The Personalization of Learning
Before Dewey, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (an Eighteenth-Century philosopher and author) established the groundwork for what would become the Progressivist movement. Combining ideas of scientific reasoning, romanticism and Naturalism, Rousseau, extrapolated that human growth and learning were natural processes that needed to be supported and nurtured in natural environments. Influenced by Rousseau’s work, Child-centered Progressives encourage students to explore their own environments, and learn in a style of their choosing. Again, this typically translated to a Natural environment, where the young students would be free to develop their self-identity, or amour de soi. This is reflected in the CBe-learn philosophy of student-centred learning. According to the CBe-learn Outcomes: “Students will use personalized learning opportunities to accommodate their diverse learning styles and unique schedules, improving completion rates”. Student Choice and Personalization are at the heart of the CBe-learn program. The programs at CBe-learn offer students the opportunity to indulge in the courses, assignments and projects that are of interest and importance to them on a personal, meaningful level. By offering such personalized choices to students, CBe-learn is effectively able to make a significant impact on all students’ learning. This connects to Dewey’s position as Progressive, as the goal is to respect and revere past practices, while simultaneously creating something better than before.
Tools of the Trade
The Progressive Education Association, with Dewey as the established president, had a number of student-centred goals and principles. One of the goals of these Progressivists was to foster greater cooperation among the teacher, the school, the home and the family. CBe-learn has embraced this commitment, and understands that the student is better served when all aspects of his / her education work in concert, rather than in opposition. To this end, CBe-learn has become committed to using the e-Portfolio tool embedded within our Learning Management System. The e-Portfolio tool allows for great personalization, and the student has the ability to explore their individual interests and passions. It can be used in a variety of ways, and is an excellent tool to collaborate and communicate outside of the virtual classroom. Using this tool, the student can better connect any personalized work with her / his family members. In this way, parents are able to comment on student assessment and work, and can obtain progress reports and updates from the teacher in real-time.
Rather than seeing the teacher as the giver of knowledge, Progressivists regard the teacher as the director of research and inquiry. The role of the teacher is to guide students in their learning, and help them come to a stronger realization and appreciation of the subject matter and material. This is apparent at CBe-learn in the way in which Inquiry is a central focus of many core academic courses. Not always a popular or well-received choice, the directive for Inquiry-based learning came through experimentation and action research into best practices in this online environment. Progressivists gravitated towards Dewey’s experimental “Laboratory” school, understanding that innovation and new ideas need to percolate in an observable, but separate environment. In this regard, so too have progressive and innovative educators been drawn to CBe-learn, through the school’s mandate of “Learning Lab of the Future”. This exemplifies Dewey’s position of bringing out the best in education, in hopes of ameliorating teacher practice and student success in the future.
Room for Progress
Although CBe-learn is committed to many of the philosophies associated with a Progressivist view, economic, political and social realities prevent CBe-learn from exhibiting an idealistic vision of Progressive education. William H. Kilpatrick, a pedagogue and educator, designed the Project Method, whereby students’ learning would focus less on memorization, textbook learning or teacher-dominated delivery. Instead, students would be engaged in collaborative, democratic learning environments where they are able to pick, plan and execute their personalized learning activities or projects. In addition, like other Progressivists, Kilpatrick was committed to Sensory Learning, where the student learner is surrounded by authentic experiences. In the virtual environment of CBe-learn, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to offer students these same rich, rewarding educational experiences. Although offered many choices and opportunities, students are limited in the external sensory input they can receive in this environment, and are not able to partake in many hands-on “fieldtrips” as would ideal to Progressivists.
CBe-learn, like all schools within the province, is constrained by a number of external factors, such as Government-regulated Diploma Exams. A true Progressivist approach would prohibit students from being assessed in an inauthentic manner which attempts to impose external standards on students. Furthermore, Progressivists believe that to bring about better social conditions, student learning should be measured in terms of social, moral, physical and mental development. There has been some work in the Calgary Board of Education to begin reporting and assessing students in a variety of areas, including Academic Success, Citizenship, Personal Development and Character. Within the next school year, a progress report will be developed that address these specific outcomes, or ENDS. Students, teachers and parents will be involved in the assessment of these personal criteria, even though students’ overall success and completion of High School won’t be impacted, as that is under the jurisdiction of Alberta Education. This is an instance of the school board taking a more Progressive standpoint than the legislative, governing body. Although CBe-learn cannot currently address these critical concerns, by having an understanding of the pragmatic limitations, our administration can help place the school in a position to expand its Progressive tendencies whenever (and wherever) possible. Continually striving towards a better way of offering education is a prime exemplar of Dewey’s position: successful education should continually endeavour to be better.
Counter-Argument
Some may argue that Dewey’s quotation does not support a Progressivist model of education, as he was himself critical of some aspects of Progressive Education. Dewey was concerned that many who claimed to subscribe to the Progressivists’ view were doing so in a reactionary manner – reacting or indeed revolting against “traditional” forms of education. However, this argument lacks merit, as Dewey’s criticism was in response to how some people were implementing Progressivism, not to the established theories and practices themselves. Some educators were calling themselves Progressivist, whereas they were merely reactionary to “Traditional” education. These educators produced certain activities that were devoid of any social or educational merit, but were put into place only because they were in direct contrast to what was happening in traditional educational settings. In a similar manner, some technology integration has been seen as “technology for technology’s sake”. However, CBe-learn has never subscribed to this philosophy. All of the technological integrations are put into place for a specific, educationally-sound reason and purpose. In fact, part of the CBe-learn plan is to support teachers and students throughout the CBE, and ensure that Distributed Learning technologies are being used in an engaging and purposeful manner to ameliorate teaching and learning conditions in a broader context.
Conclusion
Dewey’s statement clearly highlights his belief in a Progressive education being responsible for bringing positive changes and progress to the educational milieu. CBe-learn has many qualities of a Progressive school, but because of current economic and political constraints, it needs to exist within a larger overall context. At this time, it is not possible for CBe-learn to exemplify an exclusive Progressivist philosophy, but the school’s philosophy is grounded in a strongly Progressivist ideology. Although it’s been 90 years since the inception of the Progressivist movement, it is unmistakably found in the online, virtual classrooms of CBe-learn.
References
- Calgary Board of Education (CBE). (2009) Three year plan 2009 – 2012. Calgary: Accountability Services of the Calgary Board of Education.
- CBe-learn. (2008). CBe-learn School Development Plan 2008 – 2011. Calgary: CBe-learn.
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