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A Post by Katie Martin, Author of Learner-Centered Innovation

I have been fortunate to visit classrooms around the country over the last 5-6 years in a variety of different capacities (check out what I saw last year). Through these visits, and in conversations with many educators, students and parents, I have seen tremendous shifts in our education system.  This paradigm shift from teacher-centered to learner-centered is changing how we see learners and their critical role in their own learning now and throughout their lives. Education Reimagined highlights that in this paradigm “Learners are seen and known as wondrous, curious individuals with vast capabilities and limitless potential.” 

Here are 4 shifts that I have increasingly seen in many schools as they move to learner-centered.

Shift 1: From Standardization to Personalization

To be clear, when I say personalization it is not about programs and technology, which can often be conflated.  Although technology can and does enable personalized pathways, the power of this shift is when the learner has the agency to make choices and learn in ways that meet their needs, not simply clicking through a program. This shift for me comes down to how we see learners and get to know and value them as individuals rather than a cohort of kids moving through school.

Experiences that change how kids learn in schools today rarely come straight from a textbook or program. They come from teachers who know their learners and design experiences to meet their needs based on the desired learning objectives. In spite of our understanding that no two people are the same, many systems have prioritized (and even demanded) overly structured lessons for every student to meet the same objective at the same time in the year, regardless of the individual’s unique strengths, interests, or questions.  As we better understand the learning theory and celebrate the diverse talents and passions that individuals bring to the classroom, I am encouraged to see many systems move away from strictly following the textbooks and one size fits all approach to teaching and learning.  I continue to see more educators and systems designed to empower learners to understand their unique strengths, ask more questions, and pursue their goals to chart their personal paths.

Shift 2: From Compliance to Learner Agency

Learner agency is about moving students from passively responding to acting with purpose to reach a desired goal or outcome. When students have an authentic purpose and audience beyond their teacher to share what they are learning, they are more motivated to learn and often go above and beyond.  I am excited to see more schools moving toward structures that empower learners to share and drive their learning process through portfolios and student-led conferences. Opportunities for learners to share their work beyond the teacher in student-led exhibitions can be powerful to ensure students have an authentic audience and are doing work that has value.  

We can teach necessary skills while creating experiences that allow learners to take ownership of the process. Learners have access to an abundance of resources and experts that enable us all to learn in ways that extend beyond the expertise of one teacher or classroom. By tapping into those resources, we can create more experiences that can allow students to apply their newly learned skill in ways that are meaningful and relevant to them and others.

Shift 3:  From Product to Learning Process

Grading is a battle for many teachers and students but this process steeped in tradition and often fails to communicate what a learner knows and can do.  I love this reflection from A 7th grader who shared his experience in a blog post, Dear Report Cards, You Suck, that exemplifies a major challenge with assessment procedures and reporting of what students know and can do. He says he realized that he is actually a B student, not a D student because of how he got to show what he knew and how his work was assessed.

The only reason you can easily read this is because of my best friend, spell check. My spelling difficulties make my handwriting hard to read. In the past, I’ve done most of my writing in a textbook without revisions. So, of course, I was going to get a D.

Having access to technology has changed my world. Being able to type my work and click on a red line to fix a wrong word has suddenly made my work correct. Feedback is another extremely helpful tool. When I was stuck or when I’m just finished, I used feedback to fix the things that were wrong or to add things that I may not have thought of. Feedback is an awesome tool!

When we only focus on the end result, we fail to communicate to learners the importance of sharing ideas early, getting feedback, and revising things to improve.  If we don’t honor the learning process, we communicate that we either get it or we don’t. And as a result, we are negatively impacting learner’s confidence, creativity, and investment in their own learning and growth. Increasingly, there is a focus on failure in the learning process and it is certainly part of it, but the bigger picture to me is acknowledging that success isn’t black and white. Learning is a process and it takes time, effort, and growth to achieve success, even when we don’t see it.

Shift 4: From Delivering Content to Authentic Application

We all have a finite amount of resources and are accountable to meet specific objectives within a given period. Foundational knowledge and skills need to be developed, but we also need to balance these foundational skills we want all students to attain while allowing for authentic application of those skills and content. I recently shared this example of @msnunenkamp ‘s 5th grade class  where instead of completing a packet and filling in worksheets, they did research to better understand the impact that humans are having on the environment and created a Public Service Announcement (check it out here) to help others understand and so something to improve the environment.  

In a strictly standards-based paradigm, our learning goals are primarily the standards or subsets of standards. While this is a good start, many employers, vision statements, and basic common sense allude to developing productive and empowered citizens instead of mastering isolated content and standards. We need to prioritize learning experiences that not only develop knowledge but also attend to the skills, interactions, and mindsets we know are critical for students to develop to be successful in our evolving world.

These shifts give me hope as I see so many educators focused on what’s best for learners. Creating the conditions that allow educators to be nimble and create learning experiences that reflect the context and the resources to best meet the needs of all learners is the greatest shift of all.