Transfer Like a Champ!
By Michelle Brazeal
Transfer Training
Why do we teach?
Transfer Training
Transfer: The ability to extend
what has been learned in one
context to new contexts
Transfer Training
Now let’s do some
boxing…
Aunt Maud wants to pack a box of
breakables and mail the package to her
sister. How could she pack the items so
that nothing gets broken?
Now let’s transfer…
You are working for an electrical distributor. It is
your job to find the most efficient way to pack the
trucks, even with an inventory of thousands of
products. As customers order products to be
shipped, you need a quick way of taking
whatever combination is ordered and packing
with care and efficiency. Let’s say a customer
orders 24 lamps, 2 fixtures, and 3
transformers…
What if the “Aunt Maud” problem had been
presented differently?
What if the “Aunt Maud” problem had been
presented differently?
• This is the same kind of information a
student would get out of a teacher
standing at the front of the room, giving
steps, and saying “Do this”
What if the “Aunt Maud” problem had been
presented differently?
• This is the same kind of information a
student would get out of a teacher
standing at the front of the room, giving
steps, and saying “Do this”
When teaching in this manner, there is no
meaning for the student.
What about memorization?
• When the emphasis is on drill and practice
then emphasis is taken off of problem
solving, creativity, and motivation
• Effective for memory skills, but poor for
transfer
• Students are learning things that are more
specific instead of developing a general
skill
What influences successful transfer?
• The degree of mastery of a subject
• The degree to which people learn with
understanding
• Realistic view of the amount of time it
takes to learn a complex subject matter
• Learning is most effective when people
engage in deliberate practice that includes
active monitoring of one’s learning
experiences
What influences successful transfer?
• Appropriately arranged contrasts to help
students notice new features that
previously escaped their attention and
learn which features are relevant to a
particular concept
Ex: The concept of linear functions is
more clear when contrasted with nonlinear functions
What influences successful transfer?
• Motivation
– Challenges should be at appropriate levels in
order to be and remain motivating
– Too easy tasks become boring
– Too difficult tasks can cause frustration
– Feeling like you are contributing to others is
highly motivating
What influences successful transfer?
“Learners of all ages are more motivated
when they can see the usefulness of what
they are learning and when they can use
that information to do something that has
an impact on others.”
Dealing with lack of flexibility in transfer
• Look at how tightly learning is tied to the
context
• Ask learners to solve a specific case and
then provide them with an additional
similar case
• Use specific context and then “what-if”
problem solving
• Ask students to create a solution to a
whole class of related problems
Transfer Training
We should view transfer as a dynamic process that
requires learners to actively choose and
evaluate strategies, consider resources, and
receive feedback. Transfer is not just solving a
set of “transfer problems” right after the initial
learning task, but asking questions/prompting
appropriately for the level of your students.
Transfer and Metacognition
•
•
Transfer is improved when students are
able to monitor their own learning
strategies and resources and assess
their own readiness for particular tests
and performances
Metacognitive approach to instruction
increases the degree to which students
will transfer to new situations without the
need for explicit prompting
Reciprocal Teaching
1.
2.
3.
Instruction/practice enabling students to monitor their
own understanding
Provision of an expert model of metacognitive
processes
Social setting that enables joint negotiation for
understanding
The instructional procedure is reciprocal in the sense
that a teacher and a group of students take turns in
leading the group to discuss and use strategies for
comprehending and remembering text content.
Building on Existing Knowledge
• All learning involves transfer from previous
experiences
• However, one’s existing knowledge can
make it difficult to learn new information
- when people construct a coherent representation
of information while deeply misunderstanding the new
information (Ex: Fish is Fish)
Misunderstanding new information
Consider fractions:
• Math principles underlying fractions are not
consistent with principles of counting (Ex: ¼ is
not more than ½)
• Early knowledge of numbers can serve as a
barrier to learning about fractions – and for
many learners it does
Prior Knowledge
• Can also include kinds of knowledge learners acquire
because of their social roles (race, gender, class, etc)
• Interpretations of a students resistance to answer a
question can have consequences for how academically
capable a student is viewed or for instructional
approaches toward them
School Environment vs. Everyday Settings
School
Everyday
•
Emphasis on individual work
•
•
“Mental work” used to solve
problems
•
•
Abstract reasoning emphasized
•
Many settings are working with
others
Heavy use of tools to solve
problems
Contextualized reasoning often
used
The most effective transfer may come
from a balance of specific examples
and general principles, not from either
one alone.
Summary and Conclusion
• A major goal of schooling is to prepare students for
flexible adaptation to new problems and settings
• Instructional differences become more apparent when
evaluated from the perspective of how well the learning
transfers to new problems and settings
• Initial learning, motivation, time on task, the context in
which one learns, and feedback are all important for
promoting transfer; none of these stands alone, they
must all work together to create a flexible transfer
How can we become champions of transfer?
•
•
•
•
Help students make their thinking visible
Understand cultural practices
Encourage!
Actively identify relative knowledge/strengths
and help students build on them
• Use a metacognitive approach to teaching to
help students learn about themselves as
learners, so they can gain the ability to regulate
their own understanding
• “By all means, have fun!” (Brawner, 2008)