Transfer

Transfer What is Transfer? Types of Transfer

Views on Transfer Behaviorism (Thorndike) Computational Theory of Mind Distributed Cognition (Packer)• Critiques of Transfer: Dewey, Lave1. What becomes of the person?2. What do schools do? What ought they do?

What is Transfer? Transfer is…

The application of knowledge learned in one setting or for one purpose to another setting and/or purpose … or…

The ability to extend what has been learned in one context to new contexts

Formal Schooling assumes that knowledge does transfer (that what students learn in classrooms will be useful beyond the school walls)

Assumptions about transfer accompany the belief that it’s better to broadly ‘educate’ people than simply ‘train’ them to perform particular tasks

Types of Transfer Vertical Transfer

Use of subskills in some larger skill. Skill of writing letters of the alphabet are useful

to writing words

Near transfer Transfer from one school task to a highly similar

task

Far Transfer Transfer from school subjects to non-school

subjects

Negative Transfer When experience with one set of events hurts

performance on later tasks.

Near Transfer Transfer from one school task to a highly similar task

Far Transfer Transfer from school subjects to non-school subjects

Activity

Do the problem set on the handout provided. Work individually.

Activity: Negative Transfer

practice problem

problems designed to establish a ‘set’

for solving problems in a

particular manner* *b-a-2c solution.

critical test problems

Group One

Group Two

Activity: Negative Transfer People in Group One

(E) were highly likely to use the Einstellung Solution on the critical problems even though it was less efficient.

People in Group Two (C) used more direct solutions

Prior experience can limit

people's abilities to function

efficiently in new settings.

Transfer

Transfer What is Transfer? Types of Transfer

Views on Transfer Behaviorism (Thorndike) Computational Theory of Mind Distributed Cognition (Packer)• Critiques of Transfer: Dewey, Lave1. What becomes of the person?2. What do schools do? What ought they do?

Behaviorist View

Claim. Transfer is facilitated by teaching knowledge & skills in school subjects that have elements identical to activities encountered in transfer context

Elements = specific facts & events

Emphasis on identical elements of tasks excluded consideration of any learner characteristics

when attention was directed whether relevant principles were extrapolated problem solving creativity motivation

Thorndike (1901) Tested doctrine of ‘formal discipline’

Practice by learning Latin & other difficult subjects has broad-based effects (such as developing general skills of learning & attention

Mind as ‘mental muscle’

Transfer

Transfer What is Transfer? Types of Transfer

Views on Transfer Behaviorism (Thorndike) Computational Theory of Mind Distributed Cognition (Packer)• Critiques of Transfer: Dewey, Lave1. What becomes of the person?2. What do schools do? What ought they do?

Computational Theory of Mind

Factors that influence successful transfer:

Degree of initial mastery of original subject Time on task (don’t underestimate!)

Chess masters 50-100k hours learning

roughly 50k chess patterns pattern recognition skills &

knowledge of their implications for future outcomes

Learner’s deliberate metacognitive monitoring of her initial learning

Context of initial learning: single context or multiple ones?

Contrasting cases / examples & non-examples ‘what if’ questions

Third Graders On one task, it took 15

seconds to integrate pictorial & verbal information.

With only 8 secs, they couldn’t mentally integrate info (working memory)

p.221 p.222

Computational Theory of Mind

Factors that influence successful transfer: Degree of abstraction of learner’s problem

representation

less abstract problem representation

more abstract problem representation

Computational Theory of MindFactors that influence successful transfer:

Degree of abstraction of learner’s problem representation

Abstracted representations become schemata

Knowledge representations built up thru many opportunities for observing similarities & differences across diverse events

Memory retrieval & transfer promoted by schemata because they derive from a broad scope of related instances (not single learning experiences)

Extent of conceptual understanding (rather than memorizing facts)

Conceptual Understandinge.g. Finding Area of a Figure

Understanding Method Focus on Structural Relations

Rote Method Memorize Formula

Findings on Transfer Only understanding group could: Transfer problem solving to

novel problems See which problems were

solvable/unsolvable

School vs. Everyday Life Ultimate goal of schooling = to help students transfer

what they have learned in school to everyday settings (home, community, workplace)

Transfer between tasks is a function of (among other things) the similarity between them

SO… an important strategy for enhancing transfer may be to better understand nonschool environments that students function in

Contrasts btwn School & Everyday Life School places way more emphasis on individual work In everyday life, we use tools to solve problems

(compared with ‘mental work’ of school) Abstract reasoning often emphasized in school,

whereas contextualized reasoning often used in everyday life

‘School should be less about preparation for life and more like life itself’ ~ John Dewey

We will stop here & continue tomorrow.

^_^

Transfer

Transfer What is Transfer? Types of Transfer

Views on Transfer Behaviorism (Thorndike) Computational Theory of Mind Distributed Cognition (Packer)• Critiques of Transfer: Dewey, Lave1. What becomes of the person?2. What do schools do? What ought they do?

Critique of Transfer: Dewey

Human activities with social dimension require a wider range of responses & the qualities that render someone ‘an effective competent member of a group’

Schools should be about “greater individualization on the one hand, and a broader community of interest on the other”

“The conception of education as a social process & function have no definite meaning until we define the kind of society we have in mind”

Rejected ‘mind as muscle’ notion When something general is learned,

it’s not ‘transfer’ but rather becoming skilled in activities ‘broad in scope’

They incorporate social relationships Weight training vs. playing a sport Flexibility, elasticity, ability to react to novel

& emergent circumstances

Critique of Transfer: Lave

Instead, there is no one ‘math’ or ‘english’ or _____ Proportional reasoning on a classroom worksheet Proportional reasoning in a grocery store isle

Whether two settings are the same (initial task, target task) is not a natural fact; rather, the product of social order

‘Matching game’: See the world my way! The right way!

Hence, no such thing as bringing ‘real world’ tasks into the classroom. They change b/c context changes.

Conceived of learners are motivated, concerned JPF (always in social relations & practical activities)

Rejected ‘functionalist’ conception of knowledge Knowledge as ‘tools’ for thinking Added to the ‘toolkit’ of the mind Transported from one situation to another

(w/out change) ‘Good’ knowledge = abstract,

decontextualized, scientific

Packer’s Two Big Questions First Big Issue

Cognition is situated. Different depending on context. Identity & learning only make sense in terms of some

community of practice We are all members of multiple (at times, conflicting)

communities of practice

UHOH…. What becomes of the person? Where does the unique person go?

Second Big Issue Transfer underlies our entire understanding of what

schools are, yet it’s a vexed issue (framed wrong way) Schools don’t provide ‘tools’ for our mental toolkit

UHOH…. Then what do schools do? What ought they do?

What becomes of the person? What’s ‘portable’ when a person shifts among

communities is “modes of acting and problem solving, not a system of rules & representations” Not schemas but how to actually do practices “A pre-reflective grasp of complex situations… the

ability to improvise”

Learning is … “the historical production, transformation, and

change of persons” ~ Lave & Wenger Learning is ‘a process of coming to be, of forging

identities in activity in the world” Issue of identity, not discrete facts

Learning is change in who someone is, not just what they know

(ontological, not just epistemological)

What becomes of the person?

What is this ‘change in identity’ like?1. The person is constructed2. In a social context3. Formed through practical activity4. Formed in relationships of recognition &

desire5. That can split the person6. Motivating search for identity

Every community splits, alienates its members So…people struggle for sense of continuity, for

self-sameness Identity: this grasp of who one is – one’s rights,

one’s obligations, one’s possibilities This search for continuity is the trajectory of

identity change

What do schools do?

• Contemporary school settings … Commodify learning Establish an exchange value of knowledge via testing Focus on acting on learner rather than increasing their

participation Equates progress with rationalization & abstraction And so reduce ethical/normative questions to technical

ones *cough Computational Theory of Mind cough*

Packer: We’ve got to do better than this!

What ought schools do?

“What’s required if children are to become adults who can negotiate the rapids of modern society is the fostering of a different attitude, one of appreciation of the complex, dynamic character of society, one of understanding that there will be conflicting interests and differing perspectives in any situation, perspectives that must be recognized and understood before the situation can be transformed, people’s differences reconciled, and the problem ‘solved.’” ~ Packer

x

ActivityPick one of the following & write down your reflections:

1) Packer argues that the process of identity change goes something like this:

1. The person is constructed2. In a social context3. Formed through practical activity4. Formed in relationships of recognition &

desire5. That can split the person6. Motivating search for identity

Is he right, based on your own experiences in the world? Why/not?

2) Dewey argues that the goal of learning is ‘to enhance a person’s life experiences. What, in your opinion ought to be the goal of education?

x

School versus Everyday Lifee.g. Cottage Cheese Problem