Category: Learning

Individualized Instruction vs Personalized Learning

Dwayne Harapnuik 2 Comments

David Warlick offers the following table as a summary of the comparison of individualized instruction vs personalized learning. Perhaps the most important factor to note is that with individualized instruction education is done to the student and with personalized learning education happens as a result of what the learner does. When we consider that a major factor in effective learning is an individual’s ability to make meaningful connections, personalized learning is the approach that promises to provide the best outcomes.

Don’t let the notion of individualization in the name fool you into believing that this a learner centered approach. Despite the name it is still a teacher and authority centric approach that emphasizes the regurgitation of information to be assessed through standardized measures

Consider the following table:
individual vs personalized learning

Source: 2¢ Worth

The Ideal Professor vs. The Typical Professor

Dwayne Harapnuik Leave a comment
http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/the-ideal-professor-vs-the-typical-professor/

The Ideal Professor vs. The Typical Professor – Faculty Focus | Faculty Focus via kwout

This is a very short blog post that has an excellent table that provides a summary of the results of the survey. It is encouraging to note:

the characteristics these students identified as belonging to those teachers who most effectively taught them were not absent in Typical professors. They just weren’t as pronounced. I take that to mean, if you aspire to be ideal, you don’t have to do new things, just more of those good things you already do.

The numbers reflect the percentage of students who endorsed this characteristic for their Ideal professors and the percentage who said they characterized the Typical professor.

Teaching Characteristic Ideal Typical
Professor speaks clearly/not monotone 93 80
Course and daily goals appear on the syllabus 83 52
Students have a voice; input on course policies and procedures 40 7
Professor talks informally with students sometimes 43 15
Professor lectures 78 93
Professor uses discussion 58 37
Professor does in-class activities/demonstrations 57 21
·Uses humor often/occasionally
·Uses humor occasionally only		 97 75
·Cheating/plagiarism policy—investigates and resolves incidents
·Do not know what approach is used to deal with academic dishonesty		 58 64
Solicits anonymous, written, informal feedback on teaching/course 68 17
·Solicits student feedback two or more times per term
·Never solicits student feedback		 72 3

Read the full post…

The Latest Threat of the Teaching Machine

Dwayne Harapnuik Leave a comment
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/17980-automated-teaching-machine-a-graphic-introduction-to-the-end-of-human-teachers

Automated Teaching Machine: A Graphic Introduction to the End of Human Teachers via kwout

Adam Bessie and Arthur King have created a comic that illustrates the numerous attempts over the past 100 years of automating teaching. They point to Fanz Kafka’s writings and highlight several attempts at automation from Pressley’s teaching machine in 1915, to Skinner’s Box in the 1930’s and finally to the EngKey egg shaped robot that is currently used by South Korea elementary schools to help teach English.

Perhaps the most helpful or alarming fact that Bessie and King offer is their statement that:

…we don’t need “teaching machines” to mechanize Education.

Human teachers just need to act like robots, teaching to the standardized test, never complaining, following the script and making sure students do as well.

If we were to focus on significant learning environments that incoporate critical and analytical thinking rather then the regurgitation of information the threat of the teaching machine wouldn’t be a threat.