1. This article defined transfer as "the ability to extend what has been learned in one context to a new context." Although some characteristics of learning and transfer may seem obvious, this article explained in much detail why there are key components to education. The first being the importance of initial learning. Many conditions may effect this beginning stage and interfere with later transfer. Another important factor is the difference between truly understanding and memorizing information. The ability to remember facts for a test is not the same as understanding them. Making sure students have the time to learn is another important component. It is often that students are rushed through things and not given time to take it all in and make connections. It is often overlooked that when students are first learning something they are using transfer. They bring in previous knowledge to the subject to help in the learning process. This article provided many components that must be met in order for students to successfully transfer information from one setting to another.
2. Our working and long term memory plays a large part in the transferring process. This article talks about how students often refer to their previous knowledge when introduced to new material. Without this material being stored in our long term memory students would have not anything to bring to initial learning stages.
3. I had to read the part on active verses passive approaches a second time, but I think I understand it a little better. I use prompting a lot in my classroom and I am going to try to be more aware so that I am use "graduated prompting."
4. As a teacher my goal is to provide my students with the skills necessary to succeed not only in school but outside the school setting as well. My hopes are that no matter what subject it may be students can take away skills from a lesson and apply it to their everyday lives. I have always had this goal, but this article provided me with many components that are important in order for me to succeed in doing this.
5. This article has many studies that were done. Box 3.1 was even more proof that "chunking" information into meaningful groups helps in comprehending. Box 3.3 was a study done to prove how important understanding something is rather than just memorizing. I have heard both the darts and biology study before in other EPFR classes.
6. Learning and transfer is extremely important in education. If we cannot help students in transferring what they learned in school to society, they will be lost. What is the point of just memorizing something for a test and then forgetting it. If we as teachers focus on the key components from this article we should be preparing our students for how to succeed outside of the school setting.
7. I was the type of student that would say "ok if I can just memorize this for tomorrow's test, it doesn't matter if I forget it the next day. As long as I get that "A" I think that we as teachers need to show students situations in which the material we teach them at school will be used elsewhere. If they have a true purpose for understanding it rather than memorizing it they will be more focused and motivated as the article says.
8. I think that by providing students with as much exposure to real world situations it helps them in transferring information learned in class to other situations. I would think this would be the best way in explaining to them how important transfer is.
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