Leading, Implementing, and Sustaining Innovations in Personalized Learning

Leading, Implementing, and
Sustaining Innovations in
Personalized Learning
Tim Hudson, PhD
Vice President of Learning
@DocHudsonMath

Supporting the collaborative development of effective
personalized learning models: Ideas that help leaders
create and sustain innovations that benefit students,
teachers, parents, and school culture.
• Mission and Vision: What are our schools and programs
“in business” to accomplish?
• Effort with Impact: How can data drive ongoing
improvement in student achievement and personalized
learning models?
• Pedagogy and Technology: When does technology
appropriately support personalized learning in
pedagogically sound ways?

Is your school or district implementing
personalized learning?

differentiated instruction?

blended learning?

blended learning?
competency-based learning?

blended learning?
competency-based learning?
WHY?

• We are personalizing learning in order to ________________________________.
• Differentiated instruction will ensure that ________________________________.
• Blended learning is our model for guaranteeing ___________________________.
• Competency-based learning helps us achieve ____________________________.
Is Our Mission Clear?

Leading, Implementing, &
Sustaining Personalized Learning
requires a clear and consistent
commitment to Mission & Vision

•“Not schooling by habit or
impulse.”
•“Without a commitment to
mission, we don’t really have a
school; we just have a home for
freelance tutors of subjects.”
Plan Schooling Backwards
p. 11, 25, Wiggins & McTighe, © 2007

“Our mission is to ensure success for all our
students. We will do whatever it takes to ensure
their success –
Schooling by Habit?
Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work, ©2008, DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, pp. 114-115

“Our mission is to ensure success for all our
students. We will do whatever it takes to ensure
their success –
provided we don’t have to change the schedule,
modify any of our existing practices, or adopt any
new practices.”
Schooling by Habit?
Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work, ©2008, DuFour, DuFour, Eaker, pp. 114-115

The Mission of the Parkway School District is
to ensure all students are
capable, curious, and confident learners
who understand and respond to the
challenges of an ever-changing world.

Aspects of
Personalized
Learning & Schooling

Aspects of
Personalized
Competency-Based Learning

“People must learn to recognize when they
understand and when they need more
information…[People] learn to take control
of their own learning by defining learning
goals and monitor their progress in
achieving them… Transfer can be
improved by helping students become
more aware of themselves as learners who
actively monitor their learning…”
How People Learn, p. 12, 18, 67

Differentiated Instruction
Aspects of
Personalized

“…the contemporary view of learning is that people construct
new knowledge and understandings based on what they
already know and believe… A critical feature of effective
teaching is that it elicits… pre-existing understanding of the
subject matter to be taught and provides opportunities to build
on – or challenge – the initial understanding… [A person’s]
initial conceptions then provide the foundation on which the
more formal understanding of the subject matter is built.”
How People Learn, p. 10, 13-15, 19

Blended Learning

Blended Learning
“…pay close attention to the individual
progress of each [person] and devise tasks
that are appropriate…Present [learners] with
‘just manageable difficulties’ – that is,
challenging enough to maintain
engagement, but not so difficult as to lead to
discouragement.”
How People Learn, p. 24

Blended Learning
Aspects of
Personalized

Staffing
Scheduling, Materials, Technology
Blended Learning
Aspects of
Personalized

requires flexibility, creativity and
innovation to achieve the Mission

“A looming question is whether personalized learning that
works in, say, a tight-knit, mission-driven charter school
can be reliably translated into traditional district schools
with many more students, less flexible schedules, keener
standardized-test worries and cultures steeped in
established ways of teaching and learning.”
Summit Model & Basecamp Platform Pilots
C. Berdick, Tipping point: Can Summit put personalized learning over the top? www.hechingerreport.org © 2017

Mission-Driven
Standardized Test Worries
Culture of Teaching & Learning
Tight-knit
Less Flexible Schedule
“Traditional district
schools with many
more students”

The only prerequisites for would-be Basecamp schools are:
1. Commitment to Summit’s grading policy
• 30 percent of grades on mastery of content; students take tests only when they feel
ready and, if they fail, can re-take them until they pass
• 70 percent of grades on students’ use of various cognitive skills, such as making
inferences and clearly communicating their ideas
2. One-to-one ratio of computers to students
3. Team of at least four teachers covering the core academic subjects for about
100 students

Summit’s Grading & Testing System
At least 4 core teachers for every 100 students
1:1 ratio of students to computers
Summit Basecamp Personalized
Learning Pilot Requirements

Basecamp schools are creative with scheduling, finding
myriad ways to fit in personalized-learning time, mentoring
and projects while carving out extra time for teachers to
plan lessons jointly and confer about students.

Learning Pilots’ Creativity
Creative Scheduling
Teacher Time for Planning & Conferring

Creative Scheduling
What about the
Learning?

Creative Scheduling
Learning Lives Here
And Here

FLIPPED-CLASSROOM ENRICHED-VIRTUAL
Graphic from H. Staker, M. Horn, Classifying K-12 Blended Learning, © 2012

What is happening with the teacher?

What is happening on the computers?

Blending is a means to what ends?
What is happening on the computers?

requires a clear definition and
shared understanding of what
“Personalized Learning” means

Today’s Lesson: Fraction Operations

I haven’t learned
anything new all
year. This math
class is boring.
This is way too
hard. It doesn’t
make sense.
I give up!
This math class
is just right for
me – not too
hard, not too
easy.

Why?

Why?
Because these students were all born during the
same 12-month window about 11 years ago.

Seat-time policies, pacing calendars,
standardized testing schedules, age-
based classrooms and weak
competency-based tools make it
difficult for me to personalize and
differentiate.

Student 1 in
DreamBox Student 2 in
DreamBox

The Pacing Calendar
(Fraction Operations)
is Here
Student 1 in
DreamBox Student 2 in
DreamBox

Personalized
Schooling
Personalized
Learning
Industrial
Schooling
Industrial
Learning
Personalized (Relational)
Impersonal (Industrial)

Personalized
Schooling
Personalized
Learning
Industrial
Schooling
Industrial
Learning
Schooling
Structures from
Adults

Personalized
Schooling
Empowering Learning
Experiences, Critical Thinking,
Creativity, Exploration.
Students “Think & Do” using Their
Own Intuitive Ideas
School Policies & Structures are
Designed for Efficiency,
Economy & Scale.
Fixed Schedule, Location,
Path & Pace
Age-Based Pacing Calendars
Traditional Lesson Paradigm of
Mass Instruction
Teach, Practice, Test
Students “Sit & Get” the
Teacher’s Ideas
Schooling
Structures from
Adults

Designed for Students as Unique
Individuals.
Strategic & Varied Schedules,
Locations, Paths & Paces
Personalized
Learning
Economy & Scale.
Path & Pace
Industrial
Learning
Schooling
Structures from
Adults

Math is boring. Every
math class is the
same: Lecture,
practice, lecture,
practice, quiz, test. It’s
not engaging, or
authentic.
I know how to win at
school. I just wait for
the teacher to show me
how to solve familiar
problems.
I feel like it makes sense
when my teacher shows it
in class, but I’m lost when
I get home.

What are students
doing in this lesson?
Is it personalized?
If so, how?

Individuals.
Personalized
Learning
Economy & Scale.
Path & Pace
Industrial
Learning
Learning
Pedagogy
with
Students
Schooling
Structures from
Adults

Individuals.
Personalized
Learning
Economy & Scale.
Path & Pace
Mass Instruction
Students “Sit & Get” Someone
Else’s Ideas (Rote Knowledge)
Learning
Pedagogy
with
Students
Schooling
Structures from
Adults

Individuals.
Empowering Learning
Own Intuitive Ideas
Economy & Scale.
Path & Pace
Mass Instruction
Learning
Pedagogy
with
Students
Schooling
Structures from
Adults

What are you
ready to learn?
What do you
think about it?
When were you
born?
What did
someone else tell
you to think?
Learning
Pedagogy
with
Students
Schooling
Structures from
Adults

Learning is not accomplished by
putting thoughts into a mind, but
rather by empowering a mind to
generate thoughts.
- T. Hudson

requires a commitment to sound
pedagogy both with and without
technology

Individuals.
Empowering Learning
Own Intuitive Ideas
Economy & Scale.
Path & Pace
Mass Instruction
BlendedBlended
Learning
Pedagogy
with
Students
Schooling
Structures from
Adults

Individuals.
Empowering Learning
Own Intuitive Ideas
Economy & Scale.
Path & Pace
Mass Instruction
BlendedBlended
Is there
an app for
this?
Is there
an app for
this?
Is there
an app for
this?
Is there
an app for
this?
Learning
Pedagogy
with
Students
Schooling
Structures from
Adults

“True virtual manipulatives allow more than simply a
viewing of objects on the computer screen. They allow
increased engagement, forcing the user to interact with
dynamic objects. Through this interaction students
have opportunities to make meaning and see
relationships as a result of their own actions. And it is
this interactive engagement with a dynamic
representation that is the key to the knowledge
construction process.”
From Virtual Manipulatives In The K-12 Classroom, Moyer, Bolyard, Spikell, 2002

Back at Summit Denali… the goal of personalized-learning time is
not to replace teacher-student interactions but to enhance them. By
offloading some rote learning to a computer — such as memorizing
the steps of cell division or the formulas for sine, cosine and
tangent — “we can make the most of the connections between
teachers and kids,” he said. “We want more of those interactions to
be about big ideas, deeper learning and the sort of feedback that
you can only get from a real, live adult.”

