Adaptive curriculum for the self-directed learner
Sanjhee Gianchandani
We should recognize the fact that even though technology is evolving at a swift pace, learners are not. Consequently, the curriculum needs to be adapted to the learners’ needs to facilitate optimal learning. The U.S. Department of Education defines the term personalized learning as ‘instruction paced to learning needs, tailored to learning preferences, and tailored to the specific interests of different learners.’ While this article primarily talks about adapting the curriculum to the language classroom, other teachers will also find ideas to make their classrooms learner-centric.
Start with the learner
Each learner is unique in terms of their personality, abilities, and needs. Education needs to be transformed to meet the needs of the learner and not the other way around.
Personalized learning is built on the idea that the learner:
- Knows how he/she learns best.
- Self-directs and self-regulates his/her learning.
- Designs his/her learning path.
- Has a voice and choice about his/her learning.
- Is a co-designer of the curriculum and the learning environment.
- Has flexible learning anytime and anywhere.
- Has high-quality teachers who are partners in learning.
- Uses a competency-based model to demonstrate mastery.
- Is motivated and engaged in the learning process.
Creating personalized learning environments
Learning environments should be able to adapt to the learning styles that best suit a particular learner. But this takes a conscious process over time to achieve, especially since traditional teaching with direct instruction is ingrained in our system. Here is a condensed version of the stages of personalized learning environments that can be adapted to suit the needs of any classroom.
| STAGE 1 Teacher-centric |
STAGE 2 Learner-centric |
STAGE 3 Learner-driven |
|---|---|---|
|
The teacher:
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The teacher and learners:
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The learners:
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Classroom strategies and activities
Personalization happens best when students use the target language in the context of their own lives; for example, perhaps they give a presentation about something based on their knowledge or experience or when they express their own opinion on a topic and counter with a viewpoint. Here are some basic tips to personalize the language teaching-learning experience:
- Find out about your students from the first day On the first day, spend time finding out about your students. That way you can adjust the subject matter as much as possible to suit their needs and interests. This can be done by making them fill out a simple questionnaire, which you can use as a reference point to build on your teaching methodology and flex it according to the needs of each student. Also, you can determine each learner’s needs by using the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles which are based on Access (how they prefer information to be presented to them), Engage (how they like to engage with the content), and Express (how they like to confirm the understanding of what they’ve learnt). You can determine the learning profile of all learners using this simple method.
- Design personalized learning environments Based on learner profiles, gauge how each learner would learn most efficiently. You can also set up multiple learning zones to cater to the needs of different kinds of learners in the classroom. For instance, if a learner has difficulties sitting in one place for a long time or you see him/her fidgeting, allow them to walk around the classroom or stand. If a learner cannot work alone, assign collaborative projects, or if he/she prefers working alone, demarcate a space for private and quiet work.
- Personalize the course book content In language classrooms, personalization becomes easier as each text can be linked directly to students’ lives. Whichever is the prescribed course book, the content can be made personal. For example, if it is a text on a monument, ask your students to draw it or create a clay model. For a historical text, ask them to make a timeline of events. In case of a mystery, get them to roleplay it using the materials in the classroom. It is all about building upon the ideas in the textbooks. A famous language practitioner G. Moskowitz notes, ‘In foreign language teaching, we customarily begin with the lives of others, with whom students may not easily identify, and then expect students to transfer the material to their own lives. However, transfer to the textbook is easier when the content starts with the student himself and then leads to the materials to be learned…. Let the students first discover what they can generate on the subject from their thoughts and feelings. By drawing on their own experiences and reactions, the transfer to the textbook will be more relevant and more apparent.’ For subjects other than languages, questions relating to the content but about students’ lives can be asked. For instance, in a social sciences classroom, the topic of countries and cities can be linked to the vacations students’ have had and the places they’ve visited.
- Choice of topics This is specific to a language classroom and might not be suitable for curricular subjects wherein all prescribed topics need to be taught. For speaking, listening, and writing tasks, ask students to suggest topics they would like to talk about. You can incorporate the language point in topics of their choice. You could find videos, newspaper articles, blogs, notices, or any other real materials on the suggested topics to help them get started. This gives students agency and sustains their interest in the proceedings of the classroom.
- Focused language practice Further to personalizing topics in class, students can be asked to personalize any new language they’ve learnt. So, if you have taught a grammatical structure such as the passive voice, and if students have practised it in a controlled way (e.g., through an exercise of converting from one voice to the other), then follow this up by asking students to write a recipe of their favourite dish using the passive voice.
- Language input assistance Language educators are already aware of the fact that the input language needs to be provided to students to help them produce the language. However, in personalized classrooms, teachers should be able to provide language input beyond what is specified in the curriculum. For instance, if a grade 3 student wants to talk about his/her future plans, the teacher should assist them with various verbs in their future forms. Similarly, subject teachers can also prompt the keywords they are looking for in their responses or at least give learners hints to arrive at the correct response.
- Show and tell During the course of the year, individual students can be asked to prepare and give a short presentation about something important in their own lives; it could be a personal object from home that they tell the class about or maybe a particular hobby they have. This can be followed by giving personal feedback and the required error correction.
- Allow space for students’ anecdotes This is a critical aspect of personalizing lessons. Imagine that you are teaching a lesson on ‘Wh’ questions’. Don’t just limit it to the questions in the book. Allow students the freedom to ask and answer different types of questions in pairs. You can also randomly pick out students and ask them questions. Then, you can ask follow-up questions to build an entire conversation.
- Choose the correct resources When students and teachers collaboratively unpack materials, it is pertinent that the right tools and resources are chosen. Again, based on learner profiles choose tasks such as writing, organizing, listening, speaking, reading, brainstorming, project-work, researching, note-making, and presenting. Also, encourage students to ask questions so that they can take charge of their learning as they facilitate discussions or respond to questions. Make the materials compatible with the learning needs of the students. For example, the same text can be presented as a printed book, an ebook, a video, or a podcast.
- Use assessments as a learning tool Using assessment as a learning tool is a process of developing and supporting metacognition for learners. When learners are actively engaged and become critical assessors of their learning, they make sense of information, relate it to prior knowledge, and use it for new learning. For example, if a student writes a blog on what he/she thinks is the moral of a particular story, his/her classmates can comment or share their views on the same, thus facilitating peer assessment and learning. Then, that student can make changes or adapt his/her work to accommodate the new learning and also make the necessary adjustments in understanding, reaching closer to the conceptual goal of the lesson.
In conclusion, all teaching and learning must be looked at within a humanist paradigm since the ultimate aim of education is self-actualization. Whether or not the identities of the learner are recognized as part of the formal language curriculum, the pedagogy that the teacher adopts in the classroom should certainly engage the identities of learners in diverse ways. It is only by understanding the histories and lived experiences of learners that teachers can create conditions that will facilitate social interaction both in the classroom and in the wider community and help learners learn organically and holistically.
ReferencesThe author works as an English language curriculum designer and editor. She has eight years of experience working as an English language assessment specialist, a writing/speaking examiner for various international examinations, an item writer, a content developer, and an editor. She has authored two series for the K-8 segment – Grammar Sparkle (Grades 1-8) and Let’s Learn to Listen and Speak (Grade 4). As a consultant editor with various renowned publishing houses, she has edited over 100 books ranging from academic to fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and children’s writing. Her articles on ELT pedagogy and learning strategies have been published in several educational magazines and blogs. She can be reached at sanjheegianchandani28@gmail.com
