What Is It?
The Adaptive Learning Environments Model (ALEM) is an innovative educational
program designed to meet the diverse social and academic needs of students in regular
classes. A product of over 2 decades of research, development and school-based
implementation in a variety of communities, the model serves as an alternative
approach to educational reform for schools striving to be responsive to the learning
needs of individual students with varying abilities, experiences, and socioeconomic
backgrounds.
Underlying the model's design is the premise that students learn in different ways and
at varying rates and require different amounts of instructional support. The Adaptive
Learning Environments Model accommodates and builds upon these differences
through adaptive instruction, in which a variety of instructional methods are adopted
and tailored to the needs and the learning characteristics of individual students, and
specific interventions are used to increase each student's ability to benefit from the
learning environment.
Why Did It Get Started?
The call for programs that work for the educational success of each student, including
those with special needs and those who are considered to be academically at risk, has
become a central issue in school reform programs. There have been significant
advances in theory and practical knowledge of effective instruction, and growing
evidence suggests a great variability in the ways that students acquire, organize,
retain, and generate knowledge and skills. The Adaptive Learning Environments
Model was designed to cull from the knowledge base on what makes teaching and
learning more effective and efficient.
How Does It Work?
The Adaptive Learning Environments Model's goal is to ensure achievement of basic
academic skills and other valued educational outcomes, including students' positive
self-perceptions of academic and social competence, sense of responsibility for their
own education and the broader community and competencies for coping with the
social and academic demands of schooling. In order to accomplish this, the model
focuses on systematically integrating features that theory, research, and practice have
shown to be instructionally effective and pedagogically meaningful.
Accordingly, implementation of the Adaptive Learning Environments Model is
supported by three categories of program design dimensions: delivery of adaptive
instruction in regular classroom settings; classroom management and program
implementation; and school- and district-level interventions.
Effective implementation of the model requires teachers to use all forms of knowledge
in implementing demonstrably effective classroom practices to accommodate students'
diverse learning needs. Although adaptive instruction calls for individualized
planning, teachers do not work with students on a one-on-one basis. Whole-class and
small-group instruction and peer-based cooperative learning are incorporated when
deemed particularly suited for achieving certain intended student outcomes or ways to
improve instructional efficiency.
In the Adaptive Learning Environments classroom, individual differences are viewed
as the norm rather than the exception. While differences in rates of progress are
recognized by teachers, parents, and the students themselves, the acquisition of basic
academic skills and the development of social competence and self-esteem are
expected of each student. Under the Adaptive Learning Environments Model
program, specialist teachers (e.g., reading specialists funded under the Title I program
or special education teachers) and other related services professionals (e.g., speech
pathologists or school psychologists) work with regular classroom teachers in a
coordinated system of instructional and related service delivery.
What Are The Costs?
Implementation of the Adaptive Learning Environments Model does not require the
purchase of specially designed curricula. In almost all cases, a school's current
curricular resources can be modified and adapted for use in Adaptive Learning
Environments classes. However, a careful analysis of a given school district's budget
constraints is the first step in the needs assessment phase of designing an
implementation plan. Cost figures vary with district budgets.
Districts interested in adopting the Adaptive Learning Environments Model as a core
general education program need to allocate funds to cover the normal start-up costs of
implementing an innovative program. Start-up costs tend to vary from district to
district, depending on the nature of the district's curricular preparedness, training
requirements, and ability to redeploy current resources.
How Is The Model Implemented In A School?
The Adaptive Learning Environments Model is designed to provide instruction that is
responsive to student needs and to provide school staff with ongoing professional
development and school-based program implementation support to achieve student
success. Implementation features the following design elements.
Individualized Progress Plans consist of two components. The first is a highly structured
prescriptive component for basic skills mastery. In addition, an exploratory component
provides learning opportunities that foster student self-direction and problem-solving ability
while fostering social and personal development to enhance student learning success.
A Diagnostic-Prescriptive Monitoring System incorporates a standards-based curriculum and
assessment system to ensure student mastery of subject-matter knowledge and learning
skills.
A Classroom Instruction-Management System provides implementation support that focuses
on student self-responsibility and teacher teaming in implementing a coordinated approach
to instructional and related service delivery.
A Data-Based Professional Development Program provides ongoing training and technical
assistance support that is targeted to meet the implementation support needs of the
individual staff.
A School-Based Restructuring Process provides school and classroom organizational
support and redeployment of school resources and staff expertise to achieve and sustain a
high degree of program implementation.
An active Family Involvement Program is targeted to support student learning success.
When a high degree of implementation is achieved, a unique classroom scenario is
created. Students can be found working in virtually every area of the classroom,
engaging in a variety of learning activities, including participating in small-group
instruction, receiving one-to-one tutoring, or engaging in peer-based collaborative
activities. Teachers circulate among the students, instructing and providing corrective
feedback.
Instruction is based on diagnostic test results and informal assessments by the teacher.
Every student is expected to make steady progress in meeting the curricular standards.
Learning tasks are broken down into incremental steps, providing frequent
opportunities for evaluation.
What Is The Evidence That The Model Is Successful?
In schools where the Adaptive Learning Environments Model components have been
adopted, data are collected on degree of implementation, classroom processes, and
student outcomes, such as student achievement and student attitudes about their
schools and learning experience. Findings from over two decades of implementation
of the model in a variety of school settings provide consistent evidence that effective
implementation leads to positive changes in classroom process. These changes result
in intended academic, attitudinal, and social competence outcomes.
In classrooms where a high degree of implementation is achieved, teachers tend to
spend more time on instruction than on managing students and students tend to be
highly task oriented. Steady and productive interaction between teachers and students,
and among students, replaces the passive learning mode typically found in
conventional classrooms. Interactions among students, for the most part, focus on
sharing ideas and working together on learning tasks. Distracted behavior on the part
of individual students is minimal and does not seem to interfere with the work of
others.
Standardized achievement test scores in reading and math indicate that
implementation of the model consistently leads to student achievement that meets or
exceeds expected gains. Achievement results from various sites over the years have
compared favorably with comparison sites in terms of national test norms, as well as
district and population norms. Significant differences have been found with special
education students who are integrated in regular Adaptive Learning Environments
classes.
Where Can I See It?
The Laboratory for Student Success can provide a list of demonstration sites available
for visitation.
