Supporting Deeper Learning
How Can We Develop Teaching that
Ensures Success in the 21st Century?
What Deeper Learning is Not
© Linda Darling-Hammond 2010
What Deeper Learning is:
 An understanding of the meaning and
relevance of ideas to concrete problems
 An ability to apply core concepts and modes
of inquiry to complex real-world tasks
 A capacity to transfer knowledge and skills to
new situations, to build on and use them
 Abilities to communicate ideas and to
collaborate in problem solving.
 An ongoing ability to learn to learn
DEMAND FOR SKILLS
IS CHANGING
Complex Communications
10
Expert Thinking
8
Percentile Change from 1960
6
4
2
0
-2
Routine Manual
-4
The dilemma of schools:
The skills that are easiest to teach and
test are also the ones that are easiest to
digitize, automate, and outsource
-6
-8
- 10
1960
1970
1980
1990
Routine Cognitive
Non-routine Manual
1998
Source: Murnane & Levy
FORTUNE 500 MOST VALUED SKILLS
1970
1
Writing
Writing
Computational Skills
Computational Skills
Reading Skills
Reading Skills
Oral Communications
Oral Communications
Listening Skills
Listening Skills
Personal Career Development
Personal Career Development
Creative Thinking
Creative
Thinking
Leadership
2
Leadership
Goal Setting/Motivation
9
Goal Setting/Motivation
Teamwork
10
Teamwork
Organizational
Effectiveness
11
Organizational
Effectiveness
Problem Solving
12
Problem Solving
Interpersonal
Skills
13
Interpersonal Skills
3
4
5
6
7
8
1999
Toward What Ends?
 Sustaining people
-- Employment
-- Food and shelter
-- Clean water
 Sustaining the earth
 Resolving conflict
 Nurturing peaceful collaboration
 Developing new solutions and strategies for
living and learning
How Can Teachers Support
Deeper Learning?
1. Make it relevant – Connect to the real world
2. Teach through disciplinary “modes of inquiry”
3. Simultaneously develop lower- and higher-order skills
4. Encourage transfer of learning
5. Teach students to learn to learn
6. Address misunderstandings directly
7. Promote teamwork as a process and outcome
8. Exploit technology to support learning
9. Foster students’ creativity
NINE LESSONS FROM THE SCIENCE OF LEARNING
Teaching for Cognitive Flexibility
and Creativity
 Visual arts and music
 Design & engineering (“making”)
 World languages
 Social-emotional learning
-- Perspective taking
-- Acting with and for others
Teaching for Student Agency
The abilities to
 Take initiative
 Plan and implement
 Find and use resources
 Evaluate and synthesize
 Learn to learn
Dependent learners
Independent learners
rely heavily on the teacher
are self-reliant
cannot make decisions about their
learning
can make informed decisions
about their learning
do not know their own strengths
and weaknesses
are aware of their strengths and
weaknesses
do not connect classroom learning
with the real world
connect classroom learning with
the real world
think that the teacher is wholly
responsible for their learning
take responsibility for their own
learning
do not know the best way to learn
something
do not set learning goals.
know about different strategies for
learning (generally and personally)
plan their learning and set goals.
work for extrinsic motivators such
as grades or rewards
are intrinsically motivated by
making progress in learning
do not reflect on how well they are
learning and why
often reflect on the learning
process and their own progress
Teaching for Student Agency
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Create complex, authentic tasks worth doing
Plan for choice and inquiry
Connect tasks to authentic assessments
Build effective scaffolding that supports competence,
confidence, and motivation
Support self- and peer-assessment and revision
Build reflection & extension into learning
Enable collaboration & peer learning
Develop social-emotional skills
Identify strengths, learning styles, and
goals with students
Support student decision making, social
responsibility, and leadership
How Can We Support
Teaching for Deeper Learning?
Creating a System that Supports
Teaching for Deeper Learning
Standards that Guide Development
(NBPTS)
1. Teachers are committed to students and their learning:
they know how to support learning and development;
2. Teachers know the subjects they teach and how to teach
those subjects to students: they generate multiple pathways
to knowledge;
3. Teachers are responsible for managing and monitoring
student learning, using multiple methods to create
engagement, orchestrating learning in group settings;
4. Teachers think systematically about their practice and
learn from experience, using research and seeking advice;
5. Teachers are members of learning communities,
collaborating with other professionals, parents, & community.
Teacher Education that Instantiates
and Supports Deeper Learning
 Candidates experience deeper learning pedagogies:




-- hands-on projects and
performance assessments
-- revision to standards
-- communication, groupwork
Focus is on how people learn for
mastery and transfer
Development is at the core
Content is linked directly to
opportunities for practice
Candidates learn to take the
students’ perspective
Clinical Training: The Need for
Teaching Schools & Residencies
 As in medicine, teachers need to see and enact
good practice while studying research and theory
 Model schools support learning from expert
veterans while candidates are taking tightly linked
coursework, modeling state-of-the art education
for students and teachers as well as opportunities
for developing curriculum, new practices, and
research.
Intentional Induction
 New teacher supports: orientation, mentoring,
and seminars in key areas
 Reduced teaching load and collaborative
planning time
 Demonstration Classroom Learning:
observations, debriefing, co-teaching
 Professional learning for mentors
Inquiry-Based Professional
Learning
Collaborative inquiry through professional learning
communities and networks
-- Lesson study
-- Action research
-- Peer observation and coaching
-- Subject matter projects for content pedagogy
-- School-wide / cross-school authentic assessment
Time for Collaborative Learning
-- Other countries: 15-20 hours per week + 100 hours per
year
Professional Learning Opportunities
that Impact Practice are Generally:





Focused on specific curriculum content
Organized around real problems of practice
Connected to teachers’ work with children
Linked to analysis of teaching and student learning
Intensive, sustained and continuous over time
Supported by coaching, modeling,
observation, and feedback
Connected to teachers’ collaborative work in
professional learning communities
Integrated into school and classroom
planning around curriculum, instruction, and
assessment
USING ASSESSMENT FOR STUDENT & TEACHER LEARNING
Assessment
of, as, and for Learning
Assessment measures are structured to
continuously improve teaching and learning.
Graduation by Portfolio Supports
School-wide Learning
Tasks evaluating :
 Scientific investigation
 Mathematical problem solving
 Literary analysis
 Social science research and analysis
 World language proficiency
 Global awareness
 Artistic performance
Assessments Can Support
Teacher Learning
 As models of good instruction
 As exemplars of quality work and standards
 As diagnostic information regarding learning
– especially when feedback shows actual
performances, not just scores
 As a focus for professional
conversation about standards,
curriculum, and instruction
 As information to guide
investments in professional
development
Around the World, Teachers Collaborate in
Assessment Design, Scoring, and Evaluation
Assessments Can Support Equity
Rich tasks with thoughtful rubrics and teacher
moderation can enhance curriculum equity when…



They are embedded in curriculum and instructional
supports
They are readily available to teachers
They are used to analyze student learning
Focus Accountability on Learning
 As Ted Sizer noted, the goal of
education is for students to “learn to use their minds
well” and to be able to apply what they know in the
world beyond school – i.e. Learn deeply
 Assessment of, for, and as learning focuses on
improvement for students, teachers, & schools
 “Intelligent accountability” through evaluation,
reflection, and sharing of expertise is designed to
support the learning of everyone in the
system: from students and teachers
to school organizations and state
agencies.
21st Century Learning for All
“What the best and
wisest parent wants for
his or her child, that
must the community
want for all of its
children. Any other
child is narrow and
unlovely. Acted upon
it destroys our
democracy.”
-- John Dewey