Learning for Transfer

1. Learning for Transfer Week 4

2. One Train may Hide Another Kenneth Koch

3. The beginning… In a poem, one line may hide another line, As at a crossing, one train may hide another train. That is, if you are waiting to cross The tracks, wait to do it for one moment at Least after the first train is gone. And so when you read Wait until you have read the next line- Then it is safe to go on reading. In a family one sister may conceal another, So when you are courting, it's best to have them all in view Otherwise in coming to find one you may love another. One father or one brother may hide the man, If you are a woman, whom you have been waiting to love. So always standing in front of something the other As words stand in front of objects, feelings, and ideas. One wish may hide another. And one person's reputation may hide The reputation of another. One dog may conceal another On a lawn, so if you escape the first one you're not necessarily safe;

4. The end… One song hide another song: for example "Stardust" Hide "What Have They Done to the Rain?" Or vice versa. A pounding upstairs Hide the beating of drums. One friend may hide another, you sit at the foot of a tree With one and when you get up to leave there is another Whom you'd have preferred to talk to all along. One teacher, One doctor, one ecstasy, one illness, one woman, one man May hide another. Pause to let the first one pass. You think, Now it is safe to cross and you are hit by the next one. It can be important To have waited at least a moment to see what was already there.

5. Announcements • Thank you for your preproposals; proposals due next week • Section meetings • Wednesday, October 18 at 11:30 AM • Thursday, October 19 at 2:00 PM • Quick questions after class

6. Review and Preview

7. Seeing how the Pandora questions help to organize ideas about creating learning • Avoiding ‘aboutitis’, thinking of learning as a matter of always getting better at some rich activity. • Some skill in looking at learning through the lens of Theory One • A feel for creating learning guided by Theory One • Teaching for Understanding • Whole game learning, big field of action around the knowledge base

8. Preview • Three big ideas about transfer • Finding opportunities for transfer • Transfer at scale: WIDE World • Signs of transfer • WIDE World as a scaling initiative • Rapid review and looking ahead

9. Learning goals • Expanded sense of how teaching for transfer works and ways to teach for transfer. • How to look at the ‘what, to where, and how’ of transfer. • Approaching transfer of learning on a wide scale.

10. Three Big Ideas about Transfer Goal: Develop insights about how transfer works through imagery

11. Black sheep theory Transfer doesn’t happen much except for near transfer. Forget it. Good shepherd theory Transfer happens but the learning conditions need to be right. Bo Peep theory Transfer just happens…”Leave them alone and they’ll come home.”

12. 12 High road (“bridging”) Detect a potential connection through reflection Reflective abstraction Motivated to see it through Elaborate reflectively concepts, strategies, skills, practices, attitudes, etc. Initial learning Play out connection in action Initial learning Variations close to transfer target Detect potential connection through automatic activation Motivated to see it through Low road (“hugging”) Initial setting Transfer setting

13. WHAT might transfer, what are the opportunities for transfer here? • To WHERE might it transfer, to what range of contexts, situations, etc.? • HOW can you (the teacher, designer, even the learner) help the transfer with bridging and/or hugging?

14. Finding Opportunities for Transfer Goal: Develop the craft of teaching for transfer by looking for transfer opportunities in content

15. The poem Ulysses ——————— Water balloon bungee jumping WHAT might transfer? WHERE might it transfer to? HOW can you help with bridging and hugging? Quick Design

16. Transfer at Scale: WIDE World Goal: Examine how transfer can work at scale by analyzing a case

17. http://wideworld.pz.harvard.edu/

18. Research Investigate issues of professional development via the World Wide Web and scale Impact Eventually reach a large number of educators with effective professional development—up to 10,000 per year Mission in brief Inform HGSE, provide infrastructure, tools, foot in the door of distance learning

19. Academic learning Priority on the dialog among ideas connecting, critiquing, seeking evidence, building arguments, drawing out implications, etc. Learning for practice Priority on the dialog between ideas, action plans, and actions acting effectively day by day and in the moment against a backdrop of ideas and revising the backdrop. The distinctive challenge of professional development

25. Signs of Transfer Goal: Practice looking for signs of transfer with the help of a tip sheet

26. 26

27. Video documentary about TfU and WIDE World

28. WIDE World as a scaling initiative Goal: Understand through commentary how WIDE World attempts scale

29. A wide-scale innovation should not escalate teacher workload. • A wide-scale innovation should allow teachers a creative role. • A wide-scale innovation should avoid extreme demands on teachers' skills and talents. • A wide-scale innovation should include strong material support. • A wide-scale innovation should not boost costs a lot. • A wide-scale innovation should fulfill many conventional educational objectives at least as well as conventional instruction.

30. Rapid Review and Looking Ahead Goal: Consolidation and mental preparation

31. Learning goals • Expanded sense of how teaching for transfer works and ways to teach for transfer. • How to look at the ‘what, to where, and how’ of transfer. • Approaching transfer of learning on a wide scale.

32. Back to Pandora • What’s worth learning? • What topics are worth learning? • What inside a topic is worth learning? • Beyond knowing stuff, what ‘whole games’ are learners getting better at? (Avoid ‘aboutitis’! Not just the knowledge base but lots of action around it!) • Can we have generative topics (TfU)? • What can transfer, and to where? • What’s hard about learning that? • Where should we watch out for fragile knowledge: missing, inert, naïve, ritual • Will the transfer we want occur? How can we ‘shepherd’ it? • So how is it best learned? • What’s the source’s share? / What’s the learner’s share • Can we keep all four sides of Theory One in play? – clear information, thoughtful practice, informative feedback, strong intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. • Can we mobilize TfU: Generative topics, understanding goals, understanding performances, ongoing assessment, mental models? • How can we teach this for transfer with the ‘low road’ and the ‘high road’? • How is the learning going? • Can we arrange for truly informative feedback (from Theory one)? • How can we organize ongoing assessment (TfU)? • What transfers can we look for to track the process of learning?

33. Transferring transfer • As you encounter various learning experiences, ask: • How well designed for transfer are they? • How could they be better? • What’s your role, as an autonomous learner, in fostering transfer for yourself?

34. You think, Now it is safe to cross and you are hit by the next one. It can be important To have waited at least a moment to see what was already there.