Recently, researchers at AIR found that students who attended schools that focused on deeper learning reported higher levels of collaboration skills, academic engagement, motivation to learn, and self-efficacy than similar students who attended comparison schools. Furthermore, they found that student reports of opportunities for deeper learning were positively associated with students’ interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies (e.g., collaboration skills, self-efficacy).

In this brief, we used data from the Study of Deeper Learning: Opportunities and Outcomes to explore whether students’ opportunities for deeper learning are similarly beneficial for different types of students (e.g., male and female students, English language learners and native English speakers).

Key Findings

• For the most part, positive relationships between opportunities for deeper learning and interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies were similar in strength across different types of students.
• Relationships were significantly stronger for male students than for female students. Because female students generally reported high levels of interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies, the weaker relationships for women indicate that other environmental factors (such as interactions with peers and families) may influence these competencies more than experiences in schools.

Conclusions

These findings contradict popular notions that deeper learning is an approach that generally benefits advantaged students or students who are already succeeding academically. In fact, our results suggest that opportunities for deeper learning are similarly beneficial for all students.