Part 2: Learning and Technology
It was Vera who saw it first...There were only six china figures in the middle of the table.
MODULE 5
Transfer of Learning
Poof!
“Why, there’s nothing there!”
Unfortunately, that’s what education researchers frequently conclude when they search for manifestations of initial learning from a traditional academic setting to a new and relevant situation.
More often than not, serious investigations spanning decades, striving to determine whether standard classroom learning “ travels” or transfers to a new problem setting uncover remarkably little...anywhere, anytime!
A depressing state of affairs that must be reckoned with, wouldn't you say?
“From the standpoint of the child, the great waste in school comes from his inability to utilize the experience he gets outside while on the other hand he is unable to apply in daily life what he is learning in school. That is the isolation of the school—its isolation from life.”
--John Dewey
“Inert knowledge refers to knowledge that is not used in new situations and contexts even though it is relevant.”
--Johnson, “Transfer of Learning”, The Technology Teacher, April 1995
But will it transfer?
1. Locate, print, read, bring to class and store in notebook…
A. Learning for the 21st CenturyReview please: Parts 1 and 2
B. “The Science and Art of Transfer”, Perkins and Salomon, Educational Leadership, 1988
http://learnweb.harvard.edu/alps/thinking/docs/trancost.pdf
“Now twenty years old, Perkins and Salomon’s article deserves dusting off. It offers diagnosis of structured limitations to education that have not disappeared in the intervening years and terminology that will be as familiar—yet—strikingly generative for a new generation of educators as it must have been to the last.
--Anthony, "Reaching Back to Teaching Teaching for Transfer", CompReview (online)
2. There is good news and bad news with regard your processing Module 5 adequately.
First the “good” news. There will be no new team project tossed at you this module. This will buy you and your team some time to clear up what remains on previous projects. See that you do that promptly as necessary, please.
Now for the “bad” news. You will definitely face a demanding quiz on transfer of learning, one that will tax you to the max. That’s why you are in college, right?
A. Possible quiz question: Given an actual teacher’s lesson plan or a video of a teacher teaching, analyze it from the vantage point of Perkins and Salomon, their classic, research-based conceptualization of transfer of learning, when and how it tends to occur…and when it doesn’t.
Supplement the above with relevant comments gleaned from the “21st Century”.
Drawing upon both the above sources, suggest viable modifications to the existing plan so as to increase chances for transfer (theoretically) if the plan were taught to students.
B. Possible quiz question: Given link immediately below, provide entirely new or fresh teaching examples for each of the 5 Hugging strategies and Bridging strategies.
Here's the rub: Your quiz in this instance will not be read by your instructor in usual fashion but by two peers (representing teams). High standards will be required to get at least a pass 4.5 if not a pass 5.0 grade (on the pass/fail scale 1 to 5 introduced earlier) in order to clear this quiz hurdle.
If a team (or individual going solo) on the quiz receives a grade less than 4.5, that team will be told by the grader how to improve and then the quiz team will revise and resubmit until the 4.5 standard is met.
All the above will take place on Blackboard. Details when needed.
(YouTube) Why Transfer is a Critical Problem
Rhetorical: If billions of dollars each year are wasted in the world of business and industry due to inadequate programs that yield precious little transfer to actual job performance, how many more billions are lost in our schools due to preoccupation with fostering inert knowledge at the expense of thinking skills that may well generalize to new situations more readily?
--Y.K. Ip, “Transfer of Learning”, 2003 (online essay)
--Perkins and Salomon, “Transfer of Learning”, Contribution to the International Encyclopedia of Education, 2nd edition, Permagon Press
Rubrics
Creating Rubrics:
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/teaching-methods-and-management/rubrics/4521.html?detoured=1
The student will want to possess a rudimentary, working knowledge of what rubrics are and accomplish as we turn to future modules and team projects.
Secondary Students Reflect Upon Rubrics
My favorite: "I'm kind of getting tired of rubrics because we even have a rubric at lunch which is rediculess."