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Personalized

Research tell us that learning is the act of relationship building. “The more emotionally salient the experience, the more applicable to an individual’s life, the more personally relevant, the more novel and thus memorable, the more relationships a learner builds” (Reilly, 2020).

  • Learner agency

    Learning activities and assessments employ learner-led inquiry as a major learning strategy, thoughtfully interwoven with explicit instruction and well scaffolded opportunities to practice and develop metacognitive skills. Scaffolds adjust in structure from highly guided to open inquiry depending on learners’ abilities to self-guide their learning. Instructors act as coaches and mentors to support the learners’ inquiries.

  • Learner choice

    Learning activities and assessments provide learners with choices 1) regarding learning goals (which question to investigate); 2)  regarding learning resources (which author to read or write about, who to interview, etc.); 3)  regarding the format by which to demonstrate their understanding (written report, poster board, blog post, playlist, presentation, recording, lyrics, screenplay, etc.) 

  • Learner relevant

    Learning activities and assessments are viewed as relevant and meaningful to learners because they are rooted in learners’ backgrounds, interests, passions, and /or values. 

  • Learner socially – culturally connected

    Learning activities and assessments intentionally design connections between the academic subject matter and learners’ culture and lived experience and/or make the learner’s culture, social context, and lived experience a central topic of exploration.

  • Learner self-expression

    Learning activities and assessments encourage the exploration, development and self-expression of learners’ unique gifts and talents.

  • Learner creativity

    Learning activities and assessments set original and generative thinking as valued learning goals, encourage curiosity and experimentation, provide room for novel approaches and mistakes and/or set a creative challenge as the core component of a major assignment.

  • Learner attitudes and values

    Learning activities and assessments incorporate the discussion of attitudes and values in relation to the subject matter and ask learners to reflect on and share their subjective viewpoints while showing respect to the divergent viewpoints of others.