The complexity of differentiated instruction within the traditional learning K-12 environment is accelerated by many teachers’ limited understanding of the concept, lack of autonomy with decisions, the surmounting responsibilities they have that fall outside of the immediate scope of teaching and learning, and the lack of practical differentiation strategies. Differentiated instruction involves addressing the various learning needs of students within the same space and diversifying the strategies and methodologies used to further each student’s immediate knowledge. According to ASCD (n.d.), when a teacher differentiates instruction, he or she actively plans for students’ differences so students can learn best. Ultimately, differentiated instruction is student-centered. A subset of differentiated instruction is personalized adaptive learning.

Personalized adaptive learning (PAL) combines personalized learning, which refers to the various strategies used to personalize learning for individual students, and adaptive--or customized delivery of--learning. Table 1 provides definitions of personalized and adaptive learning offered by different organizations, including the U.S. Department of Education and EDUCAUSE.

Table 1

Adaptive Learning and Personalized Learning

According to Peng, Ma, and Spector (2019), PAL includes individual differences, personal needs, personal development, and adaptive adjustment. Peng et al. offered three approaches to PAL: (1) alter the first approach of teaching strategies based on the variations in individual characteristics (circular); (2) alter the teaching strategies combined with the differences and changes in current individual performance (horizontal ellipse); and (3) adjust the teaching strategies combined with the differences and changed in personal development vision (vertical ellipse), which is based on their framework for PAL.

According to Peng et al., “The horizontal axis acts as an adaptation axis to characterize the current individual performance and the vertical axis is used as a personality axis to characterize the personal development. The two-axis intersection acts as individual characteristics to represent differentiated instruction shared by personalized learning and adaptive learning” (See Figure 1) (para. 13).

Figure 1

Personalization Adaptive Learning

The approaches offered by Peng et al. would likely prove less taxing in a virtual ecology. However, it would benefit most of America’s teachers to observe such adaptive behaviors, so they can duplicate them in their face-to-face environments.

References

ASCD. (n.d.) Differentiated instruction. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/research-a-topic/differentiated-instruction-resources.aspx

Peng, H., Ma, S. & Spector, J.M. Personalized adaptive learning: an emerging pedagogical approach enabled by a smart learning environment. Smart Learn. Environ. 6, 9 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40561-019-0089-y