What is it? Personalized Learning Experiences (PLE)

Personalized Learning Experiences (PLE) is a mesh of ideas that comes from various psychologists and educational experts. I am the first to admit that I did not come up with everything by myself. I have taken others ideas, which I will give full credit too, but I added my own thinking to the mix. On my first post you can see the working definition of PLE in which I created but utilized some of the geniuses to combined my idea together.

Its very important and a key part to this work  that we learn from others (teachers, parents, or peers). Learning is not static or isolated but an open process which is constantly changing through out our life span (too many people to source). However, we all learn differently so learning must be personalized to an individuals specific needs. The basic goal of PLE is to utilize what the learner has in their current repertoire and expand on those through systematic teaching methods. If correction is needed then we adjust  as well to produce better outcomes.

I have set a basic outline of the components for PLE - the "what" so to speak of. They have been identified in the specific components for creating better learners. I have yet to determine which comes first. Right now it is some what of  a "who came first, the chicken or the egg" scenario. In order to meet the goals of PLE we need to focus on the following not just ourselves but in the students we teach. The five most important aspects for PLE are hope, mindfulness, mindset, active learning, and grit.

1. Hope:  “a positive motivational state that is based on an interactively derived sense of successful (a) agency (goal-directed energy) and (b) pathways (planning to meet goals)” (Snyder, Irving & Anderson (1991, as cited in Snyder, 2000, p.8).
2. Mindfulness: attention to the internal and external experiences occurring in the present moment. (Kabat-Zinn, J., 1994 & 2013; Creswell, J.D., 2016).
3. Growth Mindset: "...understanding that  talents and abilities can be developed through effort, good teaching and persistence... believe everyone can get smarter if they work at it." (Dewek, 2012).
4. Active Learning: meaningful interactions through the development of thinking strategies. (Feuerstein, R., 1979).
5. Grit: passion and perseverance for developing long-term goals. (Duckworth, A. 2013).

We hear many of the top theorists give us the "what" but the true need is the "how". This clearly is the most important aspect of teaching and learning. We don't want to just give information but we want to "withdrawal" or havedevelop these skills for themselves. But "how"?

In upcoming blogs I will address each of the 5 I have identified plus more.

Welcome!

I am so excited to be creating my own blog to help educators further their learning. The goal of this blog is to not only to write but to create a community of learners. I strongly believe that we learn from each other - student to student, teacher to teacher, parent to parent. This is critical to personalized learning experiences.

Over  the years I have come to the never ending working idea of personalized learning experiences (PLE). You will read a lot about my mentor Reuven Feuerstein whos theory of Structural Cognitive Modifiability and methods of Mediated Learning Experience have forged the development of my idea. Additionally, I will make connections to some of the "great" educators throughout history.

The general definition of personalized learning experience is "a specific and systematic mode of interaction based on the social-constructivist view point which incorporates the practice of 21st-century skills in communication, knowledge sharing, critical thinking and use of relevant technologies so that individuals can generalize and transfer their knowledge and build a strong foundation for communicating ideas. It creates a culture of change management that enables advance learning rather than react to mandates and other episodic changes..."

With this I plan to discuss different topics to further generate the idea of personalized learning experiences and commit to the ever expanding topic of 21st Century Skills and deeper learning.

"There is always something worth fighting for" - Kate Bellanca