It鈥檚 a dilemma schools have struggled with for years: Should teachers spend the precious time they have helping students dig deeply into a specific issue, problem, or question? Or should they teach more broadly about a wide variety of topics?
The argument for the former approach鈥攃alled 鈥渄eep learning鈥濃�攊s that it improves student engagement and prepares kids to be better problem solvers in a world with increasingly complex challenges around health, economics, social justice, and climate change. A broader approach, the counter argument goes, introduces students to a greater mix of topics, giving them a better sense of all the issues and problems society is facing.
Taking that 鈥渄eep learning鈥� approach is now more difficult than ever, as students are stuck at home learning remotely either full time or part time, or in socially distanced classrooms where collaboration, project-based learning, and lab experiments are hard, if not impossible, to do.
That doesn鈥檛 mean teachers aren鈥檛 trying.
Neema Avashia, who teaches 7th grade social studies in the Boston public schools, is convinced that, with some meaningful adjustments and more-than-usual advanced planning, she can bring the same 鈥渄eeper learning鈥� approach she used in her brick-and-mortar classroom to a remote or hybrid learning environment.
That was not how she felt when schools abruptly shut down last spring.
Back then, it was about 鈥減anic and crisis schooling,鈥� said Avashia. 鈥淲e forgot that a lot of things that are good practice can be done in a virtual space. If we believe kids learn best when they are doing things deeply instead of broadly, it鈥檚 about building those kinds of [activities] in an online space.鈥�
The challenges, though, are obvious. For one thing, two of the tenets of deep learning are that it is project-based and frequently done in groups. That鈥檚 harder to do online, even if district rules allow teachers to create videoconferencing breakout rooms or permit students to meet separately, said Jal Mehta, a professor at Harvard Graduate School of Education and an author of In Search of Deeper Learning: The Quest to Remake the American High School.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a very, very difficult situation for teachers,鈥� Mehta said.
Ground Instruction in a 鈥楥ore Idea鈥�
One way to make teachers鈥� and students鈥� approaches to deeper learning easier is to have certain 鈥渢hrough-lines in your class. 鈥� [Try] to ground yourself in a core idea or a core text,鈥� said Avashia. That way, students have a touchstone they can keep returning to.
For instance, the theme for Avashia鈥檚 first unit this school year is 鈥渞esistance.鈥� Her students did a 鈥済allery walk,鈥� analyzing images of resistance throughout American history. (Examples included a photo of the Greensboro, N.C., lunch counter sit-in during the civil rights movement, and the iconic picture of a Vietnam War protester placing a flower in the gun of a National Guard soldier.)
In a classroom, students would literally walk from picture to picture, answering questions like: What do you see? What questions does it raise for you?
Online, they do the same exercise (minus the walking), subbing out PowerPoint slides for photos on the wall. Avashia thought this activity helped spur the same type of rich conversation that she would have had in the classroom.
But developing such assignments for remote or hybrid learning environments, and then culling the resources for them, is hard. 鈥淭he planning is kicking my ass,鈥� Avashia said. 鈥淭o do it really well, it takes a really long time.鈥�
Educators like Avashia shouldn鈥檛 have to 鈥渞einvent the wheel鈥� when designing deep learning lessons for online environments, Mehta said. Districts need to provide some time for teachers to swap ideas and discuss what is and is not working.
For instance, last spring, the Jefferson County, Colo., school district held virtual school on Tuesday through Friday and used Monday as a day for teachers to collaborate. The district put together online communities that allowed teachers from different schools who taught the same grades or subjects to join forces, Mehta said.
Giving students greater autonomy to pursue their interests is another smart strategy for encouraging deeper learning, by Mehta and Justin Reich, the director of the Teaching Lab at MIT.
That鈥檚 something Susan Wetrich, who teaches kindergarten at Hoover Elementary in New Berlin, Wis., is trying to adapt to an all-remote environment. She鈥檚 building on an approach she used last school year: Have each child say what they鈥檝e always wondered about, and then have them tackle each of those questions as a class.
For instance, one student wondered, 鈥淗ow do plants grow?鈥� Wetrich made sure each student was given a flowerpot and marigold seeds. The children took pictures and celebrated as their flowers bloomed. She鈥檚 trying that approach again this year, starting with one student鈥檚 question: 鈥淗ow do you make the color pink?鈥�
Building Bonds With Students
It鈥檚 hard to personalize learning and dig deeply into issues, problems, or questions if teachers don鈥檛 have strong bonds with their students. That鈥檚 especially tough to accomplish online, but it鈥檚 never been more important than now, wrote Mehta and Reich in their report.
To facilitate richer connections, the Springfield Renaissance School鈥攁 public school in Springfield, Mass., that emphasizes so-called 鈥渆xpeditionary learning,鈥� which calls for students to learn through interdisciplinary projects鈥攈as kept its classes small for its all-remote approach. Classes used to be about 20 to 25 students, said Arria Coburn, the principal. Now, high school classes average 15 students. And over the summer before school began, teachers met with parents and students in socially distanced visits or online.
Now teachers are trying to build on that work in online environments. For instance one teacher spent part of the first class greeting each of her students individually and asking them questions.
That鈥檚 great practice, said Megan Magrath-Smith, an instructional specialist for the Springfield district. 鈥淜ids need to feel personally known,鈥� she explained.
Given the crunch online learning can create, schools should 鈥淢arie Kondo鈥� their priorities, getting rid of things that aren鈥檛 as essential and putting an intense emphasis on the most important standards and parts of the curriculum, Mehta and Reich recommend.
That鈥檚 something Big Spring High School in Newville, Pa., which has two days of in-person instruction coupled with virtual learning, is taking to heart.
鈥淚f our teachers can prioritize their curriculum and almost cut it in half, that鈥檚 going to allow them the time they need to go deeper with half the content, rather than skimming it [at a] surface-level and feeding everything to [students] to get through 100 percent of it,鈥� said Nicole Donato, an instructional coach at the school.
That hasn鈥檛 been easy, Donato acknowledged.
Teachers, she said, tend to feel that all content is key, so it has been a 鈥渟truggle鈥� to get them to think about what students will really need in their next course. It is particularly tough for teachers to agree to cuts in curriculum that might be assessed on state accountability tests, Donato said.
In-Person Is Hands-On Time
Schools like Big Spring that are operating under a hybrid model should see in-person instruction time as 鈥済olden,鈥� and be deliberate about how it is used, Mehta and Reich say.
Big Spring is taking that seriously. For instance, one technology teacher is having his students work on computer skills remotely, so that on in-person days, they can fly the drones they are programming for a class called SkyOp Drones.
鈥淚 think that鈥檚 the biggest switch we need to make is that being here [in the building] should be hands on,鈥� said Principal Bill August.
The school is also working to change its approach to testing when possible. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to spend valuable face-to-face time having kids take tests, so there鈥檚 a natural opportunity to shift to more performance-based, project-based tasks,鈥� August said.
Of course, Avashia said, there are some things that simply don鈥檛 translate well to online or socially distanced environments. For instance, when teaching kids about solitary confinement, she usually creates a 9-by-6 feet cell, so students can enter it and feel how small the space is. 鈥淭hose experiential pieces that are a big part of learning, I don鈥檛 think I can do online yet,鈥� she said.
That makes student engagement tougher. Avashia feels the pressure to create lessons that are 鈥渟o compelling and so engaging that [her students] don鈥檛 want to do something else,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what deeper learning does.鈥�
