International Journal of Arts and Sciences, CD-ROM. ISSN: 1944-6934 :: 5(5):573-583 (2012) Copyright © 2012 by University Publications.net THE EFFECTS OF PERSONALIZED INSTRUCTION ON THE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF STUDENTS IN PHYSICS Romiro G. Bautista AMA International University – Bahrain, Kingdom of Bahrain This study presents the superiority of personalized instruction as an innovative method of college teaching as a response to the threshold of the 21st century that leads educationists to convert the traditional classroom initiatives to contemporary initiatives that make the classroom learning situationsmore dynamic. One of these initiatives is personalizing the instruction. It elaborates on the articulation of the contemporary initiatives in a dynamic classroom environment. It focuses on learning the history of learners including their learning styles, and the culture of collegiality in the learning environment. It presents the constructivists environment as a mitigating factor in the development of a sound culture of learning and development in the course; the role of collaborative learning making it interactive and cooperative to learners in a shared culture of active learning experiences through small group discussion (SGD), teacher-coach-adviser and peer-mentor, and an implementation of flexible scheduling and pacing using authentic assessment of student learning. It found out the students exposed in the personalized instruction performed better in their post-test mean score. Concomitant to that finding is the significant interaction of this methodology with learning abilities of the students. However, there is no significant difference on the scores attained by the students across their learning abilities. Furthermore, it was found out that the low and average students benefited most in the program.Hence, the program is recommended in helping students to cope with their learning inabilities. Keywords: Personalized instruction, Academic achievement, Cooperative learning, Modular instruction, Constructive learning environment. Introduction The eve of the 21 st century is the threshold that leads educationists to divert from the traditional classroom initiatives to contemporary initiatives that make the classroom learning situations more dynamic. One of these initiatives is personalizing the instruction. Personalization of instruction and learning is the effort on the part of a school to take into account individual student characteristics and needs, and flexible instructional practices, in organizing the learning environment. Teachers committed to personalizing instruction help their students develop personal learning plans, assist in diagnosing their cognitive strengths and weaknesses and other style characteristics, help adapt the learning environment and instruction to learners’ needs and interests, and mentor authentic and reflective learning experiences for their students (Keefe and Jenkins, 2000, as cited in http://www.lecforum.org/pi.htm). Concomitantly, students’ search for understanding motivates them to learn better. When students want to know more about an idea, a topic, or an entire discipline, they put more cognitive energy into classroom investigations and discussions and study more on their own (Brooks and Brooks, 1999). Thus, the elements of the teaching-learning process must be flexible yet interactive in a constructive learning environment. The success of the teaching-learning process depends on the input given by the teacher, the student and the learning environment. Iquin (1993) and Bautista (2005) claimed that the new type of teaching materials as well as new classroom procedures call for an alert type of the teacher whose role includes a follow up of the learning made by his students. In view of the foregoing, this study elaborates the articulation of the contemporary initiatives in a dynamic classroom environment. It focuses on learning the history of learners including their learning styles, and the culture of collegiality in the learning environment. It presents the constructive learning environment as a mitigating factor in the development of a sound culture of learning and development in the course; the role of 573