learning there needs to be an option of not attending school when school is not the place where one’s particular inquiry can be satisfied. That is what happened to me: I left school not because I was not a good student but because I was so curious, so inquisitive that time spent sitting in school was interfering with my learning. Mandating seat time, and especially mandating additional seat time — until one is 18 — as President Obama has proposed, is a great threat to the increasing numbers of students for whom schools are incapable of providing sufficient learning opportunities.
It was interesting to read the comment that in one Wisconsin district there is an effort to practice personalized learning in a kindergarten program. Perhaps these students will continue to demand the system support individualized learning as they move up through the grades and continue to force schools to realize that almost aspect of the modern American school is in place for the convenience and benefit of the school and system and not for the benefit of any individual student.
Deven – I really appreciate your comment and why all of us are learners at different rates with different proficiency levels. I am an “out of the box” thinker and have been all my life. My mother was an artist who wouldn’t let us draw within the lines. Can you imagine how crazy that made my teachers? School only wants you to think within the lines.
I am a fighter for what I believe is right for our kids and all learners of all ages. I fought the university system that doesn’t honor work experience and expertise. I’ve been trying to encourage a system that allows for challenging what you know. Demonstrating that you understand something already instead of being one more number for the bean counters. The whole system is designed around Carnegie Units (seat time) and paying per ADA. I believe if all of us work together and look at Finland, British Columbia, Big Picture, and more we’ll find some ideas that will work in the US, in our state, in our district, in our school, in our home. It’s all about the learner and we forgot that. The term “No Child Left Behind” was framed to leave more children behind. We focused on accountability, tests, paying for expensive textbooks that become outdated as soon as they’re published. This is all changing. Our voices will be heard.
This is an exciting time to be in even though it is scary, not working, and changing so fast. We are in the middle of a transformation with everything — business, government, schools. We can be a big part of that change if we pull together and help each other.
Thank you Deven for sharing your story!!!
Barbara
This is interesting. I have a G/LD daughter and have experienced tremendous frustration trying to get her needs met in Vancouver. I strongly agree with shifting the emphasis to the strengths and passions of each learner and de-emphasizing standardized testing. It seems your personalization plan does this.
The one thing I worry about is there being sufficient structure in place to support independent learning. I went to University Hill in the ’70s and at that time students learned “at their own pace.” I didn’t have a pace, and things went very badly for me. They eventually abandoned that model when so many students fell through the cracks. Children without well-developed executive skills (or a learning disability in the area of executive skills) can really suffer in this kind of a system.
My other concern is I’m having difficulty picturing how learning exceptionalities can be supported in this system – are you able to address that?
Felicity – I agree with you that there has be a structure in place. We are working on how learners can design their learning path with the help of personal learning guides. British Columbia is transforming education by moving to personalized learning environments. They are taking in these concerns in their online discussion guide. Kathleen and I are looking at Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework to make sure all learners can be supported within a personalized learning environment. Moving to a personalized learning environment for learners that need more structure can happen if there is a guide facilitating their learning journey. We have a lot to do and appreciate your concerns and questions. Barbara
Thank you so much for taking the time for this thoughtful response Barbara. When you speak of personal learning guides, have you been thinking along the lines of human ones? Or print, or computerized? I ask as, in my experience, kids with learning challenges will have tremendous difficulty teaching themselves from a printed page. I realize it’s perhaps early in the process; there’s so much in what you’re proposing that would be tailor-made to high potential children, but the right kind of (human) support would be crucial.
Thank you Felicity for asking these questions. We see the personal learning guides as either the teacher or other learners. There can also be guides online. I found that you may need tutorials in print or online depending on the audience. Some teachers are still in the print world, so I help teachers by creating quick and easy tutorials for technology with lots of screen captures. I’ve made online tutorials on Google Sites and print versions of Pixie. Then students, even Kindergarteners, can use those tutorials to teach each other. In one school I’m working at parents use these tutorials to help the little ones.
I found that students love to create tutorials especially videos. Eric Marcos in Montclair, CA, shares Mathtrain.tv where his 6th grade students created 1-2 minute tutorials on math concepts. Remember the buddy system where older kids buddy with younger ones. They can read to them, show them how to use the computer, etc. What I found is that every situation and learning environment is different. It takes time to plan and determine what would be the best way to meet the needs of all students. Personalized learning starts with the learner and their learner profile showing how they learn best. I hope I answered your questions.
Thanks again – it sounds interesting and promising! I think ultimately I would love to see the Plan include some innovative specifics for children with a designation. BC has been lagging egregiously behind in this area and I think there is a golden opportunity here – especially as the plan is so compatible with many of the existing recommendations (based on the research) for children with learning exceptionalities – to rectify this. With meaningful support these children can go on to become our future inventors and innovators, and they are currently having a very rough ride. They deserve consideration in any future BC education plan. Thanks once again for listening.
I a student taking Masters in E ducation Special needs Education from Kenyatta university and I am doing an assignment on individualization.Barbara bray thank you for that good analysis of not only the three terms but also the three, though similar in some way but diverse in appraoch. You have been a great help for me in my studies and may help to be innovative and cause positive functional change for the Education system in my cuontry. Our children deserve a diagnosis of a doctor care of a nurse,navigation of a navigator like you to chart the way for a better ,practical, functional and productive future.
Thank you for that great contribution