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Introduction
At Wooster, one of our goals is to ensure that our Upper School students have the
opportunity to apply the skills, dispositions and knowledge that they have been
developing over the years in the pursuit of deeper learning in areas of academic
interest. To that end, we will be launching our Deep Learning Initiative (DLI) in
2016-17. Through the DLI, students will pursue a greater understanding of
concepts in our academic disciplines by engaging in a learning experience based
upon best practices and our growing understanding of brain science and learning.
At the heart of our DLI courses will be tutorial methodologies developed at Oxford
University and Williams College, which will provide the framework for a deeper dive
into each course’s concepts and meaning. Wooster’s DLI courses will be structured
so that students can engage with a core body of knowledge and information in a
particular discipline, develop areas of inquiry from this “deep dive” into the core,
and produce original thinking and analysis based upon their questions,
independent research, and collaborative engagement with their teacher and fellow
students. While delving deeper in pursuit of more nuanced meaning, students will
also be building on skills that are essential to learners in college, the workplace, and
in life -- reading/observing/listening for understanding, researching, identifying
problems, questioning, reflection, writing, and collaboration.
Deep Learning Initiative courses will require that students demonstrate important
dispositions like imagination, creativity, and perseverance, in the pursuit of more
sophisticated, original, and independent thinking.
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Why Deep Learning?
Based upon a growing understanding of brain functions, our interest in growing the
strongest, most sophisticated learners here at Wooster, and ongoing conversations
with college admissions officers, the creation of these courses is a natural next step
for our community of thinkers and learners. The following elements emerged as
being most important as we did our research and designed our courses:
Reading: Students need to engage with texts that communicate factual and
conceptual content in sophisticated ways. The readings in a DLI course will
require that students apply skills like attention, annotation, and reflection in
order to make meaning of the texts. The volume of reading should be such
that students are challenged to manage their time while still having the time
necessary to wrestle with the advanced information and concepts found in
the materials.
Writing: Students in DLI courses will write to reflect, to better understand,
and ultimately to communicate their own best thinking about questions that
they have developed as a result of their experiences in the course. More
advanced instruction in the skill of writing, particularly as it relates to
research and rhetoric, will also be a part of DLI courses, especially those in
the Humanities.
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Reflection, Collaboration, Critique, Discussion: Making meaning is often
the product of an iterative process which involves collaborative interactions
like brainstorming, and text-based and protocol-driven discussion. Learning
the “rules of engagement” and how to best listen, critique and contribute are
skills that will be intentionally taught and practiced in DLI courses.
Demonstration of Learning: Every DLI course will require a culminating,
capstone presentation and product which demonstrates the new skills,
dispositions and knowledge that students have gained through the
experience. Within the framework of each class, students will tell us what
they have learned, and they will use their skills to demonstrate a deep
understanding in a concrete fashion.
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Personalized Learning: Because the internal structure of DLI courses will
rely on the tutorial model, each student will be challenged to understand and
build on his/her own skills, dispositions, and knowledge throughout the
course. Small group and individual meetings with the instructor will be
essential to assuring progress in learning and an honest assessment of
students’ work and learning throughout of the course.
What is the Tutorial Process?
A tutorial class is built around a core body of content and knowledge within an
academic discipline with which all students must become familiar. The process of
engaging with the content can include reading, listening, watching, note taking,
annotation, lab work and problem-solving. As students become more familiar with
the content, they work as a class and in smaller groups on developing questions
about the material which will guide their inquiry in pursuit of deeper learning.
The tutorial model requires that students work in pairs or triads as they refine their
thinking, identify other sources of information and knowledge, and develop fully
formed answers to the questions that are guiding their inquiry. Throughout the
process students are collaborating, journaling, discussing, and conferencing with
their instructor. At the culmination of each tutorial cycle, of which there will be a
minimum of three per course, students must write an essay, prepare a formal
critique of their learning partner’s essay, and participate in a formal discussion of
both in the presence of the instructor. In the end, students emerge having “made
meaning” through a rigorous, skill-based, intellectual process, and with a better
understanding of what it takes to engage with concepts at a deeper level.
Redefining Rigor
Our shift to a Deep Learning model is predicated on the broader shift that is
occurring in the workplace, at our universities, and throughout world cultures.
