Well-being and Deep Learning – What we know

The Global Competencies for Deep Learning, or the 6 Cs, are the skill sets each and every student needs in order to flourish in today’s complex world. Building these competencies forms the foundation of our work.

The New Pedagogies for Deep Learning Global Team recently collaborated with Dr Jean Clinton, a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at McMaster University in Hamilton, and her colleague, Stephen De Groot.

Together we identified what’s happening in a young person’s brain when it’s engaged in learning and then considered how fostering conditions, environments and practices that promote deep learning can support mental health and well-being.

Three themes emerged from our collaboration:
• First, students need to feel safe: emotionally, physically, socially, and mentally
• Second, they need to feel significant – that they are worthy and their ideas are worth listening to
• Lastly, students need to feel a sense of purpose, knowing why they are here and that their contributions can make an impact
Deep Learning experiences aim to bring these three conditions to the fore and help children become their best selves.

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New Pedagogies for Deep Learning is a Global Partnership of over 1300 schools in 8 countries. We work with clusters and networks of schools to build knowledge and practices that develop deep learning and foster whole system change. We are joined by families, teachers, school leaders and policy makers worldwide who are seeking ways to transform pedagogies and strengthen the conditions that enable deep learning.