Project Implica-te

Personalising learning through students’ interests. Teacher collaboration and students’ engagement

Implica-te

The starting hypothesis of the project is twofold.

On the one hand, it is considered that, within the framework of the new culture of learning associated with the Information Society, it is necessary to introduce substantial changes in school educational practices, aimed at adapting these practices to the needs posed by the new ecology of learning. Among these changes, the adoption of a personalization perspective, and particularly taking into consideration the interests of students as a starting point for educational action, occupies a fundamental place, since they directly affect the possibility that students can attribute meaning to the school learning and develop the necessary involvement and commitment in these activities.

On the other hand, it is considered that the necessary change and improvement of educational practices oriented to work with and from the interests of the students is an inseparable process from the development of professional teaching communities committed to innovation and educational transformation. Understanding these dynamics of joint work and the factors that influence them, as well as the processes that allow them to develop successfully, is therefore, fundamental for implementing these changes in school educational practices.

The project Personalising learning through students’ interests. Teacher collaboration and students’ engagement aims to study the process of implementation of initiatives and proposals for personalised learning, especially those taking into account the interests of students as a starting point for educational action aimed at reinforcing the meaning that students attribute to the learning carried out in schools.

Funding sources

The project Personalising learning through students’ interests. Teacher collaboration and students’ engagement has the support of the Ministry of Science and Innovation from the Spanish Government within the framework of the call For R+D+i Projects Research Challenges. Reference PID2020-116223RB-I00.

Duration

Start date: September 2021

End date: September 2024

Objectives of the project

The IMPLICA-TE project has three main goals:

To explore the perception of teachers, students and families about the factors that promote the involvement and commitment of children at school, as well as their expectations regarding the impact of the participation of students in these educational practices for their personal and professional future.
To deepen in the understanding of how certain educational practices of personalised learning can help students to build and reconstruct their own interests, as well as the role that these practices play in promoting school learning with meaning and personal value for students.
To describe and understand the dynamics of joint work among teachers who are implementing proposals of personalised learning that consider the interests of students in the design, planning and development of teaching and learning activities to help them attribute greater meaning and personal value to the school learning.

Stages of the project

The project adopts a mixed methodological strategy, combining an extensive approach of a quantitative nature, and an intensive approach of a qualitative nature based on the study of multiple cases.

The extensive approach aims to explore, in a wide sample, the perception of teachers, students and families about the involvement and commitment of children in relation to their school learning, and about the role of work from and from the interests of students in such involvement and commitment. The intensive approach, on the other hand, aims to study a small number of educational centers. Particularly, the way in which personalized educational practices focused on working with and from the interests of the students are designed and developed, and the work dynamics of the teaching staff involved in the design and development of these practices. The two approaches seek to enrich and support each other.

This methodological strategy is concretized in the project in five phases of work:

Phase 1. Extensive exploration through questionnaires about the perception of teachers, students and families on the involvement and commitment of children regarding to school learning.

Phase 2. Selection of centers, situations of joint work of the teaching staff and practices (didactic sequences) of personalised learning aimed to work with and from the interests of the students who will be the object of the intensive study.

Phase 3. Collection of data on the situations of joint work between teachers and on the personalised learning practices (didactic sequences) selected.

Phase 4. Analysis of the data collected on the situations of joint work between teachers and the personalised learning practices (didactic sequences) selected.

Phase 5. Return and discussion of the final results and conclusions with the participants, and final interpretation.