As our understanding of the neurological roots and realities of learning evolve, so
too does our understanding of knowledge itself. When coupled with the
pervasiveness and power of search technology, the proliferation of data in our
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digital world, and the processes necessary to parse that data and find meaningful
patterns in it, this new understanding requires more complex and sophisticated
coursework than that presented through Advanced Placement.
Put simply, we are shifting from a model of
knowledge (and therefore schooling) shaped by the
character and constraints of print technology, one
which valued the collecting and cataloguing of facts,
figures, and concepts, to a model which requires
that students develop the critical and creative
thinking skills to make meaning from the data and
information saturating our world in dynamic and
unstructured formats. Remembering facts and
information is no longer as important as
understanding how to think about those facts and that information in ways that will
help solve problems and create new ideas. The Deep Learning Initiative is designed
to test and build those skills in our Wooster students.
The Educational Testing Service (ETS), which administers the Advanced Placement
(AP) Program, cannot hope to allow teachers to measure the processes, thinking,
and hard skills that students apply to the solving problems and thinking deeply and
originally about questions that matter while also requiring that they “cover” a
specific amount of “book learning” on a daily basis. Every teacher who teaches AP
will tell you that they routinely sacrifice the time needed for deep learning to the
imperative that they race through the curriculum in preparation for the test. This
tension has long been a complaint of AP teachers, and removing it is part of the
reason that our teachers are so excited about Deep Learning. This problem is only
compounded by the psychometrics of developing a test that can be scored on a
scale of 1-5 and nationally norm referenced.
When students at Wooster reach the 11th and 12th grade, they must be involved in
the difficult but engaging business of having to make meaning in a deeper learning
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environment. Their teachers should have developed course designs which result in
those students receiving feedback designed to further develop those skills. This
rigorous experience should be personal, and the feedback that we give should be
individualized to help each student improve in all areas. Through Deep Learning
courses we are asking them to show us that they are ready to think and work at the
next level of learning.
Beyond Advanced Placement
We are not alone in having come to the conclusion that while AP isn’t “bad,” we can
do far better. In moving away to a better alternative than AP as our most rigorous
program, we are joining schools like Phillips Exeter, Lawrenceville, Hawken, Dalton,
Calhoun, Fieldstone, Putney and a host of other well-regarded independent schools
that have a long and growing history of going deeper.
As a small, independent school, we have the wonderful advantage of being able to
offer a program like DLI, which focuses on building the skills, dispositions and
knowledge necessary for successful lifelong learning. We can move beyond the
canned curricula of national programs and create courses that allow our students
to take the time necessary to wrestle with advanced concepts and require authentic
demonstrations of their learning. These courses, by design, also reinforce our
greatest strength as a school: personalized learning through strong relationships
between teachers and students. Through these courses, because of the frequent
and personal feedback loop with teachers, students will come to better understand
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their own strengths and weaknesses and be able to build on both through hard
work and deep thinking.
It is our intention that in 2016-17, as we transition to Deep Learning courses, we will
continue to offer a selection of Advanced Placement courses as well. By 2017-18
we will have fully transitioned to Deep Learning courses, thus eliminating the need
for Advanced Placement.
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What Are Colleges Saying?
“It (DLI) seems to get at many of the same things that we desire of our
own curriculum -- development of strong communication, analytical
and organizational skills -- while emphasizing research, critical
thinking and exposure to a broad range of disciplines and ideas.”
Over the last year, we have spoken and corresponded with college admissions
officers from Amherst, Colorado
College, Fordham, Wesleyan,
HIgh Point, Carnegie Mellon and
numerous other schools who
have been unanimous in telling
us that their primary concern is
that they be able to determine
how students have chosen to
challenge themselves while in
Upper School. Colleges and
universities want to know what
our most challenging and
rigorous courses are, be they
Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, or a school-developed option
like Deep Learning. If a school is creating intellectual rigor through an organically
developed program grounded in relevant inquiry, critical and creative thinking and
skill development -- all the better.
“I love it. Personally, this is the kind of learning I want for my own
children. Professionally, I think this is the kind of education that
allows young people to appreciate the meaning of learning and the
application of knowledge. Students who have the ability to see how
diverse concepts fit together will be well-prepared for the higher
order learning that takes place at the University level and beyond.”
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We have also heard from schools that Wooster will benefit from developing a
program like the Deep Learning Initiative because we are already known for Self-
Help and the strength our relationship-based community. DLI redefines and
reinforces the strength of our academic program as well. As you can see, they have
also been uniformly positive about the philosophy and structure of our Deep
Learning Initiative.
“The idea of moving away from official AP designations to focus on
deeper learning is very encouraging to me as an admissions officer and
educator. We routinely work with schools that are able to maintain a
high level of rigor in their coursework, while also ensuring that the
students are engaging in content more richly. Not only does it not
affect a student’s chances of gaining admission to a selective
institution, I think that this often can provide an even stronger
foundation for success once they arrive on a college campus.”
Proposed Deep Learning Courses for 2016-17
Thermal and Statistical Physics
Physics
Dr. Brian Sullivan
The primary premise of this course is that any individual who aspires to understand
complex systems in the real world needs to learn to apply statistical thinking and to
make reasonable simplifications in quantitative models. Students in this class will read
about the history of humanity’s understanding of heat and the technological evolution of
the engine, the refrigerator, the generator, the mill, and the factory.
Using the tutorial process, students also will be identifying areas of interest in this
historical process, and writing and presenting about the quantitative problems that have
arisen and that have been solved, or proved unsolvable. Students will learn and apply
skills from probability, statistics, calculus, and computer programming to model real
world systems, collect and analyze data from those systems, and to engineer
mechanical systems that make use of heat to accomplish tasks.
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The Essay
Humanities
Mr. Matt Byrnes/Ms. Liz Higgins
Any individual who aspires to make greater meaning of our human experience must be
able to read and understand essays -- and write them. Students in the course will read
essays in various forms written by a diverse collection of writers from a range of time
periods with an eye toward understanding the the genre and the technical elements
which are employed by each writer. Using the tutorial process, students also will be
identifying areas of interest and researching the various essays that have been written
to make meaning of them. Using what they find, students will develop their own
questions and perspectives and write their own essays, employing their developing
thinking, research and syntactic skills to express their own meaning.
Complexity and Life
Biology
Dr. Evelyn Fetridge
Life is an astounding and improbable phenomenon that as yet has exclusively been
found on Planet Earth. The basic premise of this course is that life is characterized by
and made possible by complexity, on the levels of biological molecules and individual
cells, whole organisms, and entire ecosystems. Students in this course will be
introduced to foundational biological understandings in the areas of plant physiology
and ecology, inheritance and the molecular basis of evolution, and body systems and
homeostasis, and how each of these illustrates the principle that complexity
characterizes and sustains life. Using the tutorial process, students will identify an area
of interest within each of these fields and carry out a project that will further our
understanding of the field or apply it to a real-life problem. Potential projects to facilitate
deep learning may include researching and writing a scientific review paper or bioethical
essay, creating a piece of persuasive media, or engineering a device. At the close of the
trimester, during the tutorial discussion, the students will present their projects and
critique those of their peers.
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Europe in the 20th Century
History
Mr. Tom Curley
From 1914-1989, Europe saw the two most destructive wars in history, two madmen
committing two genocides against their own people, and the division of the continent
over political ideals. Since 1945, however, Europe has created an economic and
political union that virtually guarantees peace. The 20th century is thus yet another in
Europe’s long history of stark contrasts. This course will investigate this history in a
student-driven discussion format and utilizing the tutorial learning and writing process.
Students are expected to use all the skills and dispositions gained over the course of
their academic careers to reach success in this course. The keys to this include careful
and comprehensive preparation, active and civil participation in discussions, and true
curiosity for and love of the study of history. Students are expected to express
themselves clearly in discussions and in writing, support arguments with primary and
secondary evidence, and analyze the arguments of others.
Statistics and Big Data
Math
Mr. Karl Schwoerke
Statistics and Big Data will teach statistical literacy in a world that is increasingly
data driven. The students will learn descriptive statistics, probability, inferential
statistics and data analysis so that will be ready to conduct their own serious
research in the third trimester. Within the course we will learn the foundations of
statistical analysis through research and experimentation, and take opportunities
to evaluate statistical claims presented by media, journals and other credible
sources. While finding common characteristics of good research and writing, the
students will spend the third trimester producing their own original research paper
through the tutorial process with classmates.