Learning in Depth: A Simple Innovation That Can Transform Schooling

by Kieran Egan

For generations, schools have aimed to introduce students to a broad range of topics through curriculum that ensure that they will at least have some acquaintance with most areas of human knowledge by the time they graduate. Yet such broad knowledge can’t help but be somewhat superficial—and, as Kieran Egan argues, it omits a crucial aspect of true deep knowledge.

 

Real education, Egan explains, consists of both general knowledge and detailed understanding, and in Learning in Depth he outlines an ambitious yet practical plan to incorporate deep knowledge into basic education. Under Egan’s program, students will follow the usual curriculum, but with one crucial beginning with their first days of school and continuing until graduation, they will each also study one topic—such as apples, birds, sacred buildings, mollusks, circuses, or stars—in depth. Over the years, with the help and guidance of their supervising teacher, students will expand their understanding of their one topic and build portfolios of knowledge that grow and change along with them. By the time they graduate each student will know as much about his or her topic as almost anyone on earth—and in the process will have learned important, even life-changing lessons about the meaning of expertise, the value of dedication, and the delight of knowing something in depth.

 

Though Egan’s program may be radical in its effects, it is strikingly simple to implement—as a number of schools have already discovered—and with Learning in Depth as a blueprint, parents, educators, and administrators can instantly begin taking the first steps toward transforming our schools and fundamentally deepening their students’ minds.

Genres: Education

253 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 15, 2010

Reviews

[Cristy Jimenez-Shawcroft · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book explains a really interesting idea for education. I first read an article about this idea in an educational magazine before I even became a teacher, maybe around 2010. I was intrigued and saved the article for inspiration. About 3 years ago, I realized this book existed and bought it. Being a new mom then, I didn’t have the focus to finish it. I picked this book back up about 2-3 weeks ago and read it fairly quickly this time. I only read when I was very focused, such as in between work and daycare pickup, when the house was quiet.

So what’s the big idea? It’s assigning kids one topic to study in depth for all 12-13 years of their pre-college schooling, in addition to the normal curriculum. The main example used was apples. It discusses how students can learn about their topic in different ways as they grow - experientially, in literature, in movies, in history, in cooking, etc, etc. The idea is that this learning permeates their life to some extent and they become true experts. They build a portfolio to reflect this, and they do yearly presentations. The benefits would be more emotional connection to learning, a better understanding of the nature of knowledge as a human creation that is constantly in flux as we learn more, potential for mentoring between older students and younger ones with the same topic, etc, etc.

While I still love the idea in theory, I do see a lot of the challenges inherent in implementing this. It could be done, but it would require a lot of ingenuity and time on the part of the supervising teachers (although the organization behind this book says it would create guiding materials and suggest best practices). I am very curious to visit the website and learn about how the pilot projects have gone. I think about implementing such a thing on myself, as an adult, and just don’t feel like I’d have the time or drive. But I think I would’ve liked it as a student. I think about implementing it with my daughter when she starts kindergarten in a few years. We’ll see, but I would kind of rather her follow her own interests, at least at first. I agree with one adaptation suggested in the book, which is starting later, like around 3rd grade, once students can read fairly well. I also agree with another adaptation that students should have some choice in their topic, instead of being randomly assigned one.

Beyond this big idea, I feel like I learned a lot about educational theory in general while reading this book, both about how learning changes at each stage as a student moves from 5 years old to 18, and about the different major perspectives about the point of education (to socialize, to enrich the mind, or to develop individual potential, etc). There were lots of details and interesting examples. While parts of the book were a bit dry or technical, the author injects a bit of humor and humanity in there too. You can tell this is an idea that he deeply believes in. Although it was occasionally tough to keep reading, I’m glad I finished this book.

[Barrette Plett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good
Challenging; lots of good ideas to implement, but difficult to implement in a conventional classroom.

Quite readable and inspiring and thought-provoking.

[Mr Hưng · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mình tình cờ mượn cuốn sách này với hy vọng học được cách học sâu mấy chủ đề công nghệ mà mình đang làm.
Và đã bị lừa bởi cái tiêu đề. Thật ra là do mình không đọc tag line của cuốn sách thôi, chứ nó cũng nói rõ mà. :D
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Cơ bản là sách nói về 1 ý tưởng tạo ra hoạt động học tập khác cho học sinh, kỳ vọng rằng nó sẽ hiệu quả hơn so với những lớp học chán ngắt khắp thế giới hiện nay.
Và mình đồng tình với tác giả.
Và vì tác giả là 1 giáo sư về giáo dục, mình lại tình cơ học được thêm các khái niệm hay ho về giáo dục.
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Sách sẽ hơi khó đọc, không phải kiểu sách thường thức ai đọc cũng được, mà bạn nên có 1 mối quan tâm nhất định nào đó thì mới thẩm thấu được cuốn sách này.

[Kevin Demel · Rating 1 out of 5]

The epitome of this book is to study one subject in depth through all of one's school years. I can see some benefit of doing this except how to stay interesting in one subject. This would be a challenge for me and may be a good challenge to figure out how to stay interested in a subject long term. One could break the subject into various categories. ex. apples --> fruit, tree, growing/soil/water, genetics/ variety

[Antonio · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting idea that should not have been stretched out into a book. I think reading this book can be helpful for adults to think about how they can support young people's interests in learning about a topic that is unrelated to school and not screwing it up. I think it would be a terrible idea to push it on a kid (but I think that about schooling as well).

[Marie J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Over the program- but the book was a bit sluggish.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting concept and he includes lots of help for implementing it. Not sure if it would actually work in most children's lives, as they move so much these days.

[Carrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a really good idea - to provide students with an opportunity for in-depth learning. American K-12 education has been accused of having breadth, but not depth and I agree with the author that this is a problem. Because his idea is such a long-term proposal, there are no data yet that this approach is successful. It will be an interesting story to follow. I hope it works. I'm thinking of trying a small-scale, and shorter version out with my own students next semester - should be fun!

[Sibrenne Wagenaar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the idea of having a method that stimulates children to learn in more depth. In that sense, the book was inspiring. Not sure if it was necessary for me to read a whole book about it. A longer article would have done it for me as well I think.

[spike marlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting concept. A concept I have lived as I go through life and study military history. I hope to implement some aspect of this program at my school. I need to visit some schools, do some more research and read parts of this book again. What an exciting journey I am embarking on.

[Luc Beaudoin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

My review is here:
http://cogzest.com/2013/03/benefits-o...

[Al Price · Rating 2 out of 5]

Neat idea he proposes but book couldn't captivate me.

[Milt · Rating 2 out of 5]

mini read UofC free book. good idea