Personalization's Role in Post-Pandemic Education

The skill levels of students are bound to be more disparate than ever when we return to classrooms. How are we going to address it?

By Becky Jones, Special Educator/ Accessible Educational Materials Consultant

A System Exposed

No one could have prepared for the sudden shutdown of school buildings and the overnight adoption of distance learning. This sudden shift in how education was delivered highlighted the deficiencies and inequalities. While they have long plagued our education system, we had left it for another day.

That day arrived in March 2020 in the form of a pandemic. Suddenly, it was evident that students didn’t have equal access to technology or the internet. Teachers’ skill levels for digitally delivering education were wide-ranging due to a lack of meaningful training.

Families were not on equal footing for learning, and teachers were not on equal footing for teaching in this new model of education.

A Widening Gulf

Yet an even more significant problem is looming for the fall. Students will return from homes where some had their choice between multiple devices and parents who had the time and skill to work with them, versus those without a single computer or tablet. However, many others will be returning from homes of medical professionals or other essential workers who were limited on time and justifiably more concerned with keeping their families safe. Still, others will have lacked access to the specialized instruction from a team of professionals that gave their all to help students see steady but slow progress.

If teachers thought their classrooms had previously contained a widening continuum of abilities, they better get ready for September.

When students and teachers are finally able to return to classes, the gulf between students at the highest level of performance versus the lowest is going to be massive.

My question is, what are we going to do to support teachers and learners so that all students receive a quality education and a chance for targeted instruction?

Now is the time to plan. The old system will not be enough and shame on us if we try to carry on as before.

Reimagining

Currently, administrators, curriculum directors, and others who do not have full teaching loads are spending their time joining online lessons, checking on teacher’s Google Classrooms, and other monitoring activities. Can’t we better utilize their time with forward-thinking, sourcing training opportunities, or coverage for teachers so that they can help shape future programming?

For too long, we have held onto a one-size-fits-all approach for students and teachers.

• Each teacher in each class in a grade level had to be teaching the same math unit on the same day.
• Professional development had to be delivered in a face-to-face model on a set day within a narrow list of possible choices.
• Student products needed to be the same to fairly demonstrate mastery.

Except none of those things were ever true, and if we hold onto them after distance learning for up to three and a half months, our students are going to suffer even more. We will be increasing the negative educational impacts of this pandemic for months or even a year.

So how can we effectively use this time to prepare for the fall?

We need to improve our understanding and application of personalization.

Personalization for Students and Teachers

The future is uncertain, and while we hope school will take place in a building next fall, we are all learning that we don’t know. Imagine if instead of worrying what page we are on, on a particular day, we had provided students with a strong foundation. If we had taught them to be independent, how to learn, and what the expectations were. The idea of asking them to learn at home might not have been as worrisome.

We need to teach students in a way that uses data to target their instruction, provides options that allow them to demonstrate mastery, and encourages teachers to support students in a more individualized manner without making it cumbersome.

What does this look like in practice?

Focus on Professional Development

First, rather than worrying about teacher evaluation systems that perpetuate less authentic teaching, we need to encourage substantial growth. If we want personalized learning for students, how can we continue to withhold it from teachers?

Allow for online learning, engaging in professional development that looks different than all the teachers squeezed into a room a few days a year.

So often, just as with students, the application is what is missing in the days and months after PD. Why not allow a teacher to go online, find a solution such as an educational playlist and then put it into practice? Or encourage a high school math teacher to take the time to learn about screencasting and virtual whiteboards then be required to put it in practice on a unit’s lessons.

The benefits include students having access to video lessons to reference more than once. The teacher will then have class time for individualized or small group targeted support, whether that happens in a building or from a distance.

Look For New Ways to Monitor Performance and Engagement

Administration can monitor real products and results rather than ticks in a box for attendance.

Now is the time for school systems to listen to teachers about their needs, to consider cross-class and cross-grade configurations for personalization, and for the curation of resources that foster teacher competence in personalized learning.

Lecturing, thirty-minute whole class lessons, and getting through content rather than mastery can’t be what we return to whenever we are back in our classrooms.

Instead, we must embrace movement, collaboration, meaningful small group engagement, and viewing our students as individuals with unique needs.

Our students with learning challenges or lost educational opportunities, as well as our advanced students, will all benefit from a more personalized approach. Serving their social-emotional needs while meeting their academic needs will be critical whenever we do step back into our schools and come together in person.

We weren’t ignorant of the deficiencies and inequalities of our systems and programs before the pandemic. We didn’t take the time to address them. We will only be compounding them if we don’t work towards personalizing our student’s educational experiences as we move ahead.

Becky Jones is a writer, advocate, educator, accessible educational materials consultant, and entrepreneur. She is a graduate of the Fuse RI program by The Highlander Institute in Providence, RI, where she worked as a coach to other educators in the state around the effective implementation of personalized learning. She has left the traditional classroom to teach online, write, and through TechACCESS of RI, create a library of accessible materials for students in RI who are blind or have low vision. In addition to her work in education, Becky is a fierce advocate for mental wellness. She shares this passion through her writing on Medium, her website, and Instagram @ImperfectlyPeaceful Curious to see what materials make up an accessible library? Go check out her Twitter @BeckyJones105 to see what she is doing with 3D printing and more.

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