On The Theory Of Jay McTighe’s Deeper Learning

Cultivating learner’s 21 st century skills or key competency based on deeper learning is a new direction and tendency of teaching reform of basic education courses all over the world.Jay Mc Tighe,as an authoritative expert of Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development in America,he has systematically constructed a theoretical system of deeper learning with the key words of understanding,big ideas,high-order thinking,transfer and application,and he carried out fruitful practical exploration in the field of basic education practice in the United States.Under the background of developing students’ key competency based on deeper learning,it’s necessary to make deeply research on its connotations,concepts,conditions and strategies of Jay Mc Tighe’s deeper learning,so as to provide much theoretical references and practical strategies for our pursuit of cultivating key competency and enhancing the improvement of learning methods.Jay Mc Tighe’s deeper learning was based on the reflection and reference of the taxonomy of educational objectives theory,constructivism theory and learning science theory.It emphasizes that deeper learning is a learning practical process,which is embodied in the design of authentic learning tasks and the driven of essential question,student experiences the practice of knowledge application under the direction with higher-order thinking,in order to make up and construct conceptual understanding and developing big ideas.So,deeper learning aims to attain the learning for understanding,learning for big ideas,learning for higher-order thinking and learning for transfer and application.The conditions for the occurrence of deeper learning proposed by Jay Mc Tighe included the design of authentic learning tasks,the driving of essential questions,the practical participation of students’ higher-order thinking,and the meaning making of big ideas.Authentic learning tasks provided authentic situations related to real life and cultivated students’ ability to apply knowledge to solve real problems.The essential questions highlighted the key points of knowledge,which helped to stimulate students’ inquiry spirit and deepen students’ understanding and construction of learning content.Students applied high-order thinking to process and integrate knowledge and skills,so as to promote the formation of individual understanding and the cultivation of transfer skills.By constructing the understanding and significance of big ideas,students could promote the deepening of understanding,the strengthening of thinking and the connection between knowledge.These conditions jointly promoted the occurrence of deeper learning.The practical strategies of deeper learning put forward by Jay Mc Tighe included the design of goals based on learning outcomes,the organization of curriculum content based on big ideas,the design of unit teaching based on understanding and the learning evaluation based on performance assessment.The design of goals based on learning outcomes was to clarify the practical direction for deeper learning;the organization of curriculum content based on big ideas could enhance the connection and structure of knowledge content and promote the flexible transfer and application of knowledge in different contexts;the design of unit teaching based on understanding paid attention to the learning experience and activities consistent with the learning outcomes;In the learning evaluation based on performance assessment,authentic performance in applying knowledge to solve complex questions which showed their understanding of knowledge and skills.The theory of Jay Mc Tighe’s deeper learning was characterized by promoting the improvement of understanding,experiencing the occurrence of authentic learning and emphasizing the practical participation of high-order thinking.Based on the practice of domestic education reform,the thinking of Jay Mc Tighe’s deeper learning theory mainly included clarifying the occurrence mechanism of deeper learning,specifying discipline differences and excavating the Chinese wisdom of deeper learning.