DEEP LEARNING



Our task is not simply to have students accumulating vast amounts of information. We want our students to gain some deep learning.

Deep learning depends firstly on providing students with information which has great depth. Facile or superficial information risks leaving students bored and prone to distractions. Students too often are given information which is trivial. But if students are provided with information (and more importantly with methods for locating information) which encourages their own creative and deep exploration, then the likelihood of engagement and interest in learning on the part of the student increases dramatically. What students need is a framework within and upon which they are able to hang the fruits of their own exploration.

Giving students an atmosphere in which deep learning is possible involves creating an environment which promotes and encourages reflection (so that students are able to discern what they wish to know and the depth to which they wish to learn), which values the individual gifts and talents of students, and which is attuned to the need to cater for the varieties of intelligences displayed by students.



Some information on deep learning: http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/deepsurf.htm

http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/cut/options/Nov_98/TeachingStrategies_en.htm

Deep learning tends to encourage deeper and richer learning and acquisition of knowledge. Surface learning tends to focus on bits of information which students must 'know.'



The following is an article from an engineering education website, but it has some good information: http://www.engsc.ac.uk/er/theory/learning.asp