Across all eight Australian education jurisdictions, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory, and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), personalised learning is formally embedded within policy frameworks, with each jurisdiction requiring teachers to provide tailored learning support. The Australian Curriculum’s CASE (Content, Abilities, Standards, and Evaluation) steps guide teachers in developing “learning programs based on the Australian Curriculum to meet their students’ diverse needs” (Australian Curriculum Version 9 – Steps to Personalised Learning). Despite these directives, teachers often struggle to reconcile the conceptual coherence among inclusive teaching, differentiation, and personalised learning when addressing equity for all learners (Scarparolo & Porta, 2025; Gunawardena et al., 2024).

Between 2021 and 2023, we collaborated with teachers in a school in the ACT to explore their approaches and understanding of personalised learning, a key objective in their five-year school improvement plan. Following interviews and focus group discussions with 12 teachers, we conducted ad hoc workshops for 80 teachers to help them navigate the complexity of personalised learning and foster innovation in their pedagogical practices. This sparked a strong interest among teachers to learn more and a desire to be creative within their specific learning areas; however, they expressed the need for expert support to refine their knowledge and skills.

From 2023 to 2025, we adopted a generative co-design approach that engaged critical friends (university researchers) and was guided by four tenets for professional learning and development: cultural adaptability, cohesion, sustainability, and teacher empowerment. Through this program, we worked with small groups of teachers across four key learning areas, supporting them in addressing classroom-based challenges and implementing personalised learning within their specific contexts. We analysed data from 23 co-design meetings between critical friends and teachers, 10 meetings conducted by critical friends, 20 teacher interviews from project participants, and selected learner artifacts.

The study revealed a significant transformation in teachers’ knowledge and understanding of personalised learning and its underlying purpose. This shift was not merely conceptual but also practical, influencing how teachers approached curriculum negotiation (Guanawardena et al., 2025) and classroom pedagogy. The transformation was facilitated through four interconnected social practices:

• Reconfiguration – Teachers restructured their existing pedagogical frameworks, integrating personalised learning principles into lessons and assessment strategies. This involved challenging traditional notions of uniformity and embracing flexibility to meet diverse learner needs.
• Humanising – Teachers developed a deeper appreciation for the individuality of learners, prioritising student voice, agency, and well-being. This practice fostered empathy and relational trust, positioning personalised learning as a means to enhance inclusivity and equity.
• Social Calibration – Collaborative dialogue among teachers and critical friends enabled the alignment of expectations, shared language, and common goals. Through iterative discussions, teachers negotiated meaning and refined their understanding of personalised learning within their specific contexts.
• Collective Innovation – Teachers engaged in co-design processes that encouraged experimentation and creativity. By working collaboratively, they generated novel strategies and resources, embedding personalised learning into authentic classroom practices.

These social practices collectively contributed to a cultural shift in the school, moving personalised learning from a policy mandate to a lived, teacher-driven approach that promotes equity and responsiveness.

Between 2021 and 2023, we partnered with an ACT school to examine teachers’ understanding of personalised learning, a priority in their five-year improvement plan. After interviews and focus groups with 12 teachers, we delivered workshops for 80 teachers to address the complexity of personalised learning and encourage pedagogical innovation. This generated strong interest but highlighted the need for expert support. From 2023 to 2025, we implemented a generative co-design approach with university researchers as critical friends, guided by four principles: cultural adaptability, cohesion, sustainability, and teacher empowerment. Working with small teacher groups across four key learning areas, we helped resolve classroom challenges and embed personalised learning. Data sources included 23 co-design meetings, 10 critical friend meetings, 20 teacher interviews, and selected learner artifacts.

The study demonstrated a substantial shift in teachers’ understanding and application of personalised learning, influencing both curriculum negotiation (Gunawardena et al., 2025) and classroom pedagogy. This transformation was driven by four interconnected social practices. Teachers reconfigured their pedagogical frameworks by integrating personalised learning principles into lessons and assessment strategies, challenging traditional notions of uniformity and embracing flexibility to meet diverse learner needs. They humanised their teaching by valuing learner individuality, prioritising student voice, agency, and well-being, which fostered empathy and inclusivity. Through social calibration, teachers engaged in collaborative dialogue with peers and critical friends to align expectations, develop shared language, and refine their understanding of personalised learning within specific contexts. Finally, collective innovation emerged as teachers participated in co-design processes that encouraged creativity and experimentation, enabling them to embed personalised learning into authentic classroom practices. Together, these practices shifted personalised learning from a policy mandate to a teacher-led, culturally responsive approach that promotes equity and student engagement.

References Australian Curriculum Version 9: Steps to personalised learning: https://v8.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/student-diversity/planning-for-student-diversity/steps-to-personalise-learning-case/ Gunawardena, M., Hills, E., & Patahuddin, S. (2025). “The sky is the limit”: Enhancing learner engagement and agency through curriculum negotiation. Curriculum Perspectives, 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41297-025-00318-6 Gunawardena, M., Bishop, P., & Aviruppola, K. (2024). Personalized learning: The simple, the complicated, the complex and the chaotic. Teaching and Teacher Education, 139, 104429. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2023.104429 Scarparolo, Gemma, and Tom Porta. "Examining the Australian educational landscape of differentiation through document analysis." The Australian Educational Researcher 52, no. 3 (2025): 2137-2161. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13384-025-00805-9