Daphnix

Why teachers can’t deliver real personalized learning in today's schools.

In a traditional classroom, students do not learn unless the teacher is in control by managing and guiding the learning experience, giving students directions, and making sure they all stay on task and on pace. Because of this reality, a decision to stop and address the emotional needs of one student inevitably means temporarily neglecting the academic needs of the class. Sometimes, sending a student to a school counselor or administrator is a way to minimize this tradeoff. But when the student is gone from class, she misses valuable instructional time and falls behind. And in an education system based on whole-group instruction, teachers’ work grows exponentially when they have to catch individual students up. More generally, when many students are already behind academically and where such crises in their personal lives are far too common, focusing on social and emotional needs can quickly undermine teachers’ and administrators’ efforts to close achievement gaps and change the ultimate life trajectories of their students

The reality is that our traditional education system was designed to utilize teachers as lesson planners, graders, and managers of whole-group instruction, but today we also expect them to be counsellors, mentors, and individual learning specialists. It is unreasonable to give teachers these additional roles without changing the structure of their work. But too often we just stack teachers up with additional responsibilities and then expect them to be able to juggle everything with superhuman deftness. To solve this problem of human capacity constraints, what we need are new models of schooling that use online learning to both personalize learning to each student's’ individual needs and also free up teachers from some aspects of their work so that they can focus more on the academic, social, and emotional needs of their individual students.

It's impossible for a teacher to personalize for a student without having a clear picture of who that student is on a broad scale. One of the challenges for a classroom teacher is to capture the data--both quantitative and anecdotal--about the "profile" of student and then do something meaningful with it. It doesn't matter how big a repository of content may be; it still takes a person--a teacher who cares--to look at the student, where s/he is, what s/he needs, and where s/he's going to help find the perfect path.

As our education system has noticeably begun failing our students, many people have put the blame squarely on teachers. On both state and national levels, the Government has begun blaming teachers by holding them accountable to unreasonable testing and grade metrics despite the fact that there are numerous other problems that exist. The pressure of maintaining these ridiculous standards have led many teachers and school districts across the country to illegitimately pass students along from one grade to the next.

We must stop blaming teachers for our failing education system. They aren’t the only ones to blame and they shouldn’t be the central focus of blame. Here’s three reasons why teachers can’t deliver real personalized learning in today’s schools

Is It the Teachers Fault?

I think blaming teachers is extremely unfair. They are part of a bureaucracy with no real control over what to teach and how to teach. Teachers don't control curricula, standards or testing. They have to make do with whatever materials, worksheets and curricula they are given, even if they believe that they are ineffective. They have to prepare students for tests that often don't effectively test student ability. The belief that teachers are responsible for educational failure has lead to ideas like merit pay and compensation based on student performance.

I read an article about math teaching a few years back and one teacher's comment really stood out. The teacher said that the way he's required to teach math, it's almost impossible for students to learn. A second grade teacher called into a radio show I was listening to and said that because of state standards she wasn't able to spend enough time introducing fractions. As a result, she said many students went into third grade without adequate preparation to learn more advanced material. The teacher knew her students were going into the next grade unprepared to learn but her hands were tied in dealing with it. Teachers are often ineffective because they are forced to work with ineffective curricula, textbooks and worksheets, not because they lack teaching ability or knowledge.

Problem of Education system

The K-12 public education system is a big business, and anyone who’s worked for a big business knows that the worker bees are constantly the ones to blame, even though it’s the executives that are responsible for making the decisions that determine success or failure. The worker bees are merely doing what they’re told. In the education system, teachers are the worker bees, and it is just as absurd to blame them for the failure of our education system as it is to blame employees for the failure of a business. The fault lies at the top where the decisions that truly make the biggest impact are being made. This includes decisions that affect budgets, technological investments, etc.

Problem of society

I’m increasingly becoming convinced that our society doesn’t value education, intellect or higher thinking. The educational system as a whole can be blamed for this as well. As a society we’ve decided and accepted a school system that houses children in factory facilities 8 hours a day where they’re each stamped out like clones, one after another they are each thrown into the world with the same attributes. Each new student no better or different than the next. What our school system and our society needs to push is individualism. We can not continue building clones anymore!

The failure of our education system can’t be blamed on one group of individuals. The blame must be placed on all of us. If we each do our part to make things better, then and only then will our education system improve.

How cognitive Learning systems will improve education

The challenge of providing a quality education to all students is a global one. But cognitive system will uncloak the challenges

The cognitive learning system is the information processing system of the brain. It takes input from the outside world and all other systems, interprets that input, and guides problem solving and decision making. Because this system is directly related to academic learning, it receives the most extensive attention from educators. The cognitive system's toughest jobs include assessing emotional sensations and social situations, then acting on those assessments to keep the primal emotions under control and the need for social belonging in perspective. In similar fashion to the emotional and social systems, the cognitive learning system relies on brain chemistry for its effectiveness.

