14-19 DEEP LEARNING

The focus of this project was the question: What knowledge and skills do learners need in order to be effective deep learners now and in the future?

Our aim was to investigate the relationship between ICT and deep learning in authentic, practical settings (in a school and a further education college), looking holistically at the context in which learning takes place, the relationship between the practitioner and the group, the design of the learning and the use of ICT tools, organizational issues, and the relationship between learning and use of ICT in and out of school or college settings.

In addition to the empirical study, we hosted an invited workshop to present the studies from the Bristol and Warwick teams and investigate key questions which emerged during discussion with an invited audience of national and international experts drawn from the research, practice and policymaking communities. The outcomes of these discussions were then intended to inform and develop our findings and conclusions.

There were three key themes that emerged from the empirical work:

- Subject culture is one of the main drivers for how students use technology. There is some evidence for features of deep learning in different subject cultures.

- The issue of emerging adult identity is very much connected to how young people select and use different technologies.

- The ways in which technology bridges the formal and informal learning context, sand their implications for deep learning, are complex and require further study.