Personalized Learning – A Wicked Problem

According to Koehler & Mishra (2008) “Solutions to wicked problems are often difficult to realize (or maybe even recognize) because of complex interdependencies among a large number of contextually bound variables. Wicked problems, they argue, cannot be solved in a traditional linear fashion because the problem definition itself evolves as new solutions are considered and/or implemented”. In other words, wicked problems are wicked because there is more than one solution to the problem. For those of you who follow my blog, you know that I am interested in incorporating personalized learning in the elementary art setting. Therefore, for my Wicked Problem of Practice group assignment, I chose to work in a group that will be focusing on Personalized Learning. This week, I was involved in a virtual group meeting, where we narrowed our list of questions down to four to focus on.

The four questions are:

1. Why are there so many different definitions of personalized learning?
2. Why isn’t common core curriculum aligned with personalized learning?
3. Why is there not a set structure within time and space for personalized learning each day?
4. Why aren’t all educators trained in personalized learning?

After thinking about these questions, I created an infographic which reflects some of the research I have done and how it pertains to the questions. I hope this gives you a glimpse into the wickedness of personalized learning.

Resources

Koehler, M. J., & Mishra, P. (2008). Introducing TPCK. In AACTE Committee on Innovation and Technology (Ed.), Handbook of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) (pp. 3–29). New York: Routledge