As I sit on day one of a brand new school year, I have the same rosy-hued view of what education will look like this year that I have every year. I see a vast curricular joy enveloping every student that walks in the door. They will take what we have to teach them. They will use it to be great.
And then the bell rings.
And then I give misguided directions to a student looking for their first period class.
And then I try to remember to both do the paperwork and do the educating.
And then it is last hour and a sheen of stress sweat has taken over my body.
And I forgot the curricular joy. And the using it to be great.
As Jennifer Gonzalez reminds us in her podcast, Cult of Pedagogy, we often hit an "easy button" in education because the task before us is great and the time and resources are diminishing. It is easy to add fluff we then feel responsible for grading, to decrease active engagement because we are not provided enough time to plan, and to add assessments that are often untenable for teachers and students. Teachers are not to blame, but we can begin to orchestrate the change within the systems where we operate. And it will definitely not be easy.
Our students need us to guide them in making connections and transferring learning outside the classroom walls. They need to authentically engage and understand why this learning is so vital to creating the educated citizenry we require. The students and the teachers all need to know that education matters to their lives.
In order to help students learn for life, we must begin by teaching for transfer. As defined by Julie Stern in Learning That Transfers: Designing Curriculum for a Changing World, "transfer of learning is at once incredibly simple and incredibly complex. At its most fundamental level, it simply means applying our past learning to a new situation" (5). The goal is to take learning out of a classroom vacuum and connect it to the wider world of students' lives. This learning takes place on a conceptual level, requiring instruction to pinpoint deeper concepts within the facts, procedures, and skills we are currently teaching. A 2019 Edutopia Article sets the stage for this type of thinking with simple questions and ideas that can be employed in any classroom to boost learning transfer through concepts.
A focus on transfer is not a panacea. However, it is an inspirational beginning to the process of breaking down the factories in our classrooms and building up the humanizing, connecting, and engaging practices that are more just and sustainable. When we teach for transfer, we recognize the world beyond our classroom walls, and we embrace a student's desire to matter and have a place in it. Teaching for transfer validates that we are experts in our content, but students are experts in their lives. We must bring it all together to provide choice, agency, engagement, and joy for both teachers and students. Making the objective of all learning real world transfer is the starting point. Students who choose to learn for life is the ending goal.
Some resources to help you work with students to engage in conceptual transfer:
1. An overview of the ACT Mental Model and Learning Transfer: This article, published on the Learning That Transfers book website, provides an understanding of what education truly is and why a focus on transfer can help us achieve the ultimate goals we set for our own classrooms. This is a good place to begin in understanding the why behind the necessary curricular shifts.
2. A sample lesson from Julie Stern to demonstrate conceptual relationships and SEL Competencies: In this lesson, Stern provides examples around how she would help students acquire vital conceptual knowledge like growth mindset, resilience, and empathy. She demonstrates a concept attainment template, a SEEI strategy, and concept connection questions. Her lesson template can be downloaded from the website and used to suit a lesson in any classroom.
As we all head into classrooms this year full of rosy-hued optimism, may the joy of helping students apply and transfer conceptual knowledge be a guiding light.
Comments
Post a Comment