What does personalised learning mean to you?

David Miliband, minister of state for school standards, made personalised learning the central plank of his speech to the North of England Conference in January.

"The question facing us today," said Mr Miliband, "is simple. What do we need to do to make 'personalised learning' the defining feature of our education system?"

"Personalised learning," he added, "means assessment, teaching, curriculum and school strategies designed to ensure that the talents of every individual can be fully realised. It aims to raise standards for all by setting high expectations based on a sound knowledge and understanding of every child."

This is not individualised learning where pupils sit alone at a computer, nor is it pupils left to do their own thing. It is the practical application of the insight that every single child has a talent of some kind or another. It is up to teachers and schools to recognise that talent and develop it.

"The challenge for education in the 21st century," Mr Miliband stated, "is to give the common basics of citizenship and working life to every pupil, while developing and nurturing the unique talents of each pupil."

Five key tools for personalised learning have been broadly identified. The first is assessment for learning, which feeds into lesson planning and teaching strategies, sets clear targets, and clearly identifies what pupils need to do to reach those targets.

The second is a wide range of teaching strategies used to promote individual and group learning, as well as teaching. These strategies should build on the learner's experience, knowledge and multiple intelligences, and develop their confidence and competence.

Third is the enablement of curriculum choice — potentially more of an issue at secondary school level, where the curriculum at 14-19 can be broadened to include vocational pathways, although it does also include specialism in more academic subjects.

The fourth element is the organisation of the school in such a way that enhances learning, emphasising the importance of leadership, the role of the learning mentor, an empowering school culture and ethos, and the use of workforce reform and innovation to enhance teaching and learning.

The fifth tool is defined as engagement with the wider community (including families and beyond) to develop the whole child.

But what precisely is personalised learning? It is something that is already going on in many schools, as the Department for Education and Skills knows. But to try and give the issue more focus, Teachers magazine staged a forum of primary school teachers and one representative from the Centre for British Teachers (CfBT) who is working with the DfES to ensure that personalised learning is embedded in the work of the national primary strategy.

We started them off by asking the five panellists for their definitions.

Glenys Evans: For me, personalised learning is about looking at each child individually. It's about seeing the potential within that child and thinking, 'Well, how can we get more of the best out of this child?' and 'How can we improve those areas of weakness that need attention?' At the heart of it is a fundamental belief in every child. No matter what obstacles get in the way, you stay in there with that child. You don't give up.

Alison Duckham: I think it's about a learning experience that gives every child a chance for success and makes them feel valued.

Dave Smith: It's also about leadership and creating a visionary organisation.

Paul Green: It's not simply about developing children academically, but  about educating the whole child. It's all about saying, 'Here is a safe place for your children to be. Here is a school that will accommodate the tactile, the intellectual and all the emotional intelligences.'

Paul Higgins: Personalised learning is not about leaving pupils to develop on their own. It's about building their independence and their responsibility through interaction with others, through rich interventions, stimulation and exciting curriculum opportunities — and, through that process, developing pupils' range and capacities.

It is about reconciling excellence and equity, standards and inclusion, and addressing the needs of the whole child. It's not about 'either/or'. It's very much about not compromising on excellence or high standards but nevertheless trying to move forward with that richness as well.

Dave Smith: I think the phrase 'personalised learning' should be about relevance and engagement for the pupil — and that is not 'either/or'.

I went to a single-sex public school and the school's ethos was, 'We will identify the Oxbridges and the first and second 15.' I'm so bitter about that experience that it has shaped what I do now. No child is going to be written off because they are not engaged or not interested. Our basic tenet is that whoever walks through the doors of our school will get something from the learning experience that will support their weaknesses and polish and encourage their talents in equal measure.

Paul Green: At our school, we give children the opportunity to access their potential. We push their strengths, identify where their weaknesses are and try to accommodate them. Every child is valued. We try to give the children a sense of independence too, so they have control over their own learning. We've done this by developing a leadership qualification for Year 5 and Year 6 children. We also run workshops where parents come in and we show them how their children learn in school. They're sent a year group booklet, too, which explains a bit about different learning styles.

Paul Higgins: ICT can be a powerful tool for personalised learning too, as a way of enhancing creativity, for instance, and extending learning opportunities. It also helps teachers sustain varied and challenging paces of learning through working with smaller groups.

Alison Duckham: At our school, we all know the children extremely well and they know us very well. We often end up with quite large classes, as we have single form entry, and we brought in other teachers to make smaller groups for various things — this was the start of a culture that brought more personalised learning to our school.

The school really feels like a community in which everybody has an equal share — the governors, the staff and the support staff. The headteacher has vision and she can see the big picture. For the staff, sharing things more means we can meet individual children's needs a lot better.

Glenys Evans: We need to see every learner as the most important person involved in this equation. You have to be involved in that learner's development in every sphere of their life to ensure that they enjoy the process and develop those learning skills that enable them to be independent learners and ensure that they have that love of life.

I can remember working with one lady in my third year of teaching and her style of reprimanding children was to tower over them with a finger wagging and say 'And what makes you think you're so special then?' And it grated on me — I thought, 'She should be saying the opposite, shouldn't she?' My school's mission statement starts: 'At Claypool, every child is special.'

Two years ago, I visited South Africa. I went to 25 different schools. What I saw in the townships was the teacher teaching the block — a unit made up of 50 or 60 kids. What we are doing today is teaching individual children — but not teaching them individually all the time.

That is where we were in the 1980s, weren't we? We hoodwinked ourselves at that time that we were teaching the individual — but we were not. We have had to go through these processes in Britain I think to get to that level of refinement that's got it nearly right for most kids now.

What is personalised learning? At the end of the day, it's effective learning and that is not a new phenomenon — it has been around right from the start with the most effective teachers. You really look towards the child to tell you the answers, to see the effects of what you are doing with them.

Dave Smith: We are not talking about labour-intensive individualised programmes for each child, or about introducing new strategies. We're talking about pulling together the best of the best.

Paul Higgins: There is always a risk when you introduce a new lens with which to look at things that people will misinterpret things or perhaps take things the wrong way. I think we need to reassure people that this is about harnessing what is there and utilising it for a specific end, so that every pupil is special. It's about collaborative inquiry with teachers, its about engaging in a dialogue and harnessing the national strategies to provide support in certain areas. This is not a new idea but it is in a sense a new opportunity because different conditions apply now — workforce reform, technology, sustained investment, the national strategies, the best research in assessment for learning. Put that together and you have a powerful force to move forward, to realise the vision.

If personalised learning can develop a dialogue with the profession and a dialogue with pupils about learning, it will really energise schools in this country.

What's your view on personalised learning? If you'd like to continue the debate, please email us at teachers@schoolmagazines.co.uk

Further information

www.teachernet.gov.uk/teachingandlearning

This content was published in March 2004 and may not reflect current policy