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Next Practice in Resourcing Personalisation |
BackgroundThe Innovation Unit Next Practice project, Next Practice in Resourcing Personalisation (previously called Resourcing aspects of personalisation), investigates how schools might deploy their resources more effectively to support educational provision that meets the needs of all learners. The project will inform how the Department and schools think about the management of resources as education is re-shaped around the needs of users - children and young people. Throughout all the Innovation Next Practice projects we are seeking to go beyond the best of what is currently happening in schools to imagine and develop what will be the new next practice in education. From autumn 2006, we will be supporting a number of field trials to address this challenge. The Innovation Unit is working closely with the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT) to deliver this project, drawing on their innovative work on developing Design and Research Networks. Find out more about the work of SSAT. Next Practice in Resourcing Personalisation has four strands, or domains, within the broad area of how personalised learning is to be resourced. These strands are not designed to be restrictive, but offer a framework for beginning our investigations into a complex and wide-ranging subject. 1: Harnessing technology for learningHow can technology be used to embed a personalised approach to learning across our schools? Schools and practitioners across the country are using new technologies in ways that are transforming traditional learning. Teachers are able to organise their work and to manage and use data about student performance in new ways. This can have a great impact on learning. The use of laptops, internet and e-mail, interactive whiteboards and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), video-conferencing, wireless networks and Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) is becoming commonplace in our schools, enabling learners to develop new kinds of skills and to access a greater range of resources than ever before. In addition, new technologies are allowing students greater levels of choice in terms of how, when and where (and with whom) they progress with their work. Through new applications of ICT, students are accessing lesson plans and resources from home and working collaboratively with their peers on projects, with 'experts' from beyond their school, and with students from other parts of the globe. Schools are using ICT to experiment with new forms of assessment which allow students to be assessed in personalised ways, at times appropriate to their own development. ICT is also being used to give students a greater voice in the running of their schools. We invited people to send in examples of current practice in this domain. Harnessing technology for learning (PDF - 100 Kb). 2: The use of timeHow might we better structure our use of time to deliver personalised learning? The tradition that education must be structured according to uniform units of time has been questioned by a small minority of educators for many years, but now this idea is being taken up more widely. The conventional wisdoms of the standard lesson, the conventional school day and the fixed timetable and term, along with the concept of progressing through classes defined by year of birth, are being challenged by innovative schools. Those who are committed to personalising learning are introducing much greater levels of flexibility into their arrangements. They are acknowledging that:
In some schools, lessons are now of differing lengths, school days are extended and lunch breaks are varied or abandoned. Others have created six to ten day timetables and are experimenting with term and year length. In some of the most radical English examples (it is a much more established practice in the United States), schools are catering for two or more cohorts of pupils who use the same building at different times, while teachers, teaching assistants and support staff work in shifts. We invited people to send in examples of current practice in this domain. The use of time (PDF - 81 Kb). 3: Co-constructing learning with studentsHow can we offer personalisation in education by co-constructing and designing learning with students? Many schools in this country are currently working in ways that encourage and enable children and young people to play a much more active role in their own learning. A small number of schools have worked in this way for many years. Now there is a more general exploration of the traditional roles that imagined students as the passive recipients of knowledge and teachers as its expert transmitters - and technology is adding a new dimension to this "expert teacher" and "novice student" divide. New and different models are being explored; ones that endeavour to put the needs of students at the centre of the picture, and seek to support and empower them to direct and shape their own learning. Innovative practitioners are currently finding ways to offer students greater levels of choice about what, where, how and with whom they learn, as well as when and how they might be assessed. They are creating the means (often harnessing the potential of ICT) to register the needs, preferences and aspirations of individual learners, and are focussing efforts on developing the skills students need to take control over their own learning. We are entering an era in which students are increasingly imagined as the 'co-designers' of their own education. We invited people to send in examples of current practice in this domain. Co-constructing learning with students (PDF - 421 Kb) 4: The learning environmentHow can we construct environments for learning that offer the support students need for personal learning? Striving to meet the challenge of personalising learning is happening at the same time as a profound reconsideration of how schools are designed. The DfES' Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme demonstrates significant commitment to rethinking schools in this country, so that we may become more relevant and responsive to the needs of individuals and communities. A number of initiatives such as joinedupdesign-forschools, are involving students in school design, and this move is being reflected in the BSF programme more generally. Schools are indeed beginning to change. Our learning environments (which might include media studios, farms, businesses or wherever students can plug in a laptop) are becoming increasingly varied, so much so that the concepts of 'school' and 'classroom' often seem outmoded. When we talk about redesigning schools, however, we are not just talking about buildings, but the many spaces in which children and young people learn. Some educational leaders and practitioners are thinking beyond the actual bricks and mortar the school building when they think about the kind of learning environment they want to construct - to a student's life beyond the classroom and the range of factors that might inhibit or enable effective learning. Providing Extended School facilities or building better bridges between schools and other agencies can provide students with support they may need to make the best of their education. Thinking about the learning environment, in this instance, means thinking about the best way of helping students to be in emotional space and place where they can learn effectively. We invited people to send in examples of current practice in this domain. The learning environment (PDF - 84 Kb). Resources and practiceIn order to inform the development of Next Practice in this area, we have scanned the available research, in this country and abroad, for interesting current practice. We have also connected with current examples of practice both through literature review and direct engagement with leading practitioners. The closing date for submissions to this project has now passed. Thanks to all those who expressed an interest in working with us. If you missed our deadline but would still like to be involved, then join our communites of interest (see below for details of how to join). Find out moreWe are establishing communities of interest associated with all the Next Practice projects. If you would like to register to join and receive regular updates and opportunities to engage with this work, please e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it stating your position, organisation and which of the projects you are interested in, e.g. leadership, personalisation or whole community. You can engage in live discussions about all of the Next Practice projects via the Innovation Community in talk2Learn. If you have any specific queries about any aspect of this Next Practice project, please e-mail the Next Practice Resourcing aspects of personalisation team at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . |
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