Personalized learning seems like a simple concept—basically, customize teaching and learning to students’ individual academic strengths and weaknesses and even their personal interests. But the reality is that the concept is creating quite a bit of confusion and frustration in the K-12 world. What is (and isn’t) personalized learning? How much control should students have over when, how, and what they learn? And what about the potential overuse of digital tools in personalized learning programs?
Yet at the same time, there is energy and optimism around the argument that this approach is just what is needed to fuel students’ intellectual curiosity and prepare them for a world in which personalization seems to be everywhere—except in K-12 education.
That tension between confusion and optimism is playing out in schools across the country as they struggle to clarify what this concept means and make it work to improve teaching and learning.