Halverson, the School of Education’s associate dean for innovation, outreach, and partnerships, has spent the last few years watching personal learning in action at American public schools. He is also a professor with the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, and the director of the Wisconsin Collaborative Education Research Network (The Network).

Based on Halverson’s interview and presentation, Education Week came up with five questions educators, administrators, and policymakers need to be asking when it comes to personalized learning. The first three questions focus on goals and the relationships needed to support those goals.

The first question addresses the tricky balance of learner outcomes and learner interests. Halverson explains that recent policy puts pressure on learner outcomes, but there also needs to be a larger focus on how to get students more interested in their own learning.

Halverson and Education Week ask who is creating the learning pathways that students are expected to follow. Some schools focus on standards-based performance, and others focus on what students care about. Halverson explains to Education Week that there are tradeoffs with both approaches, leading schools to test hybrid models.

The third component is building relationships that support students’ path. Halverson notes that the core insight in his research so far is that interaction between students and teachers is at the heart of learning-science-inspired personalized learning.

To learn more, check out the entire Education Week report here.