Cognitive learning is a different type of learning that provides children with the means of knowledge; the acquisition of knowledge and skill by mental or cognitive processes. For example, cognitive learning is creating mental representations of physical objects or events.

To understand the basics of cognitive learning, it is important to know that in this type of learning, the student or individual learns through experience like listening, watching, reading, experiencing, touching and more physical experiences. The student will then take that information and process it through remembrance to use in a future situation.. However, it is actually a very active type of learning in that the student processes and remembers the information mentally.

The Importance of Cognitive Learning:

Cognitive learning is just as important to an individual's development as other types of learning. Cognitive learning is a type of learning that enables individuals to create and transmit a complex set of information including symbols, values, beliefs and norms. It is important to realize that cognitive learning and activity is involved in many daily activities and many aspects of human behaviors. Humans are not the only types of living creatures to learn via cognitive development. In fact, animals of all kinds also learn through cognitive learning. Because cognitive means "the act of knowing" or "knowledge, it is important to realize that cognition is what makes individuals develop the skills that are essential to learning. This includes instinctual abilities, survival instincts, responses and more.

Cognitive Learning Skills:

To get the most out of your cognitive learning, there are several parts of the cognitive learning process that account for that cognitive experience. Concentration is one of the most important parts of cognitive learning. For example, paying attention to what you are about to learn or are learning is one of the best ways to ensure you properly absorb the knowledge you need to learn or experience. Without paying proper attention, you are likely to not get all of the facts to accurately learn what you need to learn. Focusing on the subject is the biggest part to learn when it comes to concentration. For some this might be difficult, but it is essential to learning what you need to know.

Perception is also important when it comes to cognitive learning. Perception must take place during the course of cognitive learning so that the individual becomes aware of the subject in order to learn about it. Perception also goes along with interpretation. It is important to be able to accurately perceive what you are witnessing in order to interpret correctly to absorb the knowledge of the subject .

Memory is another essential portion of cognitive learning. It is one thing to concentrate on a subject, perceive it correctly, but you also have to be able to remember what you saw, touched, experienced. There are different types of memory including long-term, short-term, sequential and receptive memory. Depending on the type of cognitive learning experience, at least one of these four types of memory should come into play to remember the experience for future reference. Although memory is considered to be a prerequisite skill to successful cognitive learning, there are some who with learning Difficulties and problems with memory and retention are still able to improve memory skills or learning skills in spite of these disabilities,logical thinking must be used to accurately absorb information via cognitive learning. Logical thinking is not intuitive for everyone, which is why it is considered to be a learned mental process of ensuring that chains of reasoning make sense to the individual. If they are unrealistic or simply do not add up, this needs to be recognized. Learning about logical thinking is how many individuals are able to learn about certain subjects and information through cognitive learning. Logical thinking allows the individual to prove that the answer is yes, no, too easy, not clear enough to understand and eventually arrive at a solution. Understanding the workings of cognitive learning is essential to being able to improve performance in skills like reading, spelling.

How does it works

Cognitive systems to collect and analyze all of this data over a long period of time — creating longitudinal student records that would give teachers the information they need to provide personalized learning experiences for their students. These systems would also help teachers identify students who are most at risk, why they are struggling, as well as insight into the interventions needed to overcome those challenges. The system could also couple a student's goals and interests with data on their learning styles so that teachers can determine what type of content to give the student, and the best way to present it. Imagine an eighth grader who dreams of working in finance but struggles with quadratic and linear equations. The teacher would use this cognitive system to find out the students learning style and develop a plan that addresses their knowledge gaps.

In addition to the personalized syllabus, the content the student receives would be interactive with deep question and answering capability , for example. The content would also be automatically tagged so that the student would spend more time consuming the information they need, rather than trying to search for it. Depending on how the student is motivated, gamification elements could be incorporated so that student has a deep understanding of the concepts they are being taught, and have fun doing it. If the student wants to work in finance, the teacher could seek input from partnering financial services companies to ensure the student is developing skills that would be relevant in the workforce.

a category of technologies that uses natural language processing and machine learning to enable people and machines to interact more naturally to extend and magnify human expertise and cognition. These systems will learn and interact to provide expert assistance to scientists, engineers, lawyers, and other professionals in a fraction of the time it now takes.

A cognitive approach for the personalized Learning System

The idea of personalized learning (sometimes referred to as adaptive learning or differentiated learning) is by no means new. In fact, in the physical world this simply means a one-to-one tutorship between teacher and student. However, this model is not practical nor is it cost effective. What if a ‘system’ could perform a similar task? What if a ‘system’ could understand the learner, recognize where they are failing to grasp a concept and knowing all possible learning options can direct their learning pathway accordingly?

In a one-to-one setting, this is meat and drink to an experienced teacher as they draw on their years of experience and skills to explain topics in a variety of ways. But in a class of 30 students, there is a wide array of abilities and there are simply too many variables and too little time for a personalized approach. Invariably, a ‘personalization proxy’ takes place whereby the teacher differentiates student abilities along a bell curve, effectively teaching to 3 or 4 cohorts of varying aptitudes. This is not ideal, and the problem is further exacerbated because learning is sequential. If a student fails to ‘get’ algebra 101, there is little hope they will ever come to terms with simultaneous equations. What if a cognitive system could support a teacher to prevent such learning road blocks for each and every child?
Our educational institutions are not meeting the skills needed for today’s jobs. Industries are looking for specific areas of expertise but we continue to teach a one-size-fits-all curriculum that was developed 125 years ago. Businesses are recognizing the speed at which the digital transformation is happening. The digital era is upon us and schools and educators are clamoring to meet the needs of its learners.

For cognitive education services to be effective they need to be immersive experiences for the student, and a complementary tool to the art and craft of teaching. They also need to reduce the administrative burden on the teacher, effectively giving time back to teach. Imagine the excitement of a student who is provided lessons that are customized for her, at her own pace, with the ability to collaborate with other students either in her school or around the world.

Why disruptive innovation matters to education

For a revolution to take place in education, changes will have to occur that will disrupt the status .The key to revolutionizing the classroom is not just by adding technology, but rather by the ways that technology will be introduced. The future schools must be student centric. Because students have different types of intelligences, they do not all learn the same way. To serve all students effectively, learning should be both personalized and customized. Under the current system, customizing education is expensive. Disrupting Class recommends introducing more computers based learning disruptively. "We need to introduce the innovation disruptively--not by using it to compete against the existing paradigm and serve existing customers, but to target those who are not being served -- people we call non-consumers. That way, all the new approach has to do is be better than the alternative -- which is nothing at all.

There is a common tendency at this time of year to reflect and refocus on what matters most and then use that renewed focus to chart into the year ahead. In that spirit of reflection, I want to share some thoughts on why the theory of disruptive innovation, is so important to education. The Innovator’s Solution lays out the theory in a comprehensive yet digestible format. My purpose here is not to explain the theory, but rather, explain in brief why that theory should matter to people who want to improve our education system - See more at:

First, disruptive innovation is the catalyst for bringing about more equitable access to high-quality education.

One of the great tragedies of our time is that a student’s zip code largely determines whether she will receive a high-quality education. As a result, there is an achievement gap between students who grow up in middle- and upper-class neighborhoods and students who grow up in low-income areas. Although government policy has made education universally available, it has not been able to make high-quality education accessible to all. Disruptive innovation provides the key to leveling that playing field.
In general, when new technologies emerge they are usually accessible only to people with wealth and expertise. Disruptive innovation is the force that democratizes those technologies. Take computers as an example. In the 1950s, computers were multi-million dollar machines that had to be housed in large buildings and that could only be operated by people with advanced training in computer science. Today, computers with orders of magnitude more power and immensely greater functionality than the 1950s-era machines are being carried around in the pockets of almost every adult and teenager in the world. Disruptive innovation was the economic force that brought computing power to the masses.
In a similar manner, personal tutelage is an educational technology that has been around for centuries, but has historically only been available to the children of nobility or the wealthy elite. We are now entering an era, however, when computers and the Internet are making personalized learning accessible and affordable to the masses. These disruptive technologies are supplementing and scaling the impact of great mentors and instructors so that their expertise can be available to every student.

Second, disruptive innovation is the mechanism for bringing about a personalized education system.

An education system that can be tailored to each individual student’s learning needs so that all students can succeed is clearly an ideal worth striving for. Unfortunately, that type of personalization has historically been too expensive to provide. Instead, we have opted for a factory-based model of education where schools achieve economies of scale by processing students in batches along a fixed schedule. But now, for the first time in history, computer-based technologies are making personalized learning a reality.

The challenge for personalized-learning technologies, however, is that they are still not yet as good as a well-run factory-based school system. As a result, technology-enabled personalized learning has a hard time gaining traction as an alternative to traditional schools. The good news is that personalized-learning technologies do not have to emerge in a form that is better than the existing system. The process of disruptive innovation allows them to take root outside of the traditional system and then improve over time until their value is universally acknowledged and widely adopted. In short, if personalized learning is the goal, online learning is the technology that makes the goal possible, and disruptive innovation is the economic process that allows the technology to fulfill its promise.

