Teachers can use the following strategies to optimize the transfer of knowledge and skills learned in the classroom to the broader world:
Adopting project-based learning: Teachers should design their instructional strategies to incorporate real-world problems. Students should be accorded the opportunity to practice the skills and the concepts learned in the classroom in real-world situations. Across the various units being offered, teachers should have end-of-course projects or simulations that mirror real-world scenarios (Ferlazzo, 2017; Strauss, 2015). Such may include designing environmental conservation solutions and concrete application of the Pythagorean theorem in real-world situations.
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Application of the learned concepts, principles, and strategies in multiple contexts: Teachers should encourage their students to think of several areas in which the learned knowledge applies to various situations and problems. The teachers may trigger such thinking by providing several in-class examples and challenging the students to come up with several more (Yale University, n.d.).
Encouraging collaboration and interaction amongst the students: Most of the broader world situations require collaborative efforts more than individual efforts (Strauss, 2015). Consequently, teachers should set up activities that require students to engage with each other. Collaboration assists in model thinking and the generation of ideas amongst the learners. Besides, it increases students’ opportunities to engage in successful collaborations in later life, such as solving some real-world problems.
Creating assessments that require students to think conceptually and utilize knowledge in unfamiliar situations: Teachers should be cognizant that some abstraction of knowledge to real-world problems requires higher-order thinking. The problems are often complex, ill-defined, unstructured, and with no instructions. Consequently, they should train their students for this experience by creating assessments that require higher-order thinking and not directly applying the concepts covered in class (Ferlazzo, 2017).
Explicitly letting the students know that one of the learning goals is so that they can transfer the knowledge, skills, and concepts to the broader world: Students have been found to better engage in a lesson and practice transfer when they are aware of the benefits of the transfer in career aspirations and future learning (Yale University, n.d.). Consequently, teachers should enumerate the benefits to the students. Besides, while engaging the students in transfer activities, they should tailor the learning to subject matters that interest/motivate them.
References
Ferlazzo, L. (2017, May 9). Response: Ways to promote transfer of learning (Opinion) . Education Week. Retrieved June 26, 2021, from https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-response-ways-to-promote-transfer-of-learning/2017/05
Strauss, V. (2015, March 24). The real stuff of schooling: How to teach students to apply knowledge . The Washington Post. Retrieved June 26, 2021, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/03/24/the-real-stuff-of-schooling-how-to-teach-students-to-apply-knowledge/
Yale University. (n.d.). Transfer of knowledge to new contexts | Poorvu Center for teaching and learning . Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning |. Retrieved June 26, 2021, from https://poorvucenter.yale.edu/TransferKnowledge
