Mass Customized Learning

When my school district first started the discussion of going to proficiency-based education we were given a book to read as a staff, Inevitable: Mass Customized Learning: Learning in the Age of Empowerment by Charles Schwan and Beatrice McGarvey. This book was splendid. It showed a time when students would be in charge of their own learning both in terms of choosing what to learn but also choosing how and when they would learn it. It successfully challenged our views of education in our country today by offering real-world examples of companies that have been able to use technology to make our lives better and easier. It asks teachers to explore how we could make:

1) Different learners learn at different rates
2) Different learners learn in different ways

actually work in the classroom. It offered every educator a vision of what education could look like.

Now for some this vision is more attainable than for others. The book proposes that students have the ability to job-shadow, intern, or even apprentice at local businesses as another way to meet education standards. It proposes that we allow students to pick what classes to take and when to take them. It suggestions giving power to students that teachers are not sure all students are responsible enough to handle. In some places in our state business are few and far between. Many towns find that students must overcome obstacles just to get to school every day let alone take responsibility for their own education.

Proficiency-Based Education was offered up as the more realistic vision of education. It offered the opportunity for every school to offer some customization to students while still meeting state mandates.

It is important to realize that while mass customized education is a wonderful vision for what schools should be it will not be achieved over night. It may not even be achieved in the next ten years. But in order to achieve mass customized learning we must first achieve proficiency-based learning. You can't have mass customized without proficiency-based. And so by striving for PBL (proficiency-based learning) we are making our first strides towards MCL(mass customized learning).

But the two are different. PBL is about helping students gain proficiency in every standard before they graduate from high school. It does suggest breaking each standard down into discreet skills that students can master over time to achieve proficiency and it does mean offering students plenty of opportunities and as much time as is needed. However, it does not require that students be given voice and choice in their learning. It does not require teachers to rethink traditional teaching methods and to consider how best to deliver content to students. It can be achieved without changing the teacher as "sage on the stage" mentality.

MCL asks for more. It asks teachers to give students voice and choice in what they learn, when they learn it, and how they learn it. It asks teachers to think about what the best method of delivery would be for each student and then group and regroup as is necessary.

The grouping and regrouping is where MCL requires PBL. PBL tracks where each student is on a particular standard. MCL requires this so that students can be grouped and regrouped according to what they still need to learn and how they will learn it. Allowing educators and learners both to know what they still need to learn helps both make decisions about what, when, and how.