3 Reasons why personalised learning is worth trying

A couple decades ago, learning in school was a standard affair; you would sit in class and listen to your teacher as they scribbled things on the blackboard that would inevitably get wiped away after a short period of time, and if you weren’t quick enough to jot down your own notes, you’ll likely never see those precious bits of information again.

That was a big disadvantage back then, because besides your textbooks, there was almost no other source of information available, not to mention that teachers would sometimes impart highly useful knowledge that would never be found in textbooks.

The other aspect of schooling was the enormous amounts of homework that everyone received. Worksheets that contained question after question that would eventually be marked either with a tick or cross, and seldom accompanied with advice on how to do better.

As you can probably tell from experience, not everyone learned very well under this one-size-fits-all approach, and you would likely have realised by now that it’s usually not because your teachers were lazy - they were just simply too overwhelmed with work and the number of students they were expected to teach.

But imagine this: your child is assigned a teacher who takes personal interest in their studies. They take the time to understand how your child learns, what they like to learn about, and the learning strategies that are best suited to them.

That’s personalised learning in a nutshell, and the best part is that more and more educators are starting to embrace it as the next evolution for education.

Why personalised learning is worth trying: 3 simple reasons

Unlike traditional methods of learning, a personalised, curated education gives students a much better chance of succeeding in their studies. That’s because of three important factors:

Increased motivation

Think back on your own schooling experience. It’s likely that you didn’t find it very engaging or fun most of the time. That’s because you were only given instructions to be followed without exception, and with no regard to whether you were interested in doing so in the first place!

On the other hand, a personalised education makes understanding your child’s learning habits and interests a priority. For example, if they love storytelling, they will get to read and talk about stories for English lessons.

It’s worth remembering that personalised learning doesn’t mean students get to pick and choose what to learn - they’ll still need to follow the curriculum, after all. But it means that instead of giving your child mountains of algebra homework even if they hate it, their teachers will put in extra effort to make it interesting and relatable to them, like comparing Pokemon cards for example.

Optimised challenges

From a certain point of view, giving every student the same homework can be seen as inherently unfair to all of them. The most logical assumption is that the weaker students will be too intimidated to engage properly with the worksheets and won’t learn as much as a result, but the inverse is true for those who have already mastered the topic - they’ll likely find it too easy and will also not learn as much from the assignments.

Personalised learning methods seek to benefit both types of students by tailoring the difficulty of the questions according to their level of understanding. By customising questions like so, weaker students will get a much easier learning curve to ramp up their proficiency, while stronger students will get tougher questions to help maintain their advanced knowledge, or push them to go even further beyond their expected level. It’s a win-win situation!

Self-directed learning

Based on the first two points, personalised learning seems to be an antidote to short-term academic woes by encouraging students to remain engaged while learning at the most optimal pace, which has a welcome side-effect of improving their exam scores. But besides boosting grades, personalised learning has a much more important purpose: nurturing a self-directed learning mindset.

To put it simply, a self-directed learner determines their own academic path: what they choose to learn, how they will go about it and the timetable they will use for their endeavours. Theoretically, true self-directed learners can learn anything faster and better than their peers.

But nobody is born to be a self-directed learner - it’s a learned skill. Fortunately, we can teach students how to become one, especially by starting with a personalised form of education.

Conclusion

To sum it all up, personalised learning is one of the best ways to transform your child’s education. A tailored approach that considers their interests and strengths will do much more than rote memorisation and mass-produced worksheets ever can.

Looking for a quick way to introduce personalised learning into your child’s life? Look no further - Geniebook’s here to help! Just fill up the form to your right and we’ll get them on their way to academic success.