In ancient schools in China and Europe, individual teaching was mainly used, with students of different ages and knowledge levels, no fixed study period and class time, and teachers taught different contents to individual students, so the teaching efficiency was very low. At the end of the Middle Ages in Europe, due to the development of capitalist economy and the progress of culture, science and technology, it was necessary to expand the scale of education and increase the teaching content. Individual teaching can't meet this requirement, so the class teaching system appears. /kloc-from the end of 0/9 to the beginning of the 20th century, because the class teaching system can't fully adapt to the individual differences of students, so as to cultivate talents more effectively, some educators advocated replacing the class teaching system with individualized teaching, and Dalton system and Winnett card system were put forward during this period. Dalton LaboratoryPlan was founded by American H.H. parkhurst in a middle school in Dalton, Massachusetts (now translated as Dalton Plan 1920), which is an influential individualized teaching form. It abolished the curriculum and daily classes of ordinary schools and changed the classroom into the homework room of various subjects, the so-called "laboratory". Each subject has a homework room to display reference books, instruments, specimens and other equipment related to the subject, and each subject gives students homework every day, week and month. One or two teachers in each room are responsible for guiding students and evaluating their learning effects. Every student has finished the first month's homework, and then he will do the next month's homework (see Dalton system). Since the 1950s, in order to meet the needs of the rapid development of economy and science and technology, industrialized countries have emphasized the cultivation of senior scientific and technological talents, and individualized teaching has been re-emphasized by some educators.

Since the establishment of the school in modern times, China has gradually implemented the class teaching system, and sometimes adopted the organizational form of individual teaching. In the 1920s, some primary and secondary schools in Shanghai and other places tried Dalton system. After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), classroom teaching is still the main form of school teaching, supplemented by individual teaching, in order to meet certain teaching requirements according to the syllabus, and to strengthen the cultivation of a few talented students and the guidance of underachievers. The implementation of individualized teaching is generally carried out through individual guidance and different assignments.