Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
The Trouble with Transfer
How can we get students to transfer
learning between contexts?David Didau
ResearchED Nat ional Conference
10 t h September 2016
A definition of learningLearning is:• the long-term retention of
knowledge and skills and the ability to transfer between contexts
Retention = durabilityTransfer = flexibility
Performance
Learning
WarsawMIMICRY
The trouble with transfer
“Unfortunately, what we learn does not spontaneously or automatically generalise to new contexts and so teachers need to facilitate this process.”
Didau & Rose, (2016: 62)
A taxonomy of transferContent: What is transferred?
Learned skill procedure restoration Principle or heuristic
Performance change
speed accuracy approach
Memory demands
Execute only Recognise & execute
Recall, recognise & execute
Barnett & Ceci (2002)
Context: When & where transferred from and to
Barnett & Ceci (2002)
Knowledge domain
Mouse vs rat
Biology vs botany
Biology vs economics
Science vs history
Science vs art
Physical context
Same classroom
Different classroom
School vs research lab
School vs home
School vs beach
Temporal context
Same lesson Next day Weeks later Months later
Years later
Functional context
Both clearly academic
Both academic but one nonevaluative
Academic vs filling in tax forms
Academic vs informal questionnaire
Academic vs at play
Social context
Both individual
Individual vs pair
Individual vs small group
Individual vs large group
Individual vs society
Modality Both written MCQ vs essay
Written test vs oral exam
Lecture vs wine tasting
Lecture vs wood carving
Near Far
Memory & context• What we remember is dependent on
the context in which we learn and retrieve information Smith (1985) &Weingartner (1977)
• Varying the conditions of encoding & retrieval weaken contextual cues Smith et al (1978)
• But, transfer is still tricky without explicit prompting Woodridge et al (2014)
How does learning transfer to new situations?
• The transfer of knowledgeor skills to a novel problem requires both knowledge of the problem’s context and a deep understanding of the problem’s underlying structure
Deans for Impact The Science of Learning
Experts vs NovicesTwo groups were given a series of physics problems to sort in any way they wished.• The novices sorted by surface
features: on inclined planes, involves springs, falling objects
• The experts sorted by deep structure: conservation of energy, kinematics, Newton’s second law
Chi, Feltovich, Glaser (1981)
4. How does learning transfer to new situations?
• The transfer of knowledgeor skills to a novel problem requires both knowledge of the problem’s context and a deep understanding of the problem’s underlying structure
• We understand new ideas via examples, but it’s often hardto see the unifying underlying concepts in different examples
Deans for Impact The Science of Learning
The Wason Card Test
• Which card(s) must you turn over in order to test the claim that if a card shows a 3 on one side, then its opposite side will show the letter M?
3 N8 M
Cheating (Cosmides & Tooby)
• Which card(s) must you turn over to check that if someone is drinking alcohol, then they must be at least 18 years old?
16 Beer18 Cola
Flexible vs inflexible knowledge“Knowledge is flexible when it can be accessed out of the context in which it was learned and applied in new contexts.”
Dan Willingham
What we need to know• Transfer can be facilitated by explicitly
telling students that they will need to retrieve what they’re studying in a new context
• Memory is context dependent – vary the conditions of learning to weaken dependencies
• The more you know, the easier it is to transfer what you know
• Examples & narratives help
There’s nothing good or bad but thinking makes
it so.
@LearningSpylearningspy.co.uk