• the use of memory usually with little intelligence
• mechanical or unthinking routine or repetition
Rote Learning Defined (Merriam Webster)
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rote

Individuals.
Empowering Learning
Own Intuitive Ideas
Economy & Scale.
Path & Pace
Mass Instruction
BlendedBlended
Summit
Basecamp
Platform
Learning
Pedagogy
with
Students
Schooling
Structures from
Adults

Individuals.
Empowering Learning
Own Intuitive Ideas
Economy & Scale.
Path & Pace
Mass Instruction
BlendedBlended
Summit
Basecamp
Platform
Summit
computer
use
Learning
Pedagogy
with
Students
Schooling
Structures from
Adults

Teachers: Big Ideas, Deeper Learning, Feedback
Summit Basecamp
Model

Computers: Rote learning
Summit Basecamp
Model

Blending to enhance teacher-student interactions
Computers: Rote learning
Summit Basecamp
Model

Learning Model
Creative Scheduling
Big Ideas
Deeper Learning, Feedback, Rote Learning

“Technology–enabled innovations have a different
problem… those that provide online content
and learning materials, use basic pedagogy – most
often in the form of introducing concepts by video
instruction and following up with a series of
progression exercises and tests. Other digital
innovations are simply tools that allow teachers to do
the same age-old practices but in a digital format.”
(p. 25)
Fullan & Donnelly on Digital Pedagogy
Fullan & Donnelly, Alive in the Swamp: Assessing Digital Innovations in Education, © July 2013, www.nesta.org/uk

Most Schools Aren’t
Changing This
Ed-Tech is
Digitizing This
Economy & Scale.
Path & Pace
Mass Instruction
Students “Sit & Get” the
Teacher’s Ideas
Learning
Pedagogy
with
Students
Schooling
Structures from
Adults
BlendedBlended

requires ongoing data-driven
improvement

Elements of Data-Driven
Schooling & Learning
Teachers Planning & Conferring
Data about Student Performance
Data about Student Learning & Progress
Scheduling Teachers Planning & Conferring
Teacher Fluency with Data Analysis
Teacher Access to Data

Elements of Data-Driven
Schooling & Learning
How frequently are teachers using data?
How rich are your student performance data?
How often are student data collected & reported?
When are teachers empowered to use data?
How well-equipped are teachers in using data?
When and where do teachers access data?

requires continuous professional
learning about how other leaders
and schools are designing for

Learning Personalized KnowledgeWorks

Leading, Implementing, & Sustaining Personalized Learning requires:
1. a clear and consistent commitment to Mission & Vision
2. flexibility, creativity and innovation to achieve the Mission
3. a clear definition and shared understanding of what “Personalized
Learning” means
4. a commitment to sound pedagogy both with and without technology
5. ongoing data-driven improvement
6. continuous professional learning about how other leaders and schools
are designing for Personalized Learning

Thank you!
Tim Hudson, PhD
Vice President of Learning
@DocHudsonMath

Free Resources at dreambox.com/white-papers

DreamBox Learning® K–8 Math
Available in English & Spanish

Intelligently adapt & individualize to:
• Students’ own intuitive strategies
• Kinds of mistakes
• Efficiency of strategy
• Scaffolding needed
• Response time
DreamBox Lessons & Virtual Manipulatives

Equip Teachers as Activators of Learning with Actionable Student Data
Click to learn more >>
Dashboards for teachers,
administrators, and
families
• Offer insight into depth of
learning so educators can
see when to accelerate
learning, offer remediation,
and adjust their classroom
instruction
• Enable educators to create
differentiated assignments
for every student via
AssignFocus™
• Create deeper home-to-
school connections with the
Family Insight Dashboard.

Nurture Teachers’ Confidence as Math Practitioners
Through comprehensive and ongoing professional development,
we walk side by side with educators to align professional learning
to their instructional goals, deepen math understanding, and refine
instructional practice.
“I love doing online courses that allow me to
work on my teaching practices. One-on-one
support is given to students to work at their
own pace.”
Jessica | Teacher
Center of HOPE, CO
Customized professional learning that goes beyond
product training to:
• Support successful blended learning implementations
• Increase efficacy of instructional practice
• Expand math teaching “toolkits” by helping educators to learn
multiple teaching strategies.

Efficacy: Independent Validation
from CEPR at Harvard University
101
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Leading, Implementing, and Sustaining Innovations in Personalized Learning

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