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Exploring learning identities through Personalised Learning Plans or Portfolios (PLPs)

PLPs are an approach to exploring the identities of learners. Learning identity evolves over time. Each of your learners can be encouraged to keep these portfolios. They can include their selected work in this portfolio (inquiry learning pieces, project-based learning, individual learning, their passions etc.).

Personalised Learning Portfolios (PLPs)

PLP (portfolio not necessarily, a plan) is a portfolio that evolves and will benefit teachers, learners, parents, the community, etc. It will aid in building toward personalized learning through the true recognition of students’ learning identities (through exploration of their strengths, passions, beliefs, co-values, needs, etc). (see future 1 below)

Students will have an active involvement in keeping these portfolios and it will be an opportunity for students to reflect on their own learning, communicate their understanding, and receive feedback. PLP is a tool for knowing students well, cultivating their identities, and engaging their families to foster strong relationships with students and develop healthier learning communities. 

PLPs will have a dual purpose; reflecting on learning for students themselves and peers and drawing information to design learning to suit individual preferences and interests (initiated by teachers but students take more control over time).

• They will provide clear evidence of students’ work samples to draw evidence to set goals and negotiate the curricular goals 

• PLPs will not begin with the national assessment data but it will be organic and will continue to demonstrate students’ growth 

• Data will be used to design flexible pathways to achieve the desirable outcomes

• Proficiency-based formative assessment will be used to evaluate students’ learning across a term or a semester or over years 

The shape of the PLPs

Pedagogy:

PLP is a tool that supports culturally responsive pedagogy and PLP is a tool that learners take care of, and teachers can use PLP s to gather data about students’ interests, strengths, and needs. Teachers should not teach to PLPs so that the whole purpose of PLPs is destroyed. PLP evolves organically with learner direction and control.   

Learner Agency & Ownership:

PLPs begin with teacher direction and initiation, but eventually, they will become a tool/instrument that the learner takes control of (students will be proud of their PLPs). PLP stays alive and students develop routines of reflecting on their own learning and self-regulation of learning. 

Technology plays a vital role in a PLP as technology enables the creation of a PLP in comparison to its paper-based forms which can be messy. The affordances within assistive technology (software) allow learners to change, tag, and include hyperlinks or multimodal texts such as images, texts, and photographs in their PLP e-portfolios. 

Visibility:

PLP is a tool that learner can see their shaping agency and ownership and direction they take in exploring their identity and the role they would like to take in the community/world they belong to 

Growth:

PLP shows evidence of learners reflecting on their learning (it is a great way to encourage learners to reflect on their own learning) which may not happen in the classroom (not all learners reflect on their learning and development). It is a tool that provides evidence of learners’ growth and the path that learners take in their learning.   

Assessment:

PLP is a form of non-stressful assessment of learning and the growth of students learning. It is a tool for assessing individual development (not in comparison to the norms of the chronological ages but in comparison to how they grow over time, what they used to know, and what they know now). It shows the trajectory of learners’ development of essential skills and thinking dispositions.     

Communication:

student-led conferences are one form of cultivating learner dialogues about their PLPs; there are other creative forms such as art, music, or any other to allow learners to communicate. Teachers also use PLPs to discuss learners’ shaping identities in professional development sessions.   

Dialogue and Discourse:

learners can have PLP partners who will provide feedback and share and care about each other’s multidisciplinary learning and multi-dimensional development. Teachers/PLP advisors can have dialogues around PLPs to gather deep knowledge of their learners’ shaping learning identities.  

Messiness:

PLP is not a magic solution or a rocket bullet to fix all the problems; the success of PLP will depend on students’ taking active participation in PLP work, and teachers’ abilities for critical interpretation and evaluation of students’ learning identities. It should not be adding to the burden of paperwork that teachers must report to the school administration which may hinder its utility and purposes. It must be an aid and has benefits for all stakeholders, particularly for students and teachers.

PLPs can be introduced as a positive measure to help students and teachers develop a good understanding of student identities. PLPs are an approach to exploring the identities of learners. Learning identity evolves over time. Each of your learners can be encouraged to keep these portfolios. They can include their selected work in this portfolio (inquiry learning pieces, project-based learning, individual learning, their passions, etc.  PLPs seem to be promising as they can yield benefits for students who are all unique and different but are currently being marginalised and stereotyped based on their cultures and heritage. PLP will be a source for teachers to know more about students’ values for knowing, being, and doing. Often students are being judged by their performance against national tests such as NAPLAN which is not an effective tool for measuring the skills, knowledge, and dispositions of students who may not necessarily believe in the current system of education. These national test instruments have their own limitations, particularly when using them with people with different value systems. The proposed portfolios promise that they evolve, and it is a platform for the celebration of learning passions and interests. The proposed PLPs are culturally sound and “build on the knowledge and cultural assets students bring with them into the classroom.” (Aronson and Laughter, 2016). A study by Solberg and colleagues (2018) saw that PLPs (ILPs as introduced in Massachusetts) resulted in fostering respect for diversity and worked towards eliminating stereotypes. Thus, there is promise in the PLPs that they aid teachers to engage in culturally responsive teaching embracing “the constant flow and change of students’ identities in our interconnected world (Pennycook, 2006).

References 

Bishop, P. A., Downes, J. M., Netcoh, S., Farber, K., DeMink-Carthew, J., Brown, T., & Mark, R. (2020). Teacher roles in personalised learning environments. The Elementary School Journal, 121(2), 311-336.

Aronson, B., & Laughter, J. (2016). The theory and practice of culturally relevant education: A synthesis of research across content areas. Review of Educational Research, 86(1), 163-206.

Pennycook, A. (2006). Global Englishes and transcultural flows. Routledge.

Solberg, S., Martin, J., Larson, M., Nichols, K., Booth, H., Lillis, J., & Costa, L. (2018). Promoting Quality Individualized Learning Plans throughout the Lifespan: A Revised and Updated" ILP How to Guide 2.0". National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth.