Education for Life and Work Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century (2012) / Chapter Skim
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6 Teaching and Assessing for Transfer
6 Teaching and Assessing for Transfer
Pages 143-184
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From page 143... ...
The first section discusses the importance of specifying clear definitions of the intended learning goals and the need for accompanying valid outcome measures if we are to teach and assess for transfer. Accepting that there are limitations in the research, the next section describes emerging evidence indicating that it is possible to support deeper learning and development of transferable knowledge and skills in all three domains.
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From page 144... ...
Designing measures to evaluate student accomplishment of the particular learning goals can be an important starting point for the development process because outcome measures can provide a concrete representation of the ultimate student learning performances that are expected and of the key junctures along the way, which in turn can enable the close coordination of intended goals, learning environment characteristics, programmatic strategies, and performance outcomes. Such assessments also communicate to educators and learners -- as well as designers -- what knowledge, skills, and capabilities are valued (Resnick and Resnick, 1992; Herman, 2008)
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From page 145... ...
. While a variety of welldeveloped exemplars exist for constructs in the cognitive domain, those for intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies are less well developed.
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From page 146... ...
These overarching goals -- as well as the goals of the individual components summarized briefly below -- reflect an assumption that law students need to have developed transferable knowledge that they will be able to apply when they become lawyers. The purpose of the MBE is to assess the extent to which an examinee can apply fundamental legal principles and legal reasoning to analyze a given pattern of facts.
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From page 147... ...
. Formative assessment tasks embedded in both simulations identify the types of errors individual students make, and the system follows up with graduated feedback and coaching.
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From page 148... ...
, situational judgment tests, and behavioral observations. As with the assessment of interpersonal competencies, it is possible that evidence of intrapersonal competencies could be elicited from the process and products of student work on suitably designed complex tasks.
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From page 149... ...
However, like many of the promising cognitive measures, these rely on the abilities of technology to engage students in interaction, to simulate others with whom students can interact, to track students' ongoing responses, and to draw inferences from those responses. Summary In summary, there are a variety of constructs and definitions of cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal competencies and a paucity of highquality measures for assessing them.
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From page 150... ...
Evidence from Interventions in Formal Learning Environments As illustrated by the examples in the previous chapter, some classroom-based interventions targeting specific cognitive competencies have also, through changes in teaching practices, fostered development of intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies. The students learn through discourse, reflection, and shared experience in a learning community.
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From page 151... ...
There is also some evidence that intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies can be effectively taught and learned in the classroom. In the past, interventions often focused on reducing or preventing undesirable behaviors, such as antisocial behavior, drug use, and criminal activities.
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, the effects at the time of follow up remained statistically significant, although the effect sizes were smaller. These findings suggest that the learning of social and emotional skills was at least somewhat durable.
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From page 153... ...
. Evidence from Interventions in Informal Learning Environments Studies of informal learning environments provide more limited evidence that cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal competencies can be taught in ways that promote deeper learning and transfer.
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From page 154... ...
Parenting Interventions Because informal learning and skill development begins at birth, and because parents strongly influence this process, some interventions target parents' cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal competencies as a route to helping children develop these competencies. Parenting interventions are a route to boosting the competencies and improving the behavior of struggling children (Magnuson and Duncan, 2004)
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From page 155... ...
Evidence from Workplace Learning Environments Another area yielding emerging evidence that interventions can develop transferable competencies is the body of literature in industrial and organizational psychology that focuses on the transfer of learning from organizational training programs to the workplace. This research has been summarized in a number of recent reviews and meta-analyses (e.g., Ford and Weissbein, 1997; Burke and Hutchins, 2008; Cheng and Hampson, 2008; Baldwin, Ford, and Blume, 2009; Blume et al., 2010; Grossman and Salas, 2011)
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learning is demonstrated through pretraining and posttraining tests of trainees' knowledge and skills (which may include cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal competencies)
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situation and the new 6-1 Figure learning situation have similar underlying principles (e.g., Singley and Anderson, 1989)
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117) Within the category of trainee characteristics, Grossman and Salas confirmed the importance of cognitive ability, self-efficacy, and motivation for facilitating transfer of training to the job.
