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24 Oct 2016
Brief

School Features and Student Opportunities for Deeper Learning - What Makes a Difference? (Brief)

Mette Huberman, Helen Duffy, Jessica Mason, Kristina Zeiser, and Jennifer O'Day

The Study of Deeper Learning: Opportunities and Outcomes—funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation—found that students attending network high schools with a mature (i.e., in existence for at least four years) and at least moderately well-implemented approach to promoting deeper learning experienced different instructional strategies, greater opportunities, and better results on a range of outcomes than did their matched counterparts in comparison sites.

The next step was to determine whether there were certain school features that facilitated a school’s ability to provide deeper learning opportunities. Using data from the original study, this brief (based on the report, School Features and Student Opportunities for Deeper Learning: What Makes a Difference?) examines how teachers’ own beliefs about teaching, their assessment of their peers’ professional culture, and their assessment of the success of the principal in providing instructional leadership and program coherence are related to students’ reports of deeper learning opportunities in their classes.

Key findings:

  • Across the network schools, student-centered beliefs about teaching and teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching were the features most strongly and consistently related to student deeper learning opportunities. By contrast, teacher-centered beliefs about teaching were negatively related to student opportunities.
  • Other school features were inconsistently related to student opportunities based on the survey data. However, case study data suggested that these features (teachers’ professional culture and school leadership) might indirectly affect opportunities.

Creative Commons License
School Features and Student Opportunities for Deeper Learning: What Makes a Difference? by Mette Huberman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

PDF icon Brief: School Features and Student Opportunities for Deeper Learning What Makes a Difference? (PDF)
PDF icon Report: School Features and Student Opportunities for Deeper Learning: What Makes a Difference? (PDF)

Related Projects

Project

Study of Deeper Learning: Opportunities and Outcomes

AIR is studying the ways in which schools provide opportunities for students to acquire complex knowledge and deeper learning skills. Funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the study examines the impact of these opportunities on how students develop five dimensions of deeper learning: mastery of core content, critical thinking skills, collaboration skills, communication skills, and independent learning skills.

Related Work

Students working together
17 Jul 2019
Spotlight

Spotlight on Deeper Learning

What do today’s students really need to learn in order to succeed, not only in the classroom but also later on in college, careers, and as engaged citizens? What role can deeper learning—“a set of competencies students must master in order to develop a keen understanding of academic content and apply their knowledge to problems in the classroom and on the job”—play?
17 Oct 2016
Report

School Features and Student Opportunities for Deeper Learning: What Makes a Difference?

In this report from the Study on Deeper Learning, researchers found that while teachers’ own beliefs seemed to have the most consistent and strongest associations with the opportunities students reported experiencing in the classroom, interview data suggest that other school features and external policies can influence teachers’ beliefs about teaching and about their own teaching skills.

Further Reading

  • School Features and Student Opportunities for Deeper Learning: What Makes a Difference?
  • Study of Deeper Learning: Opportunities and Outcomes
  • The Shape of Deeper Learning: Strategies, Structures, and Cultures in Deeper Learning Network High Schools
  • Three Studies Show Impact of Deeper Learning
  • Maximizing Student Agency: Implementing and Measuring Student-Centered Learning Practices
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Helen Duffy

Senior Researcher

Topic

Education
District and School Improvement

DEEPER LEARNING STUDY PUBLICATIONS

The Shape of Deeper Learning: Strategies, Structures, and Cultures in Deeper Learning Network High Schools

Providing Opportunities for Deeper Learning

Evidence of Deeper Learning Outcomes
Update: Graduation Advantage Persists for Students in Deeper Learning Network High Schools
Update: Deeper Learning and College Attendance: What Happens After High School?

Deeper Learning and Graduation: Is There a Relationship?

School Features and Student Opportunities for Deeper Learning: What Makes a Difference?
Brief: School Features and Student Opportunities for Deeper Learning What Makes a Difference?

RESEARCH. EVALUATION. APPLICATION. IMPACT.

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