1. The Art of Designing a Curriculum Optimized for Learning Transfer
- Author
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Jensen, Christopher X. J., Brooks, Brian, Suh, Keena, Shmulevsky, Allegra Marino, and Wynter, Chris
- Abstract
Teachers hope that students will take what they have learned and apply it to other contexts. Teachers also assume that students bring to the classroom, prior learning skills and conceptual understanding that form the foundation of new learning. Educational scholars call this import to and export from different learning experiences "transfer of learning." Perhaps transfer of learning seems like an obvious goal that any faculty member would--and perhaps should--pursue. After all, should students not utilize what they have learned in courses in their subsequent education, careers, and perhaps personal lives? And yet, many faculty members are unaware of what transfer of learning is. Few faculty members are actually trained in best practices for making learning transferable. That students apply what they have learned in one context to new challenges is often assumed but not always documented in research studies. This suggests the need to design curricula to better foster transfer of learning. For the past three years, the authors have explored how they might use a transfer of learning approach to create a better art and design curriculum for their students. Here they share their experience with looking for ways to maximize the potential for learning transfer, focusing on how they expanded their faculty learning community by fostering faculty conversations about transfer.
- Published
- 2019
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