Sunday, February 12, 2012

Learning for Understanding and Transfer

Our readings this week focused on the idea of transfer, that is, students/patrons being able to apply information in new context.Wiggins & McTighe offered us a simple educational framework to see the progress of "education:"
  1. Acquire information
  2. Make meaning
  3. Transfer understanding to new contexts
The problematic they set forth is that schools seem to be focusing only on the first part.  Students are seen as empty vessels that can be filled with information.  Teachers are held accountable using tests that only assess the first part.  So how can we expect students to transfer these ideas to new contexts?

In How People Learn, Bransford emphasizes how these higher learning modalities take time, a resource library teachers can't seem to get enough of.   Students need to see information in a variety of contexts, see how it shifts and changes to adapt to different scenarios, to be able to take that information beyond to apply to new situations.

I feel like a broken record, but this again seems like a great time to bring up collaboration.  Teachers can still introduce students to new information, much in the traditional way they are used to, and then work with information professionals to design a variety of tasks in the classroom, the library, and beyond, so that students see the application taking place.  They will then be more able to transfer their learning beyond these two areas.  So how can we better facilitate this collaboration?  If teaching schools promote this (and they do), and library schools promote this (at least in this class), what else can we do to see this happen?
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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousFebruary 12, 2012 at 2:54 PM

    If you're a broken record, I'm happy to keep repeating with you. Collaboration is key.

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  2. sirkatzalotFebruary 18, 2012 at 7:15 PM

    I agree keep on being a broken record. I was also just thinking that in this current environment in which a discussion about proper teaching in schools requires readying students for the "real world". We all ready require students to work together(collaboration). Why can't educators(teachers and librarians) be explicit in their collaboration as a way of modeling good collaboration.

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    Replies
    1. NaomiFebruary 19, 2012 at 12:33 PM

      I agree! My grade level partner and I worked really well together and talked about our collaboration a lot. I feel like it really encouraged our students to have similar relationships.

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    2. TKFebruary 28, 2012 at 8:51 PM

      Part of the problem with making collaboration happen is that it takes a lot of time-- meeting with each other, getting to know each other, coming up with shared goals, etc. Teachers and librarians have lots of things to do, and if the time for collaboration isn't valued or encouraged or explicitly allowed, it's hard to fit it in. I think one of the goals should be to build an environment in education that really builds in time and resources for collaboration.

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  3. Miss MasuraApril 12, 2012 at 9:40 AM

    collaboration, i hope, is something that will really take hold once our generation becomes more established in our prospective careers. i hope that the "sage on the stage" view of education begins to fall away and a new teaching paradigm comes through that encourages facilitation and collaboration over singular direct instruction.

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