Third, disruptive innovation circumvents the political battles that have historically been at the center stage of education reform.

Existing policies tend to favor the incumbent system, and hence changing those policies requires battling with those incumbents in the political arena. In contrast, disruptive innovations take root in areas outside the domain of the incumbents. Instead of challenging the status quo head-on, disruptive innovations take root and grow outside the purview of the incumbent system. They then improve independently over time until they begin to organically draw people away from the status quo. At that point, policies shift naturally to accommodate the highly-sought-after disruptive technology.

For most education reformers, the thought of finding a way to close the achievement gap with minimal political resistance through the natural development of a new technology seems too good to be true. Yet such a path lies ahead of those who find ways to pursue education reform through the mechanisms of disruptive innovation.

Differentiated Instruction: What Is It? Why Is It Important?

So many students are physically present and psychologically absent. About 40 percent of students go through the motions, neither trying hard nor paying attention. So many cut class and are truant, so many admit to cheating to get through, so many lose interest because they cannot keep up, and so many are bored by the lack of appropriate challenge. So many do not learn that ability is not enough and effort is crucial. About half of students who drop out say their classes were not interesting, and about two-thirds say not one teacher cared about their success in learning at school. Not all is rosy with teachers, teaching, and school.
In any general education classroom, there are students with various learning styles. Some learn best by reading and writing. Others prefer to watch a video, listen to a recording, or dig into hands-on activities. Differentiated instruction is a way of teaching that matches a variety of learning styles.
What Is Differentiated Instruction?
Teachers who use differentiated instruction tailor their teaching approach to match their students’ learning styles. All the students have the same learning goal. But the teaching approach varies depending on how students prefer to learn.
Instead of using a one-size-fits-all approach, a teacher uses a variety of methods to teach. This can include teaching students in small groups or in one-on-one sessions. Carol Ann Tomlinson, an educator who has done some of the most innovative work in this area, says there are four areas where teachers can differentiate instruction.
• Content: Figuring out what a student needs to learn and which resources will help him do so
• Process: Activities that help students make sense of what they learn
• Projects: A way for students to “show what they know”
• Learning environment: How the classroom “feels” and how the class works together
This approach works well with the (RTI) process used in some schools. The goal of RTI is to spot learning problems early. Struggling students are given extra support before they fall behind their peers.
Why Is Differentiated Instruction Used?
Differentiated instruction “shakes up” the traditional classroom, says Tomlinson. Students have “multiple options for taking in information, making sense of ideas, and expressing what they learn,” she explains.
Forty years ago, Tomlinson says, the focus was on individualized instruction. But teachers discovered that creating an individual learning plan for each student in a class wasn’t realistic. Differentiated instruction, on the other hand, uses several learning approaches. But it doesn’t require an individual approach for each student. All students have access to the curriculum in a variety of ways. This makes the whole learning experience more effective.
How Differentiated Instruction Works
Differentiated instruction can play out differently from one classroom to the next—and from one school to the next. However, the key features of this approach are:
• Small work groups: The students in each group rotate in and out. This gives them a chance to participate in many different groups. A group can include a pair of students or a larger group. But in all cases, it’s an opportunity for students to learn from each other.
• Reciprocal learning: Sometimes the student becomes the teacher, sharing what he’s learned and asking questions of his peers.
• Continual assessment: Teachers regularly monitor students’ strengths and weaknesses (in both formal and informal ways) to make sure they’re progressing well in their knowledge and mastery of schoolwork.
Differentiated Instruction and Special Education
A teacher uses differentiated instruction to give every student multiple paths to learning. That includes students who have Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) or 504 plans. It doesn’t replace the goals and objectives in a child’s IEP plan. Instead, the teacher personalizes her teaching to help the student meet those goals and objectives.

The education system needs serious reforms..................

Education should always be about inspiring ones mind not just fill the head with a junk of theory from the books, that were written 10, 20, 30 years ago. The cases of the past cannot be used to solve the future. I really do not understand why one should learn by using past material. I believe that education has been held hostage, l, by not letting students to have the autonomy to think, and apply their minds n get solutions for the future.

I feel like kids are just treated like toys you can just play around and modify them because of one flaw. In school the teachers teach a bunch of kids the same thing based on their ages, but every kid having different needs, different strengths, different powers, different talents and dreams…., and they teach them all the same thing. Let’s give every kid a chance to be different and unique in their own way.