This post was originally published in the Winter 2022 edition of Surgere magazine.

Conversations around deeper learning are energizing the curriculum and academics alike at Westridge this year. It’s a topic at the heart of the school’s 2020-2025 Strategic Plan, and work is happening in every nook and cranny of campus.

So, what is deeper learning and why is this happening now?

Jal Mehta, professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a leading researcher in the field, says, “Deeper learning is the understanding of not just the surface features of a subject or discipline, but the underlying structures or ideas.” Curricula that foster deeper learning emphasize:

• inquiry-based and collaborative learning
• course content and projects responsive to student interest and real-world events
• research projects and interdisciplinary studies
• significantly more personalized teaching and learning
• diverse perspectives and content
• flexibility for in-depth discussions

Deeper learning centers on a constellation of learning outcomes, including critical, analytical, and systems thinking; the ability to construct knowledge and meaning; learning that “sticks” (e.g., is not just memorized for a test and forgotten by the weekend) and can be applied to new situations; and, interpersonal skills including communication.  

If you think this sounds like good learning that you’ve seen or experienced before, you’re right. But structures in the education system, including traditionally siloed disciplines, standardized tests, and the AP curriculum, have made centering these outcomes difficult in some parts of the curriculum. While, of course, direct instruction (teachers presenting content to students, such as lectures or demonstrations) is called for at times, deeper learning can be seen in classrooms across Westridge today. And yet, expanding and enhancing deeper learning practices will help meet the evolving needs of our students and graduates and better prepare them for their future—a rapidly changing horizon.  

The curriculum review and professional development in deeper learning that kicked off last year are designed to do just that. A major focus for the Upper School is the development of Westridge Advanced Courses. And the Lower and Middle School faculty is looking at the deeper learning practices employed on campus today and working to identify the principles we want centered wherever possible in the curriculum.

Why now?

The growing importance of deeper learning stems from a confluence of factors, including insights from neuroscience revealing that deeper-learning principles, such as making learning project-based, interdisciplinary, and connected to the real world and students’ interests, improve student engagement, learning, and retention of learning.

Perhaps most urgent is that deeper learning addresses the growing need to prepare our students for an unpredictable future. We can all feel the pace of change increasing across virtually all aspects of our lives, from technology and politics to climate change and globalization. Living and working in this mercurial world calls for an understanding of concepts and the ability to adapt and build upon them when novel challenges present themselves—skills at the root of deep learning.

“We want to develop thinkers who aren’t shut down by encountering new scenarios,” said James Evans, director of teaching and learning. “We want them to know how to apply frameworks and thought processes and make connections to other disciplines when they are in a situation that is new. We want them to know where to start when they don’t know exactly what to do.” 

It’s no surprise that these skills are increasingly sought by colleges and employers. Google conducted research on its most successful employees and changed its priorities in hiring as a result. In “How Google Works,” former CEO Eric Schmidt and Alphabet Inc. adviser Jonathan Rosenberg wrote that Google hires candidates not for their knowledge but for their ability to learn.

Conceptual, flexible thinking doesn’t come at the expense of content—it’s built upon it. “We can’t help students develop critical thinking and analytic skills without content to think about,” said Evans.   

Increased student agency in content selection is a feature of deeper learning, and what students do with content is as hands-on as possible. “We know that people learn through experience and that learning is heightened by personal connection to subject matter,” says Evans. “These help students understand why they are learning something and to identify with their learning. It moves them from thinking they have to learn physics to thinking, ‘I am doing physics’ or ‘I am thinking like a physicist,’ and that’s the holy grail.” 

“This is one of the most important and exciting curricular initiatives I have been a part of,” said Andrea Kassar, head of school. “One of our goals is to have students interact with content in new ways—ways that change them as thinkers and teach them about themselves as learners. That is the transformational learning we strive for for every student.”