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Deep Learning
 

An Annotated Bibliography by Marion Larson
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College faculty and administrators are often keenly aware that what we want students to learn (how to think critically about important ideas, how to form meaningful connections between and among disparate pieces of information, how to communicate orally and in writing, etc.) often doesn’t match what they actually do learn (separate bits of data, often memorized for a test and forgotten soon thereafter).

The literature on “deep learning” helps shed light on this dilemma. The mismatch occurs, in part, as a result of a student’s approach to learning. As Ramsden (1992) puts it: “What students learn is…closely associated with how they go about learning it.”

Two contrasting approaches to learning: shallow vs. deep

• Shallow learning: The learner is largely passive, receiving information uncritically, in isolated bits of data, seeking to memorize facts and ideas in order to reproduce them for a test. Course content is often seen as a hurdle to overcome, merely something to learn in order to attain the desired grade. This approach to learning can be described as “quantity without quality.”

• Deep learning: The learner is active, examining ideas critically, seeking to make sense of new information, working to link ideas with each other, with larger concepts, and with life outside the classroom. Rather than focusing on memorization in order to attain a grade, the deep learner seeks to understand and takes a holistic approach to the various new facts and ideas he or she encounters. This approach to learning can be described as “quantity and quality.”

How can we foster deep learning?

The same students report employing both deep and surface approaches to learning, adapting their strategies according to the context. While we can’t guarantee that any student will learn deeply, we can increase the likelihood that this will occur. How?

• Build campus-wide support: Kinzie and Kuh (2004), reporting on Project DEEP (Documenting Effective Educational Practice), note that all campuses involved in this examination of effective educational practice had in common a “widely shared sense of responsibility for educational quality and student success.” Smith and Colby (2007) concur: “Engage all members of the learning community in intentional, substantive, and inclusive dialogue about student learning.” Such campuses are more likely to foster student engagement—highly correlated with college satisfaction, persistence, and positive learning outcomes in numerous studies (e.g., Pascarella and Terenzini; Kuh; Astin).

Design courses around deep understanding of core concepts: Wiggins and McTighe (1998), Fink (2003), and Bain (2004) provide guidance for course design that helps promote deeper learning.

How Can We Foster Deep Learning?►