Adapting education using linked data

I have been passionate about teaching for many years and prior to my decision to apply for a PhD, I was considering becoming a Computer Science teacher. However, my final year dissertation along with a placement at George Heriot's school put this plan on hold. My eyes were opened to the difficulties teachers face in providing tailored education to individuals. I feel a responsibility to utilise the skills I have attained from my Computer Science degree, as well as my high-level thinking, to extend the innovative and collaborative research I have carried out as part of my undergraduate degree. In time, I hope to enable students to have an education adapted to their specific needs.


In my final year of university, I discovered the concept of constructivism and its associated pedagogies, including adaptive teaching. These concepts aligned with my beliefs that we are all unique in terms of our cognitive ability, background and interests, thus, it makes little sense to provide everyone with an education not tailored to their needs. I believe that when we learn a new concept, we draw on our current knowledge and understanding of the world to help us comprehend new information. Everyone deserves an equal opportunity to learn, yet this does not mean each individual requires the same tools to learn. We should embrace differences as opportunities and we need to understand that an explanation for one individual may not be suitable for another. I am an advocate for using technology as an assistant in learning and believe that it can and should be harnessed to enable a flexible approach to learning.


My overall goal for a PhD is to improve education for individuals by providing everyone with an equal opportunity to learn. I aim to provide learners with access to resources which are tailored to each of their specific needs and learning abilities. I hope to facilitate teachers' altruistic nature by building a system which is intuitive and useful. To achieve these goals is not a simple task and will require a continuous dialogue with Scottish secondary school teachers, in order to identify and address their specific needs before developing a system to assist them. I would seize the opportunity to work with knowledgeable academics and educators, to develop my understanding of the challenges facing education and how best to overcome them. I would work collaboratively with an open mind to fully research, understand and solve the problems of tailoring education to individuals needs. Following this necessary research, I hope to develop a system which pupils and teachers could use and train to recommend learning materials to individuals. The classroom would finally be able to move away from providing one resource for all to begin to focus completely on the pupil's individual academic needs.