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From page 159... ...
This variety of outcome measures reflects the variety of goals of team training interventions, which often target multiple cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal competencies. These goals are based on the assumption that team training transfers within and across domains so that knowledge of work tasks, for example, is applied in ways that improve task (and team)
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From page 160... ...
In science, for example, early research sought to clarify children's understanding of scientific experimentation by presenting them with "knowledge-lean" tasks about causes and effects that required no prior knowledge of relevant science concepts. However, such methods were criticized, and further research clearly demonstrated that children's prior knowledge plays an important role in their ability to formulate a scientific question about a topic and design an experiment to test the question (National Research Council, 2007)
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. Research suggests that the use of multiple and varied representations is also effective in informal learning environments.
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From page 162... ...
, indicating that some successful tutoring techniques include asking why, how, what if, what if not, and so what. As noted in the previous chapter, carefully designed questions posed by teachers and fellow students, such as asking students to justify their answers, have been shown to support deeper learning in mathematics (Griffin, 2005; Boaler and Staples, 2008)
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From page 163... ...
• mage principle: Adding a speaker's image does not necessarily enhance I learning. Boundary Conditions The series of experiments also indicated that the effectiveness of these design principles for supporting deeper learning are limited by two boundary conditions.
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Based on its review of the research on informal science learning, a National Research Council committee (2009a) recommended that science exhibits and programs be designed with specific learning goals in mind and that they provide support to sustain learners' engagement and learning.
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For example, to prime motivation and support deeper learning in structured informal science learning environments (e.g., zoos, aquariums, museums, and science centers) , research suggests that science programs and exhibits should • be interactive; • provide multiple ways for learners to engage with concepts, prac tices, and phenomena within a particular setting; and • prompt and support participants to interpret their learning experi ences in light of relevant prior knowledge, experiences, and inter ests (National Research Council, 2009a, p.
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involve students in self- and peer assessment. These uses of formative assessment are grounded in research showing that practice is essential for deeper learning and skill development but that practice without feedback yields little learning (Thorndike, 1927; see also Chapter 4)
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Furthermore, when learning goals were related to transfer or application of knowledge, PBL approaches were more effective. Two particular learning goals were identified by the authors as showing such advantages: performance, as measured by supervisor ratings of medical students' clinical practice, and mixed knowledge and skill (including application of knowledge)
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From page 168... ...
. In contrast, when Binet was charged with developing a test to predict academic success in the Paris school system, he conceptualized cognitive ability as a collection of small component skills and pieces of knowledge that could be learned, and his test was successful in predicting school success.
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Because such explanations require reflection on one's own thinking and learning, these methods help learners develop metacognitive strategies. In a classic study, Bloom and Broder (1950)
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identified several metacognitive strategies that are commonly used in the learning of new material, including planning, monitoring, using strategies, managing, and enjoying. Planning refers to the development of a plan for learning, and it includes activating relevant prior knowledge.
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Research indicates that extended time and practice also enhances learning in informal settings. For example, the National Research Council (2009a)
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rather than solely on product; should focus on using the strategies in a specific context rather than in general; should focus on learning problem-solving and metacognitive strategies before or while lower-level skills are mastered; and should focus on prolonged, deliberate practice and application rather than one-shot deals. Summary: Developing Transferable Cognitive Competencies A persistent theme in research on learning and teaching for transfer concerns the situated nature of learning.
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INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN PRINCIPLES -- INTRAPERSONAL AND INTERPERSONAL DOMAINS The research on instruction that directly targets intrapersonal and interpersonal learning goals is less extensive and rigorous than the research on instruction targeting cognitive learning goals. Although the limited evidence base poses a challenge to identifying specific principles of instructional design to advance intrapersonal and interpersonal knowledge and skills, there is suggestive evidence that some of the principles for instruction in the cognitive domain may be applicable to instruction in these two other domains.
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From page 174... ...
, while the group of programs that did not follow all four practices did not yield significant mean effects for any of the outcomes. These findings support the authors' hypothesis that the four research-based practices work best in combination to support the development of intrapersonal and interpersonal skills.
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From page 175... ...
and affective outcomes, teamwork and mixed-content training are associated with larger effect sizes than training focused on task work. The finding that, in situations when the goal is to improve team processes, focusing training content on teamwork skills improves effectiveness provides further support for the design principle that instruction should focus on clearly defined learning goals.
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From page 176... ...
. The formative assessment concept emphasizes the dynamic process of using assessment evidence to continually improve student learning, while summative assessment focuses on development and implementation of an assessment instrument to measure what a student has learned up to a particular point in time (National Research Council, 2001; Shepard, 2005; Heritage, 2010)
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From page 177... ...
Aggregated at the class, school, or higher levels, results may help in the identification of new curriculum and promising practices as well as in the assessment of teaching strategies and the evaluation of personnel and institutions. Assessment for Learning: Formative Assessment In contrast to assessments of learning that look backward over what has been learned, assessments for learning -- formative assessments -- chart the road forward by diagnosing where students are relative to learning goals and by making it possible to take immediate action to close any gaps (see Sadler, 1989)
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From page 178... ...
Formative assessment can provide the feedback and guidance that learners need when engaged in challenging tasks. Furthermore, by making learning goals explicit, by engaging students in self- and peer assessment, by involving students in a learning community, and by demonstrating student efficacy, formative assessment can promote students as agents in their own learning, which can increase student motivation, autonomy, and metacognition as well as collaboration and academic learning (Gardner, 2006; Shepard, 2006)
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The model features explicit learning goals for targeted cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal competencies and poses a sequential and integrated approach to their development, as supported by the literature (see, for example, Durlak and Weissburg, 2011)
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From page 180... ...
Formative assessment occurs when teachers make their learning goals and success criteria explicit for students, gather evidence of how student learning is progressing, partner with students in a process of re ciprocal feedback, and engage the classroom as a community to improve students' learning. The social context of learning is fundamental to the process as is the need for classroom culture and norms that support active learning communities -- for example, shared language and understanding of expected performance; relationships of trust and respect; shared re sponsibility for and power in the learning process.
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From page 181... ...
In recent decades, advances in the research have begun to provide evidence-based answers to this question. Although this research has focused on acquisition of cognitive competencies, it indicates that the process of learning for transfer involves the interplay of cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal competencies, as reflected in our recommendations for design of instruction and teaching methods: • Recommendation 3: Designers and developers of instruction tar geted at deeper learning and development of transferable 21st century competencies should begin with clearly delineated learning goals and a model of how learning is expected to develop, along with assessments to measure student progress toward and attain ment of the goals.
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From page 182... ...
We compared the instructional design principles and research-based teaching methods emerging from this research with the instructional design principles and researchbased teaching methods that are beginning to emerge from the smaller body of research focusing on development of intrapersonal and interpersonal skills, identifying some areas of overlap and similarities. • Conclusion: The instructional features listed above, shown by re search to support the acquisition of cognitive competencies that transfer, could plausibly be applied to the design and implementa tion of instruction that would support the acquisition of transfer able intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies.
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From page 183... ...
Investigators should examine whether, and to what ex tent, instructional design principles and methods shown to increase transfer in the cognitive domain are applicable to instruction tar geted to the development of intrapersonal and interpersonal com petencies. Such programs of research would benefit from efforts to specify more uniform, clearly defined constructs and to produce associated measures of cognitive, intrapersonal, and interpersonal competencies.
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