For the past two weeks we have been discussing transfer and how difficult it is to achieve, despite being a common goal of educators. We hope that walking through some of the research on transfer helps to clarify why knowledge transfer is a complicated issue. Today, we want to provide you with more resources on why transfer is such an important topic as well as some concrete suggestions for how to achieve knowledge transfer in the classroom.

1) Should we be teaching knowledge or skills? By David Dadau, @LearningSpy

In this opinion piece, David Didau points out that we need to consider both knowledge and skills when we create learning objectives. He suggests that we scaffold learning, such that we start with knowledge acquisition and final achieve application of knowledge as the final learning goal.

2) Transfer as the point of education by Grant Wiggins, @grantwiggins

In this article, the late Grant Wiggins provides a working definition of transfer and discusses concrete ways to make knowledge transfer successful in the classroom.

3) Transfer of Learning: Is There a Solution? By Christina Milos, @surreallyno

Cristina Milos walks through several concrete examples of assignments that can be used to encourage knowledge transfer for students. While much of the article focuses on mathematical problem solving, more general assignments are also provided.

4) The real stuff of schooling: How to teach students to apply knowledge by Valerie Strauss

In this Washington Post article, Valerie Strauss summarizes Larry Ferlazzo’s book, “Building A Community of Self-Motivated Learners: Strategies to Help Students Thrive In School and Beyond”.  The article provides excellent research-driven advice about how to encourage students to transfer knowledge throughout the learning process.

5) Students can't apply what they've learned by Eberly Center at Carnegie Mellon University

This is a resource worth bookmarking. The Eberly Center at Carnegie Mellon have put together an extremely user-friendly site that allows you to select the reasons why students are having a difficult time transferring knowledge in your class. You are then sent to a page with reasons why students are not transferring knowledge and advice for how to solve the problem – all backed by research!

Every Sunday, we pick a theme and provide a curated list of links. If you have a theme suggestion, please don’t hesitate to contact us! Our 5 most recent digests can be found here:

Weekly Digest #9: How To Talk About Learning Styles

Weekly Digest #10: How to Grade Writing Assignments

Weekly Digest #11: Revisiting Standardized Testing

Weekly Digest #12: How To Make Standardized Testing Better

Weekly Digest #13: How Teachers Implement Retrieval in their Classrooms