Personalized learning strategies for considering students’ interests

Abstract

Personalized learning is an approach to teaching that focuses on fostering students' sense-making and engagementin school. A key strategy within this approach is the consideration of students' interests in the design andimplementation of learning activities. This qualitative study explores how a primary school teacher in Spainincorporates students' interests into a project-based educational practice. Drawing on a sociocultural perspectiveof interest and using a single case study design, we analyzed 31 classroom events and identified five teachingstrategies for incorporating and transforming students' interests: Spark, Explore, Center, Deepen, and Evaluate.These strategies illustrate a sequential process through which interests are elicited, shared, refined, and transformedto support meaningful learning experiences connected to the curriculum. Our findings offer a typology ofteaching strategies with specific actions for incorporating students’ interests, highlighting teacher intentionality,the connection to inquiry-oriented projects, and the importance of reflection on personal learning interests.