Nancy Healy - Personalization vs. Differentiation

I believe there are distinct differences between personalization and differentiation. With personalized learning, students are actively involved and put in charge of their own learning. The students decide what they will learn, how they will learn, and how they will demonstrate their understanding. Teachers take the role of coach and mentor, and are willing to put more trust in their students and the learning process, even when it means their students may fail at times.

With differentiation, teachers are more actively involved in the learning process. They decide what needs to be learned and they drive the instruction based on the learning targets and the varying learning needs of different groups of students in their classroom.

I’m not sure if someone who took a quick glance into a classroom could tell between personalized learning and differentiation. But with a closer observation, the differences between the two would be clearly evident. With personalization, I think students would appear more engaged and motivated. They would be better able to describe what they know and what they still need to do to expand their knowledge. The students would be showing critical and creative thinking, and regularly assessing their own work and the work of their peers. There may be a variety of activities going on at the same time among individual students and collaborative groups of students. There may also be a wide variety of resources being used.  The teacher would be walking around the classroom, monitoring student progress and providing support where needed.

Collaborative groups and students being encouraged to work at higher levels can also be seen in a differentiated classroom. But because of the more active involvement of the teacher and students being grouped according to learning needs rather than learning interests, there may be lower engagement and motivation observed among some of the students. Some students may have a difficult time meaningfully and independently describing their learning targets and how they are working towards them. The classroom as a whole may appear more structured with pre-determined instructional groups working in different areas of the classroom using more limited resources based on the specific instructional needs of each group.