In this blog post, you are exploring what it means to "transfer" knowledge from one situation to another. Begin by discussing what transfer means and how a student can achieve successful transfer according to the researchers of How People Learn (this means pull out evidence!). What are contributing factors to successful transfer? Next extend your discussion to yourself: what prior knowledge did you come into the WRIT 1122 class with that has helped you with assignments--both homework and major/mini assignments? What do you believe you will transfer from WRIT 1122 and why (be very specific)? Where will you transfer this knowledge to? And conclude by wrapping your discussion up: why is transfer of knowledge important? Do you believe transfer happens whether you think about it or not? This blog post helps set up your portfolio, so use it to your advantage.
Engage with others. Support your thinking with the text. Target 250-300 words.
Due: Thursday, November 7, 2013 by MIDNIGHT!
As stated in the article, transfer is the ability to extend what was learned in one context into other contexts. Researcher Klausmeier discovered that in order to achieve a good transfer, you must be taught using elements that are present in the second context. This will allow the student to make connects and remember in the other context. A successful transfer is an active process, focusing on educating instead of training. It requires expert knowledge of the original subject to be transferred successfully. For example, when students learned LOGO, their grades on the transfer test weren’t very different from the test scores of the students who weren’t taught LOGO. This was because the students who did learn LOGO were not masters about it. Initial learning is key.
ReplyDeleteThe transfer of learning is important because it is fundamental to understanding how people develop important skills or abilities. I think transfer happens unconsciously since I have learned things in school and been able to extend it to home and into other classes, which is transfer in itself. However, I think a lot of knowledge is not transferred. It is only memorized for a short period then forgotten after tested on the subject.
I transferred basic knowledge of genres, rhetoric appeals, and tone into this class. Genre really helped me in the column, newsletter, and now rhetorical analysis. Rhetoric appeal knowledge was transferred and applied in blog posts when questioned specifically which appeal the author uses and giving examples from their text. I will be able to transfer rhetorical situation from this class into future writing classes. WRIT 1122 has been centered on rhetorical situations and with this much repetition and practice of the term, I believe I have a degree of mastery on this subject.
I think you're right to say that transfer happens without conscious thought. We're generally going to look for the most efficient answer to a question, regardless of the kind of information we use to do it. So transfer will happen whenever we have to solve a question that doesn't just require one particular segment of learning.
DeleteTransfer is an interesting concept. I agree with the author's assessment that it is key to the learning process. It's not very helpful to be able to solve math problem, or write a paper, and then be completely unable to do anything else. By taking what you have learned in one situation, and applying it to something else, you are demonstrating that you really understand the subject matter.
ReplyDeleteI think that in looking at this sort of problem, it's important to note where transfer can pop-up. For this class, we spend a great deal of time learning to be better writers. To write more persuasively, under all sorts of different circumstances. The whole point of the course is transfer: many of the skills we acquire here are interdisciplinary. I want to be able to persuade my boss, whatever my future job is, that he should give me raise or a promotion. By learning persuasive writing, we're learning how to do that at the same time.
Coming into this class, I brought we me a vast array of previous knowledge. This includes all manner of writing techniques and habits, some of which are helpful, and others, decidedly less so. I think my regularly reading the newspaper gave me excellent insight into how to write our column. Understanding what is expected of writers in that professional space makes it much easier to replicate that success. However, I also think my tendency to use more complex language has hurt my blog posts. My writing style naturally seems to use a large vocabulary, and I need to force myself not too. Sometimes I have more success with this than others.
I think that your writing style is very unique and although the blog posts are supposed to be a little less formal, it adds to your argument when you sound more credible and intelligent. By using bigger words, I think you only add to your writing because it embodies who you are in real life. I also agree that learning different styles of writing such as persuasive writing or a simple blog post can definitely transfer nicely to future pieces of writing or a future job.
DeleteI really appreciate your writing style because it is clear and concise. Even though it is maybe too much formal for blog posts, I use to be inspired by your ideas.
DeleteI totally agree with Daisy about your writing style.
DeleteThe knowledge is not only know how to solve the problem. It is more important to understand the concept (be able to transfer and adopt to the situation) because essentially you want to apply this idea to the universal. Not only for that problem in particular.It will have a much bigger influence through out you life.
I really agree with you Pete! I think that knowledge is much more than just solving a problem, its about understanding different things in life and as you say "adapt to the situation." Knowledge is important in every minute of every day and the transfer of knowledge from one area of the brain to the other is also very important and critical in furthering one's knowledge.
DeleteI like how you gave examples about the math problem and writing a paper. That's so true and the example really helped me understand and appreciate transfer. I agree that the whole point of this class is transfer. The information obtained in this class is useless, really, unless it is obtained and remembered for future usage.
DeleteThe author makes the valid point that the transfer of knowledge in humans is essential to the learning process. Our constant human interaction is a transfer of knowledge between two people, that is we take what we know and transfer that to our present interaction--if what we have learned to act a certain way when presented particular situation, we act accordingly. If that is not the case ,however, we learn something new and transfer this knowledge to help us in future interactions. That being said, this same principle is can be applied anything, take academics for example. The author comments on Thorndike's theory of transfer, "skills of writing letters of the alphabet are useful to writing words," so we can clearly see here that the learning of one skill leads to another, the knowledge of the previous skill is transferred to the next. The entire process of education is a transfer of knowledge, we have been taught numerous skills that have lead to the learning of the next.
ReplyDeleteIn order to transfer knowledge one must be persuasive, advertising is a great example of this. The goal of advertising is to get the viewer, the reader, the listener, anyone, to change their thinking and buy a product or an idea. Advertising agencies must persuade the audience through psychological persuasion, "With this product (or idea) your life will be better!" The same is seen in academics, educators persuade their students to learn so they can improve the quality of their lives, "If you don't study hard, you'll end up working in McDonald's."(a favorite among some teachers)
My writing in this course has been a collection of knowledge since I first learned the letter of the alphabet. I learned to write a sentence, paragraph, an essay, and so on. Though more recent influences have shaped my skills as a writer, what I have previously learned, written, and read has shaped the elements of my writing up to this point.
I can't really describe my writing in one word, but the word thought comes to mind. That is, one must put thought into their writing; not only the writing itself, but the audience as well. When you know your target audience the everything can be molded to transfer your knowledge to them.
I agree with you Marcelo. We need to make transfer of the most basic knowledge to support our assignments. Actually, every knowledge we have learned is helpful to do assignments.
DeleteI like how you said, "Our constant human interaction is a transfer of knowledge between two people." That's so true. Every conversation you have with someone, you actually transfer knowledge. I bet more knowledge is transferred through casual conversations verses classes because most teachers ignore the necessity of transfer. They teach their classes in a way that forces kids to memorize the knowledge for the test then forget it all afterwards. This class, however, actually focuses on transfer and using rhetoric skills for future writing classes.
DeleteThe first step to a successful transfer of knowledge, as stated in the article, is the degree of mastery at a certain subject. I think that a student can achieve successful transfer by absorbing knowledge from those they find credible sources of knowledge. Much like in writing and the use of ethos, it is important to know what you are talking about or writing about or else your audience will not want to listen or believe what you are trying to argue.
ReplyDeleteI think there are many things to a successful transfer, but I also think that having a successful transfer is not difficult. First, as Becky stated, I think successful transfer is the ability to extend what was learned in one context into other contexts. By being able to connect what you learn with other things you have learned in the past, it is much easier to digest and remember new knowledge. I also think it is important is realize and accept how much time it can take to understand difficult material and how much motivation you are willing to put into learning and understanding the material. As stated in the essay, it can take 50,000 to 100,000 hours of practice for chess masters to learn pattern recognitions to reach their level of mastery. This takes both motivation and immense time commitment.
Coming into the WRIT 1122 class, I did not have much experience in writing with multiple genres, but I had a lot of writing experience in general. I brought my own style of writing that I don’t believe has changed immensely and I also brought my previous knowledge and experiences in different subjects that I could apply to my writing to add pathos and ethos to my writing.
I believe that my ability to write in different genres now will transfer to other situations in my life such as future classes, writing or not. Also, my ability to recognize and write using rhetorical situation will transfer over to future pieces of writing and help me while analyzing a piece of writing.
Transfer of knowledge is very important because without the transfer of knowledge, no one would know anything. Simple things such as how to tie our shoes and how to speak are successful transfers of knowledge. I think transfer of knowledge happens every day. Whether we think about it or not, little transfers of knowledge just from meeting someone new and learning their name is transfer of knowledge.
Transfer is a dynamic process of a person that involves putting into practice a knowledge that has been learned. According to the researchers of How People Learn, there are several ways for student to achieve a successful transfer from what they learn at school to apply it in the real life. For instance, they argue that the motivation of learning and especially understanding instead of memorizing is more likely to provoke a transfer. Figuring out the usefulness of what we are learning and how it could be applied to real life is a key to transfer as well. Furthermore, researchers argue that “if the knowledge is acquired and taught with multiple context”, students will acquire more flexible and wider knowledge that are factors to an easier and successful transfer.
ReplyDeleteI came into the WRIT 1122 class with all my previous experiences related to writing and reading. I also came with my prior knowