HEATHER L. SCHWARTZ, MELISSA KAY DILIBERTI
Encouraging Deeper
Learning in Middle and
High School
Selected Findings from American School
District Panel Surveys
T
eaching deeper learning involves cultivating the critical thinking, problem-solving, and
collaboration skills that students need to be successful in their college, career, and civic life.
It also involves encouraging students to be active participants in their learning (Alliance for
Excellent Education, 2011; Vander Ark and Schneider, 2014).
K–12 public schools across the
United States routinely help students
develop these skills. For example,
teaching such building blocks of criti-
cal thinking as the ability to reason
and identify claims and evidence
is commonplace in states’ educa-
tional standards in the United States
(Common Core State Standards Ini-
tiative, undated; Next Generation Sci-
ence Standards, undated). And many
schools offer project-based learning—
an inquiry-based form of instruc-
tion in which students investigate a
real-world problem over an extended
period—a form of instruction that
research has shown is well suited to
cultivating these skills (Abrami et al.,
2015; Lucas Education Research,
undated; Zhang and Ma, 2023).
KEY FINDINGS
■ District leaders’ examples of successful teaching of critical think-
ing skills—a key element of deeper learning—fell into four main
categories: teachers posing high-level questions, project-based
learning, real-world problem-solving activities, and activities that
students chose rather than were assigned.
■ These examples align with research on effective methods for
teaching critical thinking.
■ According to reports from district leaders, districts engaged in a
wide variety of project-based learning, most commonly in the form
of science, technology, engineering, math, and career and techni-
cal education classes. However, some districts reported embed-
ding project-based learning in every grade and every subject.
■ Seven of ten school district leaders reported formally collecting
students’ input about teaching and learning, which is another ele-
ment of deeper learning. The changes that these districts reported
making based on student input often related to making instruction
more hands-on and engaging.
Research Report
