There Are Multiple Paths to Personalized Education, and They Should Be Combined

Abstract

The ubiquity of digital devices has made it feasible to assign different tasks and levels of support to different learners, also in the classroom. Ideally, this is done with the help of formative assessment software or intelligent tutoring systems. However, personalized assignment of tasks and support levels by a teacher or teaching agent has limitations and is only one path to successful personalization. Self-regulated learning and adaptable learning activities, such as generative learning strategies and differentiating tasks, are promising paths to personalization, too, and combine well with personalized assignment. Initial examples of such combinations are presented. I argue that, in order to be maximally effective, different paths to personalized education need to be combined. This combination promises to boost both immediate learning outcomes and successful learning in the long term, and it is facilitated by recent advances in artificial intelligence.