A Framework for the Design Challenge of Implementing Deeper Learning Through Instructional Practice

• In Event: Fostering Deeper Learning in Research-Practice Partnerships: Theoretical and Practical Perspectives

Abstract

Objectives
The fate of deeper learning in American schools, especially in ones that serve traditionally disadvantaged student populations, has not been a happy one. While many scholars and practitioners alike strive for ambitious instructional practice designed to engage students in critical thinking and problem solving, too many of the initiatives designed to achieve this goal have not taken root. Projects that engage in anchoring and spreading such “deeper learning” in schools need to be mindful of the uphill battle they face. Deeper learning projects require design features on multiple levels of the system and must aim at professional learning that is quite complex and sustained. This framework draws on both scholarship and case studies of ten research practice partnerships (RPPs), all funded by the Hewlett Foundation, working to bring deeper learning to students furthest from opportunity. The 10 RPPs provide illustrations of the design tasks required for implementing deeper learning interventions.

Theoretical Framework
Deeper learning as an instructional goal remains elusive, with uneven implementation and outcomes for students (cf. Mehta & Fine, 2019). To better champion deeper learning, we turn towards implementation of an innovation as a design challenge (cf. Hawley, 2006). We specify that the features of such a design challenger are understood as a set of planned, systematic, and repetitive activities, replete with artifacts, tools, materials, rules, norms, etc., carried out by leaders, administrators, coaches, teachers, students and so on.

Methods & Data Sources
This framework was created by drawing on the existing literature on educational improvement and implementation of deeper learning strategies as well as qualitative case studies, completed by researchers from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, of the ten RPPs. In addition to drawing on scholarship, we categorized the 10 RPPs by intended outcomes, target of intervention, and unit of change. When then developed the strata (noted below) and identified the design tasks from the RPPs and the literature.

Preliminary Results
The framework outlines the design tasks that implementers need to tackle, stratified by the dimensions of the educational system (i.e., student practices, teacher professional knowledge/practices, teacher professional learning, school-level organizational development, state-level organizational development, and state-level policies). Within each of these strata we have identified salient design tasks that must be tackled (dependent upon the particulars of the context and deeper learning intervention) if an innovation is to be well positioned for success. By identifying these tasks – which are not necessarily exhaustive, but rather identified in the literature as essential – we aim to provide those seeking to improve their systems with scaffolding for assessing how, when, and why they are implementing their deeper learning intervention.

Scholarly Significance
Ambitious instructional changes to promote deeper learning for all students continue to yield uneven results hat are often not sustained or scaled. In bringing together scholarly evidence of essential design decisions – illustrated through the lived experience of 10 RPPs – this framework offers practitioners insight into how to implement their innovations with a greater likelihood of success. Moving forward, our aspiration is to see this framework implemented and tested in more diverse contexts.

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Authors

• Rick Mintrop, University of California - Berkeley

• Elizabeth Zumpe, University of California - Berkeley

• Kara J. Jackson, University of Washington - Seattle

• Drew Nucci, University of Washington - Seattle

• Jon Norman, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching