All learning should be personal – we are teaching individual students, after all – but when advocates talk about “personalized learning” they are often describing programs and teaching methods that look unlike the typical school. They envision school as a place where students have more control over their own studies; where they are not constrained by age or grade level; where children can move through subjects as fast or slowly as they need. Educators, researchers and advocates still quibble over the precise definition of personalized learning, but most agree on this much: In these classrooms teachers don’t pass out identical worksheets and tests to every student.
