The concept of deeper learning is one that has circulated through educational circles more regularly in the past few years. Practitioners contend that students should be as meaningfully engaged as possible in their learning and encouraged to dig deep into areas of learning, especially in pursuit of a genuine interest. This model favors depth over breadth and is championed by a range of educational leaders, including Tony Wagner and the contributors to Edutopia (George Lucas’ educational foundation).

 

Marc Chun, the Program Officer in Education at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, is another deeper learning advocate who has had a great influence on me. Dr. Chun is well known to many CA faculty as the person who led us through some meaningful professional development five years ago in association with the College Work and Readiness Assessment (CWRA) and performance tasks. I have been following his social media posts for years—especially his Twitter account, where he uses the #deeperlearning hashtag to connect with educators around the country.

 

At CA, we engage in deeper learning in a host of different ways, typically referring back to our 6 Cs (Critical Thinking, Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Cultural Competence, and Character Development) either directly or indirectly. Those Cs helpfully underscore the advantages of deeper learning and guide teachers towards assessments that challenge students in more authentic ways.

 

Examples abound in the Upper School, and I will highlight a few. In the American Lit/American Studies combination course that Anne Strobridge and Elissa Wolf-Tinsman coteach, students are asked to think broadly about themes in United States history, and how those have shaped and been influenced by the cultural expressions of the nation. Through interdisciplinary assignments, such as holding a simulated Salem witch trial, students must apply what they are learning in project-based assessments and more authentic circumstances.

 

In our Global Design & Social Innovation elective, students work individually and in groups on a series of projects that ask them to redesign some aspect of their everyday experience and/or to choose a particular social need and address it. Their teachers, Paul Kim and Jesse Myers, help guide them to a better understanding of the nature of problem solving, often employing design-thinking strategies to the work. Recently, for their final project, students addressed a need of a particular company or agency and then made a pitch to these specialists who offered them feedback on their presentations. For example, three people from the Donnell-Kay Foundation asked students to find ways to solve a particular transportation problem that they have encountered: students in their ReSchool attend classes and programs at multiple places in various parts of the city.

 

How might students imagine getting these students around the city in a safe, efficient and cost-effective way?

 

The recent 24-Hour Play Project was another example of deeper learning, although in this case the learning happened outside of the classroom. Indeed, the voluntary project “counted” not in the traditional way a class does, but exclusively in terms of an experience. Four playwrights were tasked with coming up with a short play in one week, then turning it over to four directors who needed to cast and stage the one acts in a day. More than twenty students dived into this creative enterprise with the support of Dr. Jan De Sal. The time pressure, combined with the fact that there would be a public performance, meant that the kids in grades 9-12 had to learn deeply and quickly, handling all aspects of production in a concentrated period of time.

 

Like students who participate in Students HOPE or other major service projects, the reward is not in the form of a grade but in the satisfaction of working collaboratively to get a job done. Truly, the learning in these situations is deep because what is required from start to finish brings multiple skills to bear with a more authentic outcome.

 

In all of the above examples, we can certainly see how deeper learning occurs and all 6 Cs come into play. Similarly, the sense of accomplishment the students feel in these instances is obvious and palpable. Now that we are even more aware of the successful results, we are striving to provide even more opportunities for students to “go deep” in their learning.