How Voice Empowers Personalized Learning
June 01, 2020
Appears in June 2020: School Administrator.
Through field-based experiences, the authors have identified four attributes for building a supportive culture inside schools
![Bena Kallick and Allison Zmuda](/images/default-source/school-administrator/2020-june/20-bena-kallick-(left)-and-allison-zmuda-3-of-4.jpg?sfvrsn=1160f6a5_9)
School communities are reimagining policies, practices and technologies to personalize student learning in the here and now of the classroom as well as anticipating the uncertainties of the future.
Schools often adopt technologies that require
students to navigate instruction through a series of topics independently and that communicate how students are growing in relation to desired outcomes.
However, technology needs to be disentangled from personalized learning to adapt to
a culture that is personal and relational. A noticeable shift unfolds in a school’s personalized learning culture when every teacher’s voice is respected and given weight. Teachers can harvest the seeds of their ideas, imaginings and innovations,
and effective thinking and problem solving flourishes.
Our field-based experiences with hundreds of schools around the world helped us generate four key attributes that help educators build a personalized culture. These attributes, in conjunction
with a clear definition for personalized learning, provide a guiding framework to help us know how to design and measure learning in that culture.
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Authors
About the Authors
Bena Kallick is an education consultant based in Westport, Conn.
Allison Zmuda is an education consultant based in Virginia Beach, Va.
They are co-authors of Students at the Center: Personalized Learning With Habits of Mind (ASCD).
A Definition and Four Attributes
First, our definition: Personalized learning is a progressively learner–driven model where students deeply engage in meaningful, authentic, and rigorous challenges to demonstrate desired outcomes.
![Four Attributes of Personalized Learning](/images/default-source/school-administrator/2020-june/21-voice-definition-diagram.jpg?sfvrsn=a035a59a_7)
Source: Students at the Center: Personalized Learning With Habits of Mind by Bena Kallick and Allison Zmuda. Photo courtesy of Bena Kallick.
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