With trends come challenges and opportunities. This wave of change especially with the advent of AI and it is taking effect in every aspect of the society. The Educational Sector is not left out and in recent times, we've began to see a rise in personalized learning. While this is seen as novel in some places, it is a trend that is undeniably shaping the Education Industry.

With the diverse abilities we have and the different needs we want to meet with our educational knowledge, there is need for learning personalization. Personalized Learning has become popular over the years, due to its potential to transform learning outcomes and empower students. This learning outcome is a paradigm shift that represents a departure from the old learning model, offering tailored platform that seeks to meet the unique needs, interests, and learning abilities of students.

What is Personalized Learning?

Personalized learning is an educational method that is geared towards customizing learning for each individual's strengths, needs, skills, and interests. It works in a way that each learner gets a plan that is based on what they know and how they learn best. It is important to note that Students learn at different paces and personalized learning is set to meet these different paces by giving each student a learning plan to foster their learning processes. Unlike, the "one size fits all" approach that is mostly used in schools where the teacher/lecturer teaches the same lesson to all at the same time but that each student is guided on an individualized learning journey.

Rise of Personalized Learning

Personalized learning came to be as a response to the acknowledgement that standardized teaching methods often fail to effectively and actively engage or support all students. It can be traced back to early American history as a result of America's pursuit for an educated and informed society. The first recorded instances of personalized learning was in the 1800s and early 1900s at the Superintendent Preston Search of Pueblo, Colorado where students are allowed to advance at their own pace in the learning environment. They do not have to do same thing at same time even while in the same classroom.

Overtime it has evolved and in 2005, Dan Buckley defined it in two different ways, where we have the “Personalization for the learner” refers to the teacher creating the learning experience for the student. “Personalization by the learner” refers to the student acquiring skills to better adjust his or her own learning. Till recent times, Personalized Learning has become increasingly important as it helps students to adjust their learning paths and with technology, it is getting better with each passing day.

How does Personalized Learning work?

As earlier established, Personalized Learning differ from the traditional learning method. Its implementation involves leveraging technology, data analytics, and non-rigid teaching styles.

• Technology plays a key role in providing adaptive learning platforms, digital resources, learning models, etc.

• Data Analytics helps to track the Student's progress, to enable them monitor their steps towards specific goals and objectives.

• The teaching styles must be flexible as teachers act as facilitators, guiding students through their personalized learning paths, setting goals, and providing feedback and support.

Personalized learning is tailored to cater for Individual Needs and Abilities and these measures can help realize it;

1. An Adaptive Learning Environment: The learning environment must be designed in a way that supports adaptability base on how each learner learns best. Structures should be put in place to support this narrative and teachers must be sufficiently allocated to ensure that learners needs are met.

2. A system that seeks to work with Individuals bio: Working with the bio of individuals is a good way to understand the learners interests, skills, abilities, shortcomings and motivation. Enabling the teacher have a view of what is and should be recommended. It also helps the student to know where he/she should work on and what method should be applied to keep them on track. It makes it easier to adopt better learning method suited to the individual perspective.

3. Personalized Learning Paths: In San Francisco Normal School during the early 1900s, students were promoted based on mastery. Once students master a grade level in a subject, they can move on to the next grade level. An example is that a student could be in sixth-grade English, ninth-grade science, and seventh-grade math at the same time, allowing students to practice the material independently. A personalized learning path allows a student to work on different skills at different paces not allowing any student to fall behind learning schedule.

4. A Competency Based Technique: The usage of a Competency Based Technique will enable monitoring as progress will be followed up in line with how competent the Student has gotten in a particular field.

Disadvantages

Personalized Learning come with certain challenges and limitations, such as;

1. Time Limitation: Personalized learning might require more time than traditional learning method. Teachers must allocate ample time for personalized assessments and give quality attention to needs and demands. In Personalized learning, instructions differ for individuals as they have various fields. Hence, balancing these responsibilities can be challenging within the time frame of the school.

2. Resource Availability and Manpower: More resources are needed to foster Personalized Learning because schedules and materials will be customized for each student to be able to learn efficiently within their own scope of strength as they seek to become better. Also, more hands will be needed to make this work. For example, in a country like Nigeria most schools are already short of teachers in the traditional learning environment, personalized learning will only add to this challenge.

Benefits of Personalized Learning

There are certain hindrances that can cause setbacks in the adoption of an individualized learning system but the benefits it posits outweighs them. Some of which are;

1. Allows individualized educational initiative: People learn more when they go for something that interests them and personalized learning gives students the avenue to take charge of their learning process through what suits them. By allowing them explore topics that resonate with their interests, it ignites curiosity and fostering a proactive approach to learning.

2. Encourage Active Participation: Personalized learning can promote engagement by providing learners with content tailored to their interests and varied needs. This can boost their motivation to learn, leading to a more enjoyable and fulfilling learning experience.

3. Produces a more effective result: Personalized learning tend to produce better learning outcomes, including higher retention rates and better assessment performance. This is because learners are more engaged and motivated, and they don't have to stress themselves in trying to meet up with another person's speed.

4. Flexible learning: Personalized learning can be delivered at different times as each student do not need to wait for another. It allows learners to access the content at their own pace and schedule. This flexibility can benefit learners with busy schedules or other commitments. It adapts to students' evolving needs, providing support as required.

5. Encourages Critical Thinking: It encourages critical thinking in the sense that each person has enough time to comprehend, analyse and criticize findings. Instead of memorizing, it fosters understanding. Thus, helping learners cultivate the needed skills for their future path.

Our world will be better if everyone have the and personalized learning drives this as it allows students to learn at their own pace, delve deeper into topics of interest, and receive targeted support where needed. It opportunity to embrace their uniqueness fosters autonomy, self-directed learning, and a deeper understanding of concepts.

By tailoring learning experience to individual students, personalized learning aims to increase motivation, engagement, and ultimately while empowering students to achieve their academic goals effectively and efficiently.