Four scenarios of personalized learning integration mediated by a digital platform

Abstract

The process of humanization, placing a person at the heart of learning and teaching, has become a key movement in education to meet the requirements of the 21st century. In this regard, designing innovations to serve the human needs first is essential. Personalized learning (PL), being an example of a human-centric innovation, is a promising methodology that leads to positive student's outcomes. However, it has not found its way in the practical implementation and has become a topic for heated debates among different stakeholders. This study investigates PL at the secondary education level underpinned by a digital platform. The PL integration is analyzed from the perspective of teacher practice (TP) which integrates the digital platform built on the PL methodology. In accordance with the thematic analysis of the interviews and the developed matrix of indicators for TP, PL has found its realization in four scenarios. In order to construct the scenarios, the study involves 24 semi-structured interviews with secondary school teachers. Prior to the interviewing, the participants were categorized in nine profiles due to the survey results of NorBa (traditional-constructivist beliefs) and technology readiness index (TRI). The results indicate that TP embraces four scenarios of the PL integration. The study outlines personalized learning as one of the scenarios, partial personalization (individualization and differentiation), non-personalized TP (traditionalism), and TP without digital platform embedding.