Developing Personalized Education: A Dynamic Framework

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Developing Personalized Education: A Dynamic Framework Leonard Tetzlaff 1

& Florian Schmiedek

1,2

& Garvin Brod

1,2

# The Author(s) 2020

Abstract

Personalized education—the systematic adaptation of instruction to individual learners— has been a long-striven goal. We review research on personalized education that has been conducted in the laboratory, in the classroom, and in digital learning environments. Across all learning environments, we find that personalization is most successful when relevant learner characteristics are measured repeatedly during the learning process and when these data are used to adapt instruction in a systematic way. Building on these observations, we propose a novel, dynamic framework of personalization that conceptualizes learners as dynamic entities that change during and in interaction with the instructional process. As these dynamics manifest on different timescales, so do the opportunities for instructional adaptations—ranging from setting appropriate learning goals at the macroscale to reacting to affective-motivational fluctuations at the microscale. We argue that instructional design needs to take these dynamics into account in order to adapt to a specific learner at a specific point in time. Finally, we provide some examples of successful, dynamic adaptations and discuss future directions that arise from a dynamic conceptualization of personalization. Keywords Aptitude-treatment interaction . Personalization . Individualization . Formative assessment . Intelligent tutoring systems The personalization of education has been a desired goal in educational science and practice for more than 200 years. Educators and policymakers alike are putting their hopes in personalization as a panacea for achievement gaps, lack of student motivation, and more effective instruction in general. Broadly construed, personalized education refers to the adaptation of instruction to a specific learner and is juxtaposed with “traditional” instruction

* Leonard Tetzlaff [email protected]

1

Department of Education and Human Development , DIPF | Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education, Rostocker Straße 6, 60323 Frankfurt, Germany

2

Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education, Goethe Universität Frankfurt, Rostocker Straße 6, 60323 Frankfurt, Germany

Educational Psychology Review

that is targeted at entire groups of learners. By changing the mode, content, or rate of instruction in accordance with some characteristic of the learner, it is suggested that individual shortcomings of learners can be addressed and their resources leveraged (Dockterman 2018). A key argument for the efficacy of personalization can be drawn from empirical demonstrations that learning gains in one-on-one tutoring are up to two standard deviations higher than in conventional classroom instruction (Bloom 1984). This phenomenon and the subsequent desire to scale up the relevant instructional components to larger groups of learners became known as the 2-sigma-problem in educational psychol