The Hewlett Foundation’s education programme, under Barbara Chow’s leadership, has made a major contribution to educational thinking by emphasising ‘deeper learning’ as the key to the 21st century. She defines deeper learning as an “amalgam of ‘higher order skills’ combined with foundational academic knowledge” and argues that in an age of globalisation, success in deeper learning needs to be for everyone.

1. Asking More
Efficacy in
Deeper Learning Education
Barbara Chow, Hewlett Foundation
efficacy.pearson.com

2. Efficacy in
Education
The Hewlett Foundation’s education
programme, under Barbara Chow’s
leadership, has made a major
contribution to educational thinking
by emphasising ‘deeper learning’ as
the key to the 21st century.
She defines deeper learning as an
“amalgam of ‘higher order skills’
combined with foundational academic
knowledge” and argues that in an age
of globalisation, success in deeper
learning needs to be for everyone.

3. Technology and outsourcing are shredding the
traditional safety net of middle-income jobs

4. The world our children will inherit is riskier,
more complex and more interconnected
than at any time in human history

5. Are our school systems preparing our children to
succeed in a world that is changing so rapidly?

6. Education is no panacea, but, if done right, it provides each
generation with the surest path to prosperity and stability

7. The problem is that the typical classroom in 2014 bears a
remarkable resemblance to the typical classroom of 1914

8. What skills and knowledge will our children
need to be successful in 21st century work
and civic life, and what form of schooling
will deliver these outcomes?

9. The Hewlett Foundation spent an entire year
pressing education experts, labour force economists
and practitioners to answer just that question

10. The answer that emerged was that our children will need to
be critical thinkers and adept communicators, skilled at
problem-solving, and able to work in teams
critical
thinkers
adept
communicators
problem
solvers
team
players

11. They must combine the creative energy of
this ‘academic mindset’ with a mastery of
truly rigorous academic content

12. We’ve dubbed this bundle of knowledge, skills, and dispositions:
DEEPER LEARNING

13. In an age of computerisation and globalisation where
routine, middle income jobs are giving way to automation,
these deeper learning skills will increasingly spell the
difference between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’

14. As we consider an ‘efficacy and equity educational framework’,
the ‘north star’ for our efforts is this amalgam of ‘higher order
skills’ combined with foundational academic knowledge.
Efficacy in
Education
Barbara Chow, Hewlett Foundation efficacy.pearson.com