Christine Davenport
July 23, 2025
Put me on a bike and let me explore the world. I may fall, my hair will be messy, and I will probably go the wrong way, but come on, the journey is worth it! I prefer to find my own way, regardless of what I’m working on in life. Many may say that’s because I am stubborn, but I like to see it as figuring it out as I go, so I can better understand it. To me, that is what personalized learning is all about. To me, personalized or individualized learner profiles seem like second nature because I am always chatting with students, asking them silly questions, reminding them I care, and listening to the stories that take forever. Each of these adds to my mental databank of who they are and how they may learn. Amanda Avallone listed a variety of things that an educator might include in a learner profile, and I would like to give you a glimpse into my learning profile as I introduce each of them (Avallonne, 2022).
- Background information on their family, culture, and community– I have gone from the ghetto to the country, and so my approach to life is often a fight or flight, quick to answer, but slow to back down approach. It isn’t always easy to mesh street smarts and book smarts together, because what we think should happen might not always be the best researched approach. I must take this into account in my continued education to ensure that all my supporting evidence isn’t common knowledge. This also applies to working with my colleagues, where I try to avoid giving them the “are you serious” look when they say something that isn’t logical. Additionally, I must be mindful of this when interacting with my students and avoid assuming- the moment I assume in any of these situations. I have lost someone and the opportunity to teach them and grow myself.
- Academic strengths, knowledge, skills, and samples of their work- I need feedback. I crave it, actually. After 26 years of teaching, I am confident that I possess strong foundational skills in the classroom, and I am proud not to be labeled a dinosaur stuck in outdated practices and ways. When I go into a summative evaluation, I don’t want them to tell me how great it was and what an excellent educator I am. Thanks, but give me the mud, tell me how I can grow. In my development of learner profiles for both adults and kids, I need to make sure I know what makes them tick. Is it the push-the Jillian Michaels approach? Or is it with kid gloves- giving kind and encouraging words along the way to make sure they know the small steps are leading them to the big ending?
- Leadership and character traits/ Other gifts and unique potential– take a roomful of educators, and you could run a new community. The hidden talents, skills, and knowledge they possess are monumental, and we often overlook them. I think this is where choice and personal identification come into play. Personally, the biggest compliment I get is when someone says, “Is there anything you CAN’T do?” Probably, but I won’t be able to say so until I’ve at least tried it. Comfort zones are made for things we already know how to do. Pushing people outside of those zones not only allows them to see what else they can do, showcase to others what they can do, but it also allows me to alter and improve their individual learning profile.
- Academic, social, and emotional needs/ Challenges and what they struggle with in school–I was a holy terror in elementary school- ask my mom. I was raised in a good, Christian, well-balanced home, so it didn’t make sense. Now, I can see trauma-laced events that shaped that time period, but I couldn’t then. I was also bored and not being challenged, and so I pushed every envelope that I could. No one took the time to figure that part out; they just moved me, punished me, yelled at me, or ignored me. That didn’t help, actually made me push back more. It wasn’t until 5th grade that I met Ms. Johnson. Ms. Johnson and her Garfield covered the walls. She pushed back, I pushed back, she pushed back again, and I finally backed down. Not because she made me, but she listened and showed me she cared about who I was. We journaled back and forth, she found extra work for me, had me tested for gifted, and challenged me in ways no other teacher had. She created an individualized learning plan for me before it was even a tagline. She was fantastic. And annoying. And way too Garfield-obsessed, but she saved me. We must listen, push, and see these kids beyond the daily happenings. Trauma, stress, and worry fill our students’ lives today, and we have to be aware of them so we can alter what we are doing in a way that they seeas essential and themselves as important.
All of the above may seem reminiscent and irrelevant, but it is not. It is a call for all of us to examine ourselves as teachers and colleagues. We must evaluate and be honest about how we learned, how we currently learn, and how we present and differentiate content for those around us. We now have options to change how we teach, but as educators, we must be able to embrace that change and not be the dinosaurs! The Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 allows schools to work toward the competency-based model that realigns assessments and learning approaches to support individualized learner profiles ( Marzano et al., 2017).
If you fancy learning more about your own learner profile and finding tools to dig deeper into your students, here is an excellent blog by Barbara Bay that lists several inventories and questions to ask yourself and students for deeper understanding and development of their learner profile.
Resources:
Avallone, Amanda . “Getting to Know You: Learner Profiles for Personalization.” NGLC, 22 Mar. 2020, www.nextgenlearning.org/articles/getting-to-know-you-learner-profiles-for-personalization. Accessed 23 June 2025.
Bray, Barbara . “Getting to Know YOU with Your Learner Profile | Rethinking Learning.” Rethinking Learning, 16 Aug. 2019, barbarabray.net/2019/08/16/getting-to-know-you-with-your-learner-profile/. Accessed 23 June 2025.
Marzano, Robert J, et al. A Handbook for Personalized Competency-Based Education. Bloomington, In, Marzano Research Laboratory, 2017.