By Hannah Goff BBC News education reporter

By its very nature, personalised learning means different things to different people.

It would not be personal otherwise.

Pupils like to learn in different ways

Take one A-level psychology class attempting to fathom the different parts of the brain.

In a personalised learning environment, one group might learn to differentiate the frontal lobe from the hypothalamus by sketching them out on a rubber swimming cap worn by one of the class.

Another group might choose to create a 3D model with straws, while a third might find it easier to devise some sort of board game.

What is for sure, says the head teacher of Barnwell School, in Stevenage, Richard Westergreen-Thorne, they all stand a much better chance of remembering what they have learned if they have harnessed their imaginations in the process.

We are not saying that every single lesson has to be all-singing, all dancing Richard Westergreen-Thorne Barnwell School head teacher

At his school, teachers have been using techniques to personalise learning for some five years.

"Rather than the teacher saying to the class - I want you to go and learn about the brain, and telling the pupils to go off and make some notes, they say - I want you to understand about the brain and come up with some different ways of remembering it," he explained.

"Some like to learn more visually, some like to be more practical and some like to sit and study," says Mr Westergreen-Thorne.

When pupils arrive at Barnwell School they are asked to complete a questionnaire which separates them into different groups of learners.

And when they divide up for group work, pupils with similar ways of understanding are placed together.

Potential

"The principle that we have in school is that teachers should teach in a range of different ways over a period of time.

"We are not saying that every single lesson has to be all-singing, all-dancing.

"We are not saying that we will be meeting every child's need to the 'nth' degree, but each lesson should be a bit different from the previous one.

"It's about developing each child's creative potential by working in different ways."

Children are often taught in groups in personalised learning classes

And the policy has certainly paid dividends: Barnwell is now the most improved school in Hertfordshire.

Mr Westergreen-Thorne says a quick look at most schools' Ofsted reports shows that it is in the lessons where children are passive recipients of knowledge that they misbehave.

And according to the head teacher of 1,700-pupil Robert Clack School in Dagenham, Paul Grant, educational achievement and good behaviour go hand in hand.

In order to build a situation where all children succeed, his school monitors and celebrates very good behaviour and achievement every single day.

Huge year boards display certificates celebrating the sporting and other achievements of all pupils around the school.

But crucially, they also display all pupils' educational achievements.

"And it doesn't matter if you have special educational needs and you've got an Everest to climb.

"It may be that you have got severe literacy problems but you have moved from a U grade to an F grade.

"This is a tangible manifestation of the fact that every child is important in this school," says Mr Grant.

Good behaviour and achievement go hand in hand, teachers say

Not only are those who are falling behind given special teacher mentors, but children are encouraged to come forward and suggest better ways of teaching.

Robert Clack has a highly developed school council which even sits on job interview panels for senior staff.

"If the children thought someone was unsuitable for the position then they have the power of veto."

Over the 10 years since these policies were introduced, the school has changed from one which was "vilified", says Mr Grant, to one which has eight out of 10 pupils achieving five good GCSEs.

Herds of pupils

The head teacher of Cramlington Community High School in Northumberland, Derek Wise - who contributed to the government-commissioned report on personalised learning - says schools that do not move with the time risk becoming anachronisms.

He contrasts the control children have over a home environment, replete with digital technology blasting out favourite songs as wake-up calls, with the lack of power many have in the schools where they learn.

By comparison he says: "At Humdrum High all the lessons are 50 or 100 minutes long whatever the subject and the vast majority take place in egg box-like classrooms.

"Knowledge is centred on both the teacher and the curriculum."

However, he says students no longer wish to be treated like "herds of identical animals waiting to be civilised before they are let loose on the world".

What they do want, he says, is schools which listen to them, where their opinions matter, without a one-size fits all curriculum and where they can learn through experience.