Personalization of learning has become a major goal of educational transformation. But very few schools have actually achieved true personalization, which Yong Zhao calls personalizable education in his book Reach for Greatness: Personalizable Education for All Children. Personalizable education requires flexible curriculum, flexible leadership, flexible facilities, flexible scheduling, and a number of other flexibilities. It also requires schools to give students autonomy for self-determination. In this episode, we invite two school leaders from Australia Peter Hutton and Michael Ha to discuss how they have achieved personalizable education in their schools. More about our guests below the video.
Peter is a maverick, a free radical, a challenger of the status quo. His strength is in transformational insight and supporting educational leaders to build innovative and adaptive cultures. As a person with dyslexia, Peter sees the world differently. Co-founding the Future Schools Alliance in 2018, Peter now works with a community of 65 member schools to significantly improve the lives of young people by transforming the education system to promote purpose-filled empowered learning and equip them for times of exponential change. Peter was the former Principal of Templestowe College which has been recognised by Finland’s HundrED organisation as one of the most innovative schools in the world.
Michael Ha is the founding principal and chief learning officer of Element College in Australia, where he is designing a “learning ecosystem that is intentionally different”. Through partnership with a global alliance of education innovators, he is ushering in a new learning paradigm where the pursuit of passions and student agency is prioritised, along with the real-world application of 21st century skills, and learners providing a positive contribution to society and the future. The College aims to become a beacon for its community and redefine how school days and grade levels are structured, allowing flexibility for families to choose when they have holidays, as well as catering for open-age learning experiences from three to 103 years old and beyond. Learning experiences centre around students being caring, curious, courageous, and “traditional school walls are reshaped. Noosa is our classroom, the biosphere is our backyard. Element College aims to dissolve traditional barriers separating ‘school life’ from ‘real life’ within the community.”