Deep Learning

This post has been influenced by a recent book I have been reading, Deep Learning by Fullan, Quinn, and McEachen. Fullan et al., share their insight on deep learning. They define deep learning as, “valuable learning that sticks – it situates the learner as someone who acts upon the world (usually with others), thereby transforming her or himself and the world itself.” This is really about relevance, students need to find relevance in what they do in the classroom. We need to give them opportunities to apply what they learn in real world situations. We need to provide them opportunities to pursue their passion. Real world application and finding their passion will make their school experience more engaging and relevant.

“Put a young person in a stagnant situation or one demanding irrelevant activities, and they will appear unreachable” (Fullan et al., 2018, p. 9).

According to Jenkins (2013), student engagement levels peak during kindergarten at 95% and slowly decline to 39% by the time students reach grade 11. This is very concerning and something we should be considering within our school improvement efforts. How do we create classrooms that students want to attend every day for 175 days of school? I love when my own kids come home from school excited about what they learned at school and continue to explore the topic at home. All kids should experience this sense of excitement throughout their school experience.

Deep learning is the process of acquiring these six global competencies: character, citizenship, collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking.

“In the past, we mostly asked students to solve problems that have already been solved. Today we have moved from asking our students to be consumers of knowledge to asking them to apply their solutions to real-world problems” (Fullan, Quinn, McEachen, 2018, p. 82).

Over the past few weeks, I have been able to witness a few examples of what I would consider deep learning.

Last week, our seniors presented their capstone projects as part of fulfilling the requirements of their senior English course. Seniors were able to pick a topic that they were passionate about and complete a mini-research study on the topic. They researched their topic, conducted surveys, analyzed the data, and provided a presentation on their topic to the public on April 11th. I included a few of the topics in the image below. I was thoroughly amazed by the knowledge they acquired and how they were able to apply it to a real-world situation.

Earlier this week, Mr. Leier and members of his Community Development class were invited to meet with Governor Burgum to discuss their work on the Mainstreet Initiative. These students participated in a community forum earlier this year and were asked to gather information on the following: What are the strengths and weaknesses of our community? If Rugby were to be able to build a Multi-Purpose Community Center, what would residents want to see and how might they support it? The culmination of this project involved a meeting with the Governor and his Main Street Initiative Team in Bismarck, ND.

 “Students have untapped potential, but given voice and choice through deep learning we see them influencing dramatic changes to organizations, society, and pedagogy” (Fullan, Quinn, and McEachen, 2018, p. 47).

The challenge with these types of learning experiences is that they take considerable time to complete, but I’ll bet what they learned about their topic will stick with them for years to come. We need more of these types of learning experiences in school. Let’s trust students to take on real world problems and apply their learning. We will be surprised about what they can accomplish.