In Search of Deeper Learning
The Quest to Remake the American High School
1 of 1 copy available
The story they tell is alternately discouraging and hopeful. Drawing on hundreds of hours of observations and interviews at thirty different schools, Mehta and Fine reveal that deeper learning is more often the exception than the rule. And yet they find pockets of powerful learning at almost every school, often in electives and extracurriculars as well as in a few mold-breaking academic courses. These spaces achieve depth, the authors argue, because they emphasize purpose and choice, cultivate community, and draw on powerful traditions of apprenticeship. These outliers suggest that it is difficult but possible for schools and classrooms to achieve the integrations that support deep learning: rigor with joy, precision with play, mastery with identity and creativity.
The first panoramic study of American public high schools since the 1980s, In Search of Deeper Learning lays out a new vision for American education—one that will set the agenda for schools of the future.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
December 24, 2019 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781494536589
- File size: 468553 KB
- Duration: 16:16:09
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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March 18, 2019
In this lucid and engaging study of the American secondary school system, education professors Mehta (The Allure of Order) and Fine offer a descriptive and prescriptive vision of “what it would take to create engaging, equitable, and intellectually vibrant learning environments” for all students. The authors first examine successful “thematic” schools, including a progressive school that uses project-based instruction, a “no excuses” high school that employs “regimes of tight discipline and control,” and a school that utilizes the International Baccalaureate program, to discover the “school-level characteristics” that drive superior test scores, high college admission, and “deep cognitive engagement.” They conclude that mastery, identity, and creativity define the “powerful learning experiences” emerging from classrooms that offer “a deep focus on thinking and reasoning,” “balance rigor with joy,” and regard students as meaning-makers rather than passive recipients of knowledge. The authors offer lively vignettes, a framework grounded in history and research, and a powerful, precise, and organized critical analysis. Mehta and Fine’s account of a holistic model for cultivating “learners ready to meet the challenges of the modern world” will be as accessible to an intelligent parent as to a school board administrator.
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