The winds currents bring change in the weather, bringing with the rains, the thunder and calmness after the banger. And that is similar to the trends in the education sector globally. The learning experience starts somewhere as a trend, and taking a form of revolution among the students becomes the need of the hour.
The wind of the current trend is that education is all about personalised education, the style of learning that is more person-oriented and gives the students the freedom to learn what they want.
Though the roots of this type of learning can be traced by during the ancient civilisation in the Indian Sub-continent, it really became a global trend recently a few decades back in the 1980s.
Often regarded at the brainchild of educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom, the personalised education trend caught the eyes of world-renowned figures like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. However, during its first rising tide, it failed to create an impact as embedding a whole new education culture into the current system is a tough call to make.
And as the popular saying goes, ‘what goes around, comes around,’ the 5 Steps Academy, an International School in Singapore, has made true two more words to it, defining the nature of wind by saying, ‘What goes around, comes around stronger’.
Keeping the idea of personalised learning at its curriculum’s centre, 5 Steps Academy has curated a unique student, learning and academic curriculum that involves a unique way of holistic child development.
Accelerated Trend in Personalised Learning
Just like the first draft, which is never perfect, personalised learning over the years has undergone various changes that dictated the terms of how it is today. The uniqueness of 5 Steps Academy in successfully adapting the personalised learning trend while undergoing global changes in the world is its philosophy of staying true to the learning nature of the students.
A little credit for that also goes to the international curriculum adopted by the school. Being a school that offers both the UK and US curriculum for holistic development, the school is the only school in Singapore that focuses on Mathematics whilst providing a world-class multilingual well-rounded education founded on academic rigour, small classes with the highest teacher/student ratio, and complemented by rich co-curricular programmes.
Giving more freedom to the parents and teachers about the academic nature of their student learning experience, 5 Step Academy has evolved its curriculum and made significant changes to bring notable changes in the learning module.
Although 5 Steps Academy is one of the pioneer in the education industry, the Accelerated personalised learning trend that has begun the smooth breeze across the world has shown significant results not only in Singapore. For example, The Accelerated School, Los Angeles, USA has made a name for itself for integrating inclusive personalised learning trend in its academic curriculum. Some studies and experiments have shown that personlised attention in small groups used in personalised learning modules has increased student efficiency by more than 90 percent. Moreover, the freedom it gives students in choosing subjects is something that comes in handy.
Freedom of Choice
In the 21st century, everything around us demands freedom and choices. The choice of choosing something or freedom on making a choice, not constructive impulsion. The personalised learning module has given us exactly what makes the grooming of students much easier in a constructive and growing environment.
The student-teacher ratio also matters for the completion of the learning arc of students. 5 Steps Academy maintains this ratio 1:8. Most of the accelerated learning schools do the same. Otherwise, it’s simply not possible to address every student’s individual gaps and use their unique styles, strengths and preferences to help then progress faster than in traditional school.
The freedom that personalised learning gives is based on the entire concept of learning by choice and what interest student the most. In an educational environment where students can choose what they learn, normally there are no issues with motivating students to work.
Although in 5 Steps Academy the choice of main subjects is the privilege of high school students, elementary school students can choose up to five co-curricular activities. Another prominent example of the freedom of choice can be seen in the curriculum of James M Stelle Accelerated High School, Texas, USA.
Interest Driven Education
The world was struggling with the saturation of one particular career field through formal education. At the same time, the students didn’t have the choice to move differently than the bracket of growth given by the educational institutes. The introduction of personalised learning trends and accelerated personalised learning trends in education allowed the students to choose the subjects of their choice and learn at their own pace.
Through this method, the saturation of education and careers can be avoided, and students get a chance to choose a career for themselves. Just like how democracy works, the personalised learning module works similarly: ‘The learning for the students, by the students and with the students.’
And 5 steps Academy has made this motto their unsaid and unwritten vision to move forward with education qualities.
Holistic Development
It would be very wrong to give complete credit to the holistic development of students to a new trend that has just started to blow the cold winds on the entire educational system around the globe. The idea of holistic development is the brainchild or by-product of traditional learning.
The traditional means has been extensively a greater concept for that time. Allowing the students to have a balance between academic and practical. Founded on the basis of conventional learning and inculcated the ideation and philosophy of personalised learning, 5 Stars Academy on this campus has developed an environment that allows the students to have a holistic nature of their growth.
This unique collaboration of institutions and learning has made it possible for students to explore different fields, including science, art, commerce, economy, music, sports, etc. Apart from that, the 5 Steps Academy has set itself as an ideal example of a successful personalised education module. The Academy allows its students to harness their interests in different fields and make a mark in the industry.
Conclusion
The personalised education trend today has taken a form of revolution, and since it gives more freedom to students in their entire learning process, it has made its permanent mark on the education system across the world. And as the current gets stronger, blowing from all directions and meeting in the centre, the holistic growth of students is predicted and projected.
