The “How To” of Deeper Learning
From Elizabeth Murray
The term “Deeper Learning” is thrown around a lot in educational circles and sounds like an excellent teaching goal. But just what does it mean and how is it actually achieved? I recently came across a video series on Deeper Learning produced by the Teaching Channel, in partnership with the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. This series includes more than 50 videos and examines the programs of 10 deeper learning networks that are preparing students for success. The entire video series takes 4 hours and 15 minutes to watch. I highly recommend it as a way to restore, renew and re-ignite one’s commitment to education over the summer break.

The series opens up with a 12-minute introduction video presented by Tony Wagner, the Harvard education specialist and Deeper Learning advocate. I remember reading a 2013 Thomas Friedman NY Times column in which Wagner stated:

“More than a century ago, we ‘reinvented’ the one-room schoolhouse and created factory schools for the industrial economy. Reimagining schools for the 21st-century must be our highest priority. We need to focus more on teaching the skill and will to learn and to make a difference and bring the three most powerful ingredients of intrinsic motivation into the classroom: play, passion and purpose.”

In this opening video to the series, Wagner provides an introductory connection between the “What Is” and “How To” of Deeper Learning by describing the specific pedagogical approaches of several schools featured in the series. These schools demonstrate innovative teaching models that emphasize real-world experience, academic mindsets, and collaborative project work. They encourage students to think critically, and communicate powerfully about their classes, their own learning, and who they are becoming in the world.

This series of 50 videos is divided as follows, making use of it a bit more manageable!

1. Kids are the Proof: Students Engaged in Deeper Learning
   “The series is rich with impressive teaching practices and innovative school models, but the kids are the “proof of impact” of these approaches.”
   
   
2. Teaching as a Team Sport
   “Team work makes the dream work. Approaching teaching as a team sport makes everyone’s jobs easier, more effective, and more fun. The 10 schools in the Deeper Learning network showcase rich practices for engaging teachers in meaningful collaboration.”
   
   
3. Growth Mindset and Deeper Learning
   “In the world of education where new ideas churn constantly, growth mindset has the power to stick and transform how we think, act and talk in ways that propel students powerfully into their future.”
   
   
4. Deeper Learning and the Common Core State Standards
   “Illuminating student thinking and deep engagement through authentic, relevant tasks and projects, these videos provide a refreshing look at our hopes actualized—providing a moment to reconcile the details of standards implementation with the deep ideas of the Common Core.”
   

For those of you not familiar with Deeper Learning - or as a refresher - below is the Hewlett Foundation’s description of the six elements critical to this model of learning:

• Mastery of Core Academic Content: Students build their academic foundation in subjects like reading, writing, math, and science. They understand key principles and procedures, recall facts, use the correct language, and draw on their knowledge to complete new tasks.
  
  
• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving: Students think critically, analytically, and creatively. They know how to find, evaluate, and synthesize information to construct arguments. They can design their own solutions to complex problems.
  
  
• Collaboration: Collaborative students work well in teams. They communicate and understand multiple points of view and they know how to cooperate to achieve a shared goal.
  
  
• Effective Communication: Students communicate effectively in writing and in oral presentations. They structure information in meaningful ways, listen to and give feedback, and construct messages for particular audiences.
  
  
• Self-directed Learning: Students develop an ability to direct their own learning. They set goals, monitor their own progress, and reflect on their own strengths and areas for improvement. They learn to see setbacks as opportunities for feedback and growth. Students who learn through self-direction are more adaptive than their peers.
  
  
• An “Academic Mindset”: Students with an academic mindset have a strong belief in themselves. They trust their own abilities and believe their hard work will pay off, so they persist to overcome obstacles. They also learn from and support each other. They see the relevance of their schoolwork to the real world and their own future success.

Elizabeth Murray is Project Manager of the MIT BLOSSOMS Initiative.

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