DEPTH OF LEARNING AND UNDERSTANDING
A Key Point to Understand about My Program
An important aspect of my program is focusing on depth of learning. Rather than attempting to cover a wide range of topics, plow through a pile of novels, or survey long stretches of history, I believe young learners are greatly benefited by keeping the number of topics small but investigating them in considerable depth.
This belief makes my program of study very different from traditional classrooms. It is important for families to understand this key difference about my program. If you seek a survey curriculum that will cover a wide range of content, then my program of study is not well suited for your family.
Why Focus on Depth of Learning: A Pedagogical Rationale
Combating Fragile Information and Learning
I value depth of learning for a number of important pedagogical reasons. A common criticism of American education is that “it is a mile wide and an inch deep.” Students cover numerous topics each school year but are only able to investigate them superficially. This means that students gain only a partial understanding of any topic and typically end up learning a small number of data points or key ideas that must be remembered for a test or perhaps presented visually on a poster board. Learning like this leads to what Dr. Richard Paul of the Foundation for Critical Thinking calls “fragile information,” meaning it is easily forgotten because it was never deeply understood or imbibed by the learner. How many times has someone studied for a test and forgotten the information a few months later?
Integrating Complexities into a Unified Whole
My thinking-centered classroom takes the opposite approach to the curriculum. When a topic is studied in depth and investigated from multiple points of view, students are challenged to comprehend a sizable body of information and to synthesize this complex array into a logical whole. They need to make sense of the disparate pieces, discern the interrelationships between seemingly disconnected parts, and weave them into a coherent singularity. This is a much more challenging intellectual exercise than studying a small selection of data points for a test or making a poster board. It cultivates the vital skill of integrating complexities into a unified whole, a significant ability that is highly useful and prized in the adult world.
Integrative Mental Images and Cause and Effect Flow Charts
One way in which I work to develop this capability in my students is through the use of a disciplined “cause and effect flow charting” process and visual tool. It is an example of what David Perkins of Harvard University in his book Smart Schools calls an integrative mental image, a visual, “unified, overarching mental representation” [p. 79] that integrates our understanding of a topic, such as the mental map of your house floor plan or the periodic table of elements. Perkins argues that people who develop a firm grasp of a topic have built a condensed, holistic mental image of it in their minds as they investigated and worked through it. My program enables students to build these kinds of mental images because we study complex topics in depth and construct cause and effect flow charts that synthesize their learning into a compact form, solidify their understanding, and make it more ingrained and accessible for their future use.
Excellence of Understanding and the Mental Image of a Flow Chart
Another important reason for studying topics in depth is to help students gain a more sophisticated idea of what it means to have an excellent understanding of any subject. Harvard Project Zero’s program Teaching for Understanding, Grant Wiggins’ Understanding by Design, and others have done important research to help educators grasp what “understanding” is and what evidence to look for to see if students have developed it through the course of a study. To help build students’ grasp of the concept of “understanding,” my teaching places great emphasis on the intellectual standard of “depth” as described by Dr. Richard Paul. When a person has depth of understanding, simply put, we can say that she, 1: has knowledge of all parts or aspects of a topic; 2: knows the interconnections between the parts; and 3: knows what is most fundamental or the deepest causal factors of the subject. A car mechanic has a deep understanding of an engine, knowing each individual part, the interrelationships between the parts, and the fundamental and deep causal factors that make it work.
Dr. Paul’s definition of depth perfectly describes what my students actually do when they work through a subject and synthesize their learning by building a cause and effect flow chart. The flow chart concretely maps out the parts of the topic, their interconnections, and identifies what is fundamental or the deepest causal factors. It becomes an indispensable metaphor for my students for what an excellent understanding of a topic looks like. It gives them a powerful mental image of “excellence of understanding” itself. Providing my students with a picture of the target, of what we are aiming for when undertaking any study, of what excellence of understanding looks like and how it is build up through a clearly articulated, concrete, step-by-step process of inquiry is one of the most consequential and durable teachings I can possibly give my students. You will read in my students’ testimonials that I am not merely spouting out highfalutin theory here, but that my students do in fact deeply imbibe these concepts and skills and put them to use after leaving my classroom in their schooling and lives.
Mental Images of the Elements of Reason and More
A second mental image that we use constantly in my classroom is a visual representation of the elements of reason, a central part of Dr. Paul’s theory of critical thinking which I will briefly introduce here and discuss in more detail later [see XXX]. The elements of reason are the eight components that make up any thinking; whenever we think, we must put these elements together to construct our thought. To help students grasp this, I explain that “thinking is a process of construction” using a visual tool I designed that we call a house of thought. This integrative mental image teaches students how the elements of reason fit together logically, like the parts of house working together to make it sturdy and effective. Students use this mental image to build their own houses of thought and map out their thinking about a topic or to analyze and reconstruct someone else’s thinking. This mental image integrates the students’ understanding of the elements of reason and provides them with an clear and effective means for putting them to use.
I use a number of other important mental images to facilitate student learning, many of which will be explained in more detail later in this discussion. I designed a visual tool for the standards of reason, which work alongside the elements noted above, that helps students understand their use. To facilitate reading and writing, I created the idea of the movie-maker that helps students visualize the impact of their language. For work in social studies, we use visuals for the ecological-evolutionary theory of social development, a key foundation to our studies, while we use integrative diagrams to teach the intellectual inquiry cycle in our study of learning. My students enjoy using these visual tools and find them very helpful for assisting their thinking and advancing their learning.
Activated Knowledge
When learning is focused on developing depth of understanding, whether through the use of mental images or other methods I employ, the topics students study become firmly embedded in their memory and become integrated into the rich storehouse of knowledge that they will hold onto for life. I vividly recall speaking with a former seventh grade student at a class reunion who was now in her thirties and a professor of history. She reported that the only books she remembered from her pre-collegiate education where the ones that we studied together and said she still held them in her mind in great detail. I think this anecdote perfectly illustrates the value of deep learning. It is the opposite of the “inch deep” survey curriculum that promotes “fragile information” and learning; it is what Dr. Paul calls “activated knowledge,” an understanding that has become alive inside of you, that you can put to use now and long into the future.
Developing the Processes of Inquiry and the Key Learning Skills
Finally, studying deeply a limited number of topics also allows us to dedicate a significant amount of time to assimilating and practicing the broad processes of intellectual inquiry and the core skills of reading, writing, thinking, and discussion. It enables us to focus on how to learn as well as on what we learn. With a limited volume of material to cover, we can slow down the pace and give students direct instruction on inquiry methods and core learning skills that will facilitate their learning thereafter. These teachings may have greater impact on students than the subject matter we investigate because they provide students with the essentials tools for learning by themselves. Instead of merely giving students a fish, my program teaches them how to fish and hopes to help them feed themselves intellectually for the rest of their lives.
Uncommon Tools for Life
In sum, the goal of my teaching program is to train students how to investigate any topic deeply and provide them with a framework for learning and a vision of what excellence of understanding looks like that will be universally applicable to all areas of study and future undertakings. This is a training students are unlikely to get in traditional schooling at all or, possibly, not until they enter a Masters or PhD program. Yet, they are fully capable of understanding these concepts and achieving these ends as young middle or high school learners. I believe it is my dedication to these objectives that helps to make my program powerful and uncommon in the educational world.
What Depth of Learning Looks Like in Practice
In practice, a curriculum that emphasizes depth of learning simply covers a limited number of topics over the course of the year.
In my program, we will take several months to read, discuss, and work our way through the analytical essay writing process for a novel or complete a historical investigation. Over the course of the year, we will complete around four to six major units of study in my humanities program.
If your family values a program of study that develops enduring processes and skills, rather than emphasizing the coverage a large volume of topics, then I think you will find my teaching is in alignment with the goals you have for your child.
When learning is focused on developing depth of understanding, whether through the use of mental images or other methods I employ, the topics students study become firmly embedded in their memory and become integrated into the rich storehouse of knowledge that they will hold onto for life. I vividly recall speaking with a former seventh grade student at a class reunion who was now in her thirties and a professor of history. She reported that the only books she remembered from her pre-collegiate education where the ones that we studied together and said she still held them in her mind in great detail. I think this anecdote perfectly illustrates the value of deep learning. It is the opposite of the “inch deep” survey curriculum that promotes “fragile information” and learning; it is what Dr. Paul calls “activated knowledge,” an understanding that has become alive inside of you, that you can put to use now and long into the future.
Developing the Processes of Inquiry and the Key Learning Skills
Finally, studying deeply a limited number of topics also allows us to dedicate a significant amount of time to assimilating and practicing the broad processes of intellectual inquiry and the core skills of reading, writing, thinking, and discussion. It enables us to focus on how to learn as well as on what we learn. With a limited volume of material to cover, we can slow down the pace and give students direct instruction on inquiry methods and core learning skills that will facilitate their learning thereafter. These teachings may have greater impact on students than the subject matter we investigate because they provide students with the essentials tools for learning by themselves. Instead of merely giving students a fish, my program teaches them how to fish and hopes to help them feed themselves intellectually for the rest of their lives.
Uncommon Tools for Life
In sum, the goal of my teaching program is to train students how to investigate any topic deeply and provide them with a framework for learning and a vision of what excellence of understanding looks like that will be universally applicable to all areas of study and future undertakings. This is a training students are unlikely to get in traditional schooling at all or, possibly, not until they enter a Masters or PhD program. Yet, they are fully capable of understanding these concepts and achieving these ends as young middle or high school learners. I believe it is my dedication to these objectives that helps to make my program powerful and uncommon in the educational world.
What Depth of Learning Looks Like in Practice
In practice, a curriculum that emphasizes depth of learning simply covers a limited number of topics over the course of the year.
In my program, we will take several months to read, discuss, and work our way through the analytical essay writing process for a novel or complete a historical investigation. Over the course of the year, we will complete around four to six major units of study in my humanities program.
If your family values a program of study that develops enduring processes and skills, rather than emphasizing the coverage a large volume of topics, then I think you will find my teaching is in alignment with the goals you have for your child.