In this blog post, you are exploring what it means to "transfer" knowledge from one situation to another. Begin by discussing what transfer means and how a student can achieve successful transfer according to the researchers of How People Learn (this means pull out evidence).
What are contributing factors to successful transfer? Why is transfer important in education? What helps it along? And conclude by wrapping your discussion up: why is transfer of knowledge important? Do you believe transfer happens whether you think about it or not?
By the end of the post, it should be evident what transfer of knowledge is, how it can be achieved, and why it's important.
***NO response to your peers for this post.***
DUE by class time on Tuesday, February 24, 2015.
Transfer of knowledge: "Defined as the ability to extend what has been learned in one context to new contexts" meaning to bring knowledge across years of schooling, from school to the work place, and similar situations. Transferring can be achieved in four methods as described by the author: Understanding versus Memorizing, Time to Learn, Beyond "Time on Task", and Motivation to Learn. I think that most of these methods are quite self-explanatory except for maybe "Beyond 'Time on Task'". This was described as being "helping students see potential transfer implications of what they are learning." All of these are considered valid ways to successfully transfer information.
ReplyDeleteThere are many factors discussed that influence successful transfer. To be exact: "Context", "Problem Representations", "Active versus passive approaches to transfer", "Understanding Conceptual Change", these were all topics related to what it means for transfer to be successful. Transfer is important in education because it facilitates knowledge being practical. For somebody's knowledge to get out into the real world they must carry it through high school, sometimes middle school, and sometimes even elementary. This is quite an impressive feat when you think about it. The knowledge doesn't fade because it's being used consistently in different ways. Transfer is helped by many things but my favorite method discussed had to do with understanding the information and not just memorizing it. Knowing what something truly means as opposed to just understanding the method to solve a problem are two completely different things. Understanding the "Why?" of something is much more useful to transfer than understanding the "How?" simply because the "why" is a more elaborate connection thus it sticks around for longer.
Transfer of knowledge is important because it is necessary in bringing knowledge into practical realms and furthering your knowledge. One time somebody in my math class asked our professor if our second midterm for the course would be cumulative. I really enjoyed my professor's response and I think it's very illustrative of the place that transfer holds in education.
"It will be cumulative.. in the sense that all of math is cumulative. It's very hard to write a math test that doesn't include anything you've learned from previous years."
Finally, I firmly believe transfer happens whether or not you think about it. I can't recall any situation in which I consciously thought of transfer until this blog post and I did pretty decently on the algebraic parts of my calculus exam.
Transfer, according to these researchers is “the ability to extend what has been learned in one context to new contexts.” In other words, transfer is the ability of a student to take information that was learned under a certain circumstance and apply it to other aspects of life; including: other classes, and home and social life. Factors that contribute to successful transfer can be “the degree to which people learn with understanding rather than merely memorizing sets of facts or following a set of procedures.” This means that transfer has more potential for success when the learning and information accrued is acquired through the deliberate practice of learning, as opposed to mere rote memorization. As a result, transfer is successful when dynamic experiential learning is involved. Transfer is key to education because it allows students to take skills learned in the classroom and apply these skills to home life. This is important because it gives learning a purpose: to foster an intelligent being capable of synthesizing skills acquired through years of attending school. When transfer is utilized, it brings knowledge from across disciplines together to approach problem solving in a new way. Transfer is assisted by teachers and professors who understand the core tenets of transfer, such as but not limited to: understanding that learning takes time, understanding that contrasts can help illuminate key points, understanding that transfer is enhanced when professors help students see potential transfer implications of what they are learning, and understanding that transfer across contexts is difficult when a subject is taught only in a single context rather than in multiple. When teachers understand these components to facilitating transfer, it is more successfully implanted by the students themselves.
ReplyDeleteI believe transfer is important because I agree with the statement put forth by one of the researchers: “school should be like life itself, not preparation for life.” When this is the case, it motivates students to want to learn, instead of simply having to. According to the article, in an ideal world, transfer would occur without any prompting, but I believe in some instances it has to be. When the situation is laid out clearly in front of me and I am easily able to identify that transfer must be used, it is often effortless, but sometimes it is not so obvious which skills should be applied to which situation. I do believe though, as one grows older and acquires more knowledge either through life or higher education, transfer comes much more naturally. Take for instance, the discipline of writing: one must draw upon a lexicon formed through several years, even decades of existence, and general knowledge, as well as specialized knowledge, to write coherently. In conclusion, transfer is an extremely important component of learning, as “all new learning requires transfer”.
Transfer of knowledge means taking what you've learned from one subject/situation to another, for example taking what I've learned about research methods in sociology and applying them to the primary research that I am doing for this research paper. Learning in way other than memorization was something mentioned in the article, when information is actually understood rather than memorized it is better and more easily transferred. Also having interest in what it is that you're learning about helps with transfer. I'm not the biggest fan of writing research papers but because I got to choose my own question to research for this class, the information that is being taught about writing a research paper will be something I remember more because I can relate it to a topic I am interested in.
ReplyDeleteI already touched on some of the factors for successful transfer, understanding vs. memorization and interest in the subject. Transfer is really important in education, especially the way that we have set up education. The idea is that you will be able to transfer ideas and information you learned from your common curriculum classes to your major classes and your job after college. Transfer is import between years, it is important to be able to retain the information you learn in "cell structure and function" one year to "anatomy" the next because often the same material isn't repeated in every subsequent course. To help transfer along there can be less of an emphasis on memorization and you can relate common subjects back to areas that interest you. I think transfer does happen whether you try to make it happen or not, but it doesn't always. There might be a class you take that you transfer one idea from for another aspect of your life, but other than that you may not use the information you used in that class in any other area. So transfer does happen but there are ways to make it happen more efficiently.
Transfer is simply defined by Webster's dictionary as moving from one place to another. This rudimentary definition is extended by the reading when the author discusses a successful transfer as being evident from the ability to apply obtained knowledge in a new context.
ReplyDeleteSuccessful transfers have several contributing factors according to the reading. It was stated to begin with an initial base knowledge in the field where transference is anticipated. Without a sufficient foundation, there isn't potential for more development in an area. The next aspect is the importance of an effort to understand rather than memorize. Memorization of facts tends to be less meaningful than a thoroughly grounded understanding of why something is a certain way, which is logical. The next contributing factor mentioned is giving adequate time to process and make sense of new material. Also, the ability to connect what is being learned to some external (applicable in the "real world") purpose is significant.
Transfer is important in education because it is fundamentally how our system works. A teacher "has" knowledge, and is then tasked to "impress" this knowledge upon their pupils. Whether this is a functional system is subject to debate, but it certainly makes the idea of transfer relevant to the success (or lack thereof) of students in the system. Motivation from both sides, the teacher and the student, are necessary for transfer to work well. Having high motivation to learn, to be competent, to understand, help the process move along. One aspect the author discussed that I think is important is the difference between active and passive transfer. While I hadn't thought about it in those terms before, it is certainly true in my experience that a more active approach leads to a more complete understanding. Passively soaking in knowledge is functional, but asking questions and poking at things that aren't entirely clear helps learners gain a more complete understanding of new ideas. I think transfer happens if we think about it or not, but being aware of the process potentially allows one to be a more effective learner.
To transfer knowledge from one situation to another means, according to the text, “to extend what has been learned in one context to new contexts.” A student may achieve a successful means of this through first understanding “the similarity between conditions of learning and conditions of transfer” (51). After this information has been taken into account, the student can take “specific facts and skills” and easily transition these separate pieces of information and transfer them to a vertical, near, or far transfer, according to the text. These would be the positive aspects of a transfer; it is important to also keep in mind that there indeed exist negative experiences with transferring of information. Many factors contribute to successful transfers of knowledge and information. Those mentioned in the text are context, especially within original learning, problem representations, and through keeping in mind the relationship between learning and transfer. This connection is imperative for transfer, because education is very important to incorporate into transfer of information, as it is a main facilitator of knowledge. Transfer is helped along the way through this knowledge, and through a general understanding and education as well. It is commonly transitioned subconsciously, and I do not think many people are often aware of a transfer of knowledge. It happens all the time, regardless of whether or not you're cognizant of this. Transfers are very important because it makes it easier to transition from subject to subject and bring pieces of knowledge to and from these.
ReplyDeleteAccording to these researchers, transfer of knowledge is “the ability to extend what has been learned in one context to new contexts”. This means that a student shouldn’t just learn concepts for one class and forget about it, the student should take what he or she learned and apply it in future classes or experiences later on in life. According to the book, students can achieve successful transfer in multiple ways: understanding how to apply concepts rather than just memorizing them, taking time to learn concepts, monitoring what they are learning, and finding some type of motivation to learn.
ReplyDeleteSome factors stated in the book that help contribute to successful transfer are: context of learning, problem representations, the type of approach to transfer, learning transfer from previous experiences, and building on existing knowledge. Transfer is important in education because students learn things that can be applied in the real world, rather than only in classrooms. Also, for the students who really want to benefit from education, transfer is the perfect idea to help them learn as much as they can in the best way possible. If students use transfer to its full potential, they might retain more information because they are being more conscious of what they are learning.
Transfer of knowledge is important because it plays a huge role in expanding one’s knowledge as they progress in life. More transfer that occurs in someone’s live, means more knowledge, which may also lead to more benefits throughout life. I think that transfer occurs whether or not someone thinks about it because 20 years from now, I will definitely be able to go over a few concepts that I learned in college and explain how I apply them. Right now, I am not aware of transfer but I will naturally learn things in college that will sink in over time.
Transferring knowledge from one situation to another means that one is using the same element of knowledge for two separate events. One theory is that there are multiple kinds of transfer, such as transferring comprehension of one task to one extremely similar task (near transfer). Vertical transfer would be “skills of writing letters of the alphabet are useful to writing words”. Basically, some kind of learning experience can provide useful skills for future situations.
ReplyDeleteFor successful transfer, there needs to be a clear idea of the original information. If one does not completely understand a topic taught to them, there is no way they will be able to use it in any other situation because they don’t even know what they are trying to use. This is why another important part of successful transfer is to understand a subject, rather than only memorizing what it means. Knowing that “a+n+d” spells the word “and” will not help someone who doesn’t know why those letters create a word.
Transfer is important in education because it is how people connect subjects and continue to advance in their studies. For example, without knowledge transfer, math classes would be extremely difficult. One topic is used in every unit following, so knowing each unit is crucial to learning the next. To help the transfer process, it is important that students understand why they are learning what they are learning. If they cannot connect the information with real life situations, it will be harder to apply to any other tasks that come their way.
I believe that transfer of knowledge is extremely important in our learning process. It is essential because it helps us when introduced to new topics, and learning and applying new topics is the central point of the education system. I think that transfer has to happen whether it is intentional or not, otherwise a person isn’t learning anything at all. It may take time to be able to apply knowledge to situations, but eventually it will occur and that is what transfer is about.
Transfer is defined as “the ability to extend what has been learned in one context to new contexts”. In my understanding, this means to be able to take information from one area and use it in different areas. In the article, they state that educators hope transfer will help with learning, as students will learn something in one class and apply that knowledge in another class.
ReplyDeleteThe factors that contribute to a successful transfer include context, relationships between learning and transfer conditions, active versus passive approaches, metacognition, learning, and building on existing knowledge. Transfer is affected by context, as people have different ways of learning and the success of transfer depends on how you learn. The relationships between learning and transfer conditions are important in education. Transfer is important in education, as it is the process of using all the information you have learned in your classes and applying them to your future classes. For example, in elementary school, we learn basic mathematics. As schooling goes on, the basic mathematics becomes algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus. Yet even with this harder mathematics, the basic math skills are still being used.
Transfer knowledge is very important because it is using the knowledge that you gain in one area and using it in another. This is a very important skill. I think transfer knowledge happens by itself, whether or not you think about it.
Concerning the transfer of knowledge, a couple of degrees to successful transfers are specific facts and skills. There are many contributing factors to success transfer of knowledge. Understanding is more effective than memorizing material. Being motivated to learn as well as taking the time to learn the material plays hand in hand because being motivated to learn cause the desire to devote more time to learning a new subject. Learning a subject should also have appropriate time established to learn it. “Attempts to cover too many topics too quickly may hinder learning and subsequent transfer….” Being able to successfully transfer knowledge may involve learning through different contexts. Retention and application of knowledge is more successful through the learning of multiple contexts versus just a single context. One of the most important contributing factors involves transferring from school to everyday life. It IS the ultimate purpose, according to the researchers, for transfer of knowledge, to be able to apply life knowledge into school and knowledge learned in school to everyday outside life. It is important because children are not born with the full capabilities to live as an adult. These leads to the importance of being able to use the time spent in school learning and developing knowledge that can help life after and outside of school. The various methods mentioned above are some sufficient helpful ways to help the transfer of knowledge, but especially a strong basis of knowledge in which other knowledge can be built upon it. Yes, I believe transfer happens whether I think about it or not. Even though it can happen without thinking about it, it happens most effectively when we are purposely focused on achieving the successful transfer of knowledge.
ReplyDeleteIn the reading, transfer has been defined as “learning one topic and extending that topic to a completely different topic, relating the two back to each other.” With that being said, transfer is an individual (in this case a student) taking relevant and interesting information from a class and relating it to either another school, a workplace, or even a home, as explained in the reading. Often, students miss out on transfer due to the fact that they are being taught bland information that to the student, shows absolutely no relevance. So, in order for a student to succeed at transfer, they must first have an initial understanding of what it is that they are learning. Once they have an initial understanding of the topic, they must have an understanding of how the numerous topics are connected to each other. Often, when students learn about a new topic, they are not given time to reflect, after the course, so they instantly lose the information in their head, which causes them to lose out on transfer. With that being said, “initial understanding”, “reflections”, “connectedness” “context” and “representations” must be present in order to help out transfer, as stated all throughout the reading.
ReplyDeleteTransfer of knowledge is important because it shows that you can pull information from all over the place and use it in the given setting that you are currently in. Since most things in the world are connected to one another in some type of way, a student can take what they learned from school and apply it to anything else (school, workplace, or even home). Transfer is important in school because you will be able to flow through school having an understanding of everything that the teacher is teaching. It is also important because it makes the student feel like they have a legit reason to attend school, and to further their education. As stated in the reading, it is the duty of teachers and professors, who have a knowledgeable understanding of the topic, to help out transfer with students. When a teacher shows connections of numerous topics in one, is when transfer is most important in a class environment.
I believe that transfer is important because it is what helps us survive throughout life. One of the researchers in the reading believed that “school was life, and not a way of preparing for life. “ When reading that specific quote, I sat and reflected on what the quote actually meant. I realized that school actually is life, since it is where you get all of your information from, which allows for transfer to happen. When you have achieved at transfer, you are then, ready for the “way of life.” I think transfer happens at all times. It is not something that you have to think about, but instead is something that you just do. From all of the skills that I have learned in school, I am now using that knowledge and applying it to writing this blog. I am currently applying transfer. I think that when you are wondering about transfer it is happening, and when you are wondering about it, it is still happening.
According to the piece “How People Learn Transfer,” transfer is “defined as the ability to extend what has been learned in one context to new contexts. (51) In other words transfer is the ability to apply the knowledge that one has learned from one area of study to another. The researchers then go on to list numerous methods through which students can achieve successful transfer in their learning. One such factor that was noted was “the degree of mastery of the initial subject” and the understanding of the subject that results. (53) The researchers emphasize the importance of understanding over memorization, citing an example of a student that memorized the veins and arteries, but did not understand why these qualities were so. (56) Essentially, the researchers point out that an important part of transfer is that a student not only knows the knowledge on the subject, but that they also understand what that knowledge means. Another important aspect noted by the researcher is simply the time spent learning the subject. For example it is noted that chess masters “require from 50,000 to 100,000 hours of practice” in order to achieve their level of skill. This is important to transfer in that it gives someone a better sense of recognition of they have learned. However, the researchers add simply time on task that matters, but also time spent looking at feedback, or time spent reflecting on their learning that helps a student’s ability to transfer. The third major aspect noted that is important to transfer is motivation to learn which plays directly into the previous section on time because it directly affects the “amount of time that people are willing to devote to learning. (60)” Transfer is so important to learning because it allows the student to transfer what they learn, not only to their other subjects of learning, but also to aspects of their daily life. This is an extremely important part of learning because it allows us “access to information for a wide set of purposes. (72)” This aspect of learning is by far the most important because it allows to apply what we learn in a way that is meaningful. Transfer allows us to transition from simply being banks of knowledge to being thinking bodies that can make decisions and use that knowledge to accomplish goals and purposes. Transfer happens in our day to day lives because in everything we do we are taking things that we learned, and transferring them to the daily aspects of our lives. This is why transfer is important, transfer allows to not simply learn, but to apply as well.
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