A Comparative Paper Assessing the Appropriateness of Embedding Deep Personalisation and Educational Essentialism within the UK Further and Higher Education Sectors

Abstract

The motivation behind writing the paper is to compare two opposite theoretical viewpoints, which are deep personalisation and education essentialism and to analyse their appropriateness for implementation in the UK further and higher education sectors. Thus providing a varying framework from the personalisation framework recommended in the Department for Education and Skills ‘White Paper’ (DfES, 2005). The approach included analysis of previous literature, but also primary research aimed towards educational professionals with a perspective of providing an appropriate structure. The results were mixed, with neither theories holding suitable ground for implementation, however a combination of deep personalisation and educational essentialism provides a feasible option for teaching in further and higher education institutions. This paper proposes that at the beginning of a course or subject core skills should be learnt in an essentialist form. Moving onwards a personalised approach should be used for learners to specialise in a specific area, thus embedding creativity and responsibility for learners to generate motivation. It cannot be considered as deep personalisation due to assessments not being wholly student centred. Although the argument provides a strong basis to combine both theoretical perspectives, in certain aspects this is not possible. The marketisation of education is one of them; this framework will assume the deep personalisation approach of education as being a competitive market as it provides development and improvement within the market. However, assessments using this structure will embrace educational essentialism with shallow personalisation, as the current education structure does not allow for deep personalisation.