Teaching for Deeper Learning – Tools to Engage Students in Meaning Making.Jay McTighe and Harvey Silver. ASCD. 2020. 132 pp. (paperback).ISBN: 978-1-4166-2862-0 (pbk); ISBN: 978-1-4166-2864-4 (ebk).
Review by Terry Goodin
In a brief and understandable form, educational innovators Jay McTighe and Harvey Silver blend their many years of experience to tackle the problems associated with the goal of meaning making in student experiences. McTighe is best known for his work in backward design as presented in the book Understanding by Design (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998). Silver is a well-known educational trainer, focusing his work on the “thoughtful classroom.” This book is a practical guide to meaning making, with many examples and models that should be useful to practicing teachers as well as to teacher candidates.
This work draws from learning theory presented in the well-known book entitled How People Learn (National Research Council, 2000), an authoritative account of the teaching and learning process . One principle of “how people learn” is that of “transfer of learning,” or the learner’s ability to apply learning to new situations, across disciplines and applications (p.51). It is this ability to effectively engage with problems prepares students for living in a complex and changing world. Transfer is difficult to achieve, however, because it requires holistic thinking, and most curricula are designed around discrete disciplines. Nevertheless, the transfer of learning is a goal certainly worthy of pursuit and Teaching for Deeper Learning goes into detail regarding ways to accomplish that goal.
To begin, the authors propose to organize learning around “big ideas” that become the vehicles for transfer. They present a list of useful samples of those ideas, such as balance, rhythm, liberty, and so on. These ideas are interdisciplinary, holistic, and build skills useful in any learning situation, particularly in the realm of what we think of as active, or applied, learning.
The book presents seven “essential thinking skills,” which serve as a foundation to think critically and solve problems effectively. The seven skills are:
Conceptualizing
Note making and summarizing
Comparing
Reading for Understanding
Predicting and hypothesizing
Visualizing
Perspective taking and empathizing
The skills are verbs, which means they can be expressed as learning objectives that are specific and measurable. If we compare these skills to Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy for Learning we see that they represent knowledge and skills from the middle to the upper end of the scale. It is interesting that the first skill, conceptualizing, is meant to frame the learning, and that this skill falls at the upper end of the taxonomy (Armstrong, 2010). This is like the approach taken in problem-based learning, where students are given the problem first, as a way of contextualizing their learning and motivating them to engage.
Each skill is the subject of a chapter. Each chapter begins with the “What and Why” section, which lays out the rationale for the skill and shows where it fits into the overall goal of “meaning making.” Next, recommendations for teaching methods are supplied. Methods are clearly described and explained, and examples are provided, which should help the teacher employ these practices in their class, no matter the subject area.
In sum, the book has many features to recommend it. It is easy to read and understand, it contains justifications for its premises, it is detailed, and it provides concrete examples of the skills in action. There are many graphics and forms that could be adapted for use in schools. There are examples of activities geared toward elementary as well as upper grades, though it seems to tilt appreciably toward lower levels. In keeping with this observation is that the teacher plays a significant role in most, if not all, of the strategies presented in this book. This seems to go against some of the axioms of active learning but does not detract from the usefulness of the book, in that the goal of student learning and meaning making is supported throughout. Although perhaps not the definitive answer to the problem of transfer of learning, this book presents ideas and methods that work together well. It would be a good place to start to learn more about specific methods to use in a teacher’s quest to encourage deeper learning.
References
Armstrong, P. (2010). Bloom’s Taxonomy. Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching. Retrieved March 22,
2024 from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/
National Research Council (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school: Expanded
edition. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/9853
Wiggins, G., & McTighe, J. (1998). Understanding by Design. ASCD.
Terry Goodin, EdD (Vanderbilt University), co-author of Mindset for Success: The Powerful Partnership of Problem-Based Learning and PLC at Work (2024). Solution Tree, is Professor of Education Leadership at Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee.