| Personalized
Schools Robert E. Lowery, John M. Jenkins, & Scott D. Thompson Good schools tend to be places where students are helped to see that what they are asked to learn adds quality to their lives. All learning is personal. Regardless of the consistency with which information is presented, each student interprets it is his or her own way. Although students may have common needs, satisfaction of those needs is unique, reflecting the myriad experiences each student has had in the process of growing up. Schools that work identify these experiences and build upon them. According to Torrance (1981), present evidence indicates that people prefer to learn in creative ways, such as by exploring, questioning, experimenting, risking and testing ideas. In contrast, teachers generally have required that students learn by authority. Glasser (1992) identifies the characteristics of a quality school program as one that enables students to satisfy the basic needs of belonging, power, freedom and fun. Of the four needs, he believes that the need for power is at the core of almost all school problems. All students want to feet important in school. Success in academics is an important way for students to gain a feeling of importance. Most schools fail to acknowledge individual differences. They opt for a uniform presentation of content with a resulting variation in achievement. Some students succeed at a high level; some not at all. A very large number learn only enough to pass the tests and get by. The result is hardly one of high quality. Several systems have been designed to personalize education. Among the most consequential are Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Richmond's Microsociety School, Keefe's DPIE Model, and various apprenticeship programs that place students with school and community mentors. While each of these approaches dfffer, they share a common theme; namely, personalized education is a system of teaching and learning that involves all aspects of the school-community. Primary to these systems is an instructional program that
Other components of these systems include flexibility of time, space, grouping, materials and staff utilization. The DPIE model may be the most appropriate one for expansion to other schools with its more than 25 years of successful applications in the western United States and Canada, including current programs at two Canadian schools -- Bishop Carroll, Calgary, Alberta, and Thomas Haney, Maple Ridge, British Columbia. This model originally was a basic element of the NASSP Model Schools Project (1969-1974) and was later refined by Keefe (1978, 1991, 1997).
The DPIE model is cyclical with each component naturally leading to the other. Evaluation, the last component, starts the process anew. The following conditions must be present if the learning environment is truly to be personalized:
Quality Exemplars Bishop Carroll High SchoolBishop Carroll is a high school which was specifically designed with the intent of providing a continuous progress personalized model of education. Under the direction of their teachers, Bishop Carroll students proceed through their courses, working at their own speed and consulting with the teachers as required. At Bishop Carroll, students students work independently and complete courses throughout the year. They also take exams when they are ready for them, maintaining their own rate of continuous progress. Final exams may be written every day of the year in the Testing Centre. Only students who are writing Grade 12 Diploma exams or Advanced Placement exams have to meet external schedules. Much of the course material is assembled in self-study packages so students can work continuously on their studies. Many students extend their learning time into the evenings, weekends, and school holidays. Each school day itself is continuous, with students stopping for lunch and breaks at times that they choose. All students schedule their own learning and testing to meet their own time requirements. Students who start late in the year, or leave early, or have to miss school time during the year, do not miss classes, assignments or exams. Students who are involved in mentoring, job-shadowing, work experience or interdisciplinary studies are afforded the flexibility to pursue their interests, without jeopardizing their studies. These activities are scheduled by each student -- not by the school. All courses have been packaged as independent-study materials known as learning guides. The learning guides tell students exactly what they must learn, show them how to learn it, and prepare them for testing and evaluation. Learning guides include a wide variety of activities such as reading books and articles, viewing videos and other media, completing questions and other assignments, conducting experiments, drawing sketches, playing instruments, and so on, depending on the subject. Teachers are always available in the Resource Centres to meet with individuals who want help with a learning guide activity. This one-on-one consultation is a powerful teaching/learning setting. With one teacher or assistant for every 12 students at Bishop Carroll, students are able to get help whenever they need it. But students at Bishop Carroll also have many opportunities for group learning. The learning guides often direct students to participate in team learning and seminars as well as large group presentations. Every Bishop Carroll teacher acts as a teacher adviser, responsible for overseeing the educational progress of a number of students. Each student is assigned to a teacher adviser and remains with that adviser until graduation. This allows the teacher adviser and the student to establish a strong and productive relationship. Teacher advisers meet with students as a group at least twice daily, and individually, as often as necessary. It is the teacher adviser's responsibility to know how well students are doing in all subjects, to help students set goals, to help motivate them, to assist in career planning, and to stay in touch with parents. Student work units completed in the learning guides are recorded daily by the teacher advisers. Students and teacher advisers jointly plan each student's schedule and constantly monitor achievement. The teacher advisers issue progress reports on a regular basis so parents can keep close tabs on the amount and quality of student work. Parents are urged to stay in touch with the teacher advisers by telephone or through personal interviews. Universities and colleges use scores on government diploma examinations to rate Alberta students. The provincial Diploma exams regularly reveal both the strength of the academic program at Bishop Carroll and its students' comniitment to success. The average Bishop Carroll Diploma exam results are constantly among the highest in the province. Thomas Haney Secondary Centre Thomas Haney was designed and constructed with a personalized education program in mind. Typical classroom spaces were replaced by large open spaces that excourage student and teacher collaboration. Much of the students' work is completed individually and in small groups. The curriculum requirements of the Ministry of Education are presented in a format that enables students to work at their own pace on learning tasks commensurate with their learning styles. Each academic course is defined in terms of units and learning guides. A course is composed of four units with five learning guides written for each unit. Each student develops a personalized educational plan with the assistance of a teacher adviser. Teacher advisers work with a multiage group of approximately I8 students. They meet with their advisees each day for 30 minutes at the beginning of the day to plan their daily schedules and then again at lunch for five minutes to check attendance. Advisers are empowered to assign students to appropriate learning centres for varying lengths of time. Required group meetings are placed first on the daily schedule. The remainder of the day is planned for individual and group work as appropriate for each student. Physical education and music students meet in groups two to three times per week. Physical education is divided into four units: team games, individual events, personal development and outdoor pursuits. Each unit equals 25 % of the total course and offers a variety of activities to meet the requirements. Choral and instrumental music students work individually and meet in small group practice sessions, in addition to meeting as a total group. Teacher advisers monitor student progress continuously using a computer network that links teacher "outstations" with a central control center. Advisers access advisee records as needed. The school administers the Learning Style Profile developed by the National Association of Secondary School Principals. The results of this instrument are used by teacher advisers and teachers to assist students in selecting activities within learning guides and in choosing appropriate learning environments. A recent assessment of secondary schools in British Columbia indicated that Thomas Haney outscored all schools on the final English provincial examination and the final English literature examination. One Haney student attained the highest mark in the province on the French examination. The Province, Vancouver's major newspaper, ranked Thomas Haney as the number one secondary school in the province based on the results of the provincial examinations completed in 1996. Rolfsen (1997), a news writer for the local paper, concluded that Thomas Haney has "become the place for teens to go if they want to learn to be more independent." Characteristics of Personalization The personalized education model proposed here consists of five components: (1) the learner; (2) the process; (3) time; (4) interaction, and (5) outcomes.
References Keefe, J.W. (1991) "Personalized education," in Keefe, J.W.. & Jenkins, J.M. eds. Instructional leadership handbook, Reston. VA: National Association of Secondary School Principals. Keefe, J. W. & Jenkins, J. M. (1997). Instruction and the learning environment. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education. Rolfsen, E. "Alternative school comes of age,"
Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Times, The Sunday Province, February 16, 1997. Vancouver, British Columbia. Torrance, E. Paul (1981). "Implications of whole-brained theories of learning," Journal of Computer-Based Instruction, 7 (4), 99-105. |