Deeper learning is an umbrella term that describes approaches to teaching and learning that seek to make learning both personally and cognitively engaging, with the goal of fostering in-depth understanding, critical thinking, transferable knowledge and skills, and reflective habits of mind, all while increasing relevance, authenticity, engagement and intellectual rigor. Frameworks such as project-based learning, understanding by design, expeditionary learning, and more fall under this umbrella of deeper learning. The goal of deeper learning is to prepare students to successfully solve novel problems and to adapt to new situations.

Deeper learning should be a central goal for teachers and school systems, but deeper learning continues to be elusive in American schools, especially in under-resourced school districts where deeper learning is, perhaps, needed most. For any school district, deeper learning is needed now more than ever for economic, equity, and civic reasons, (Mehta & Fine 2019).

In this inquiry you will

• Understand and apply frameworks for deeper learning
• Create and teach a backwards-designed, project-based unit with an explicit focus on deeper learning of content and skills important to your students in your school