The research behind PeBL



In the TED Talkx video above, Todd Rose with the Harvard Graduate School of Education, explains the basis of personalized learning, which is a fundamental aspect for the PeBL philosophy.

Educators around the globe are making a shift to personalized learning that is the basis of PeBL and the impact has been remarkable.

Improving high school and post-secondary education is one of four core focus areas of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has spent millions of dollars to support and study innovative teaching and learning practices.

A 2015 report from that Foundation entitled Continued Progress: Promising Evidence on Personalized Learning stated:

“Importantly, average performance of students in the study’s schools were below the national averages for their starting grade, and above the national averages for their ending grade two years later. Moreover, the gains made by the personalized learning schools were relatively large compared to gains measured in studies of other educational interventions....Achievement analyses find that there were positive effects on student mathematics and reading performance and that the lowest-performing students made substantial gains relative to their peers."

Another organization, Education Elements, recently conducted a study of teachers who used the tenets of personalized learning and as indicated in the chart below, the results were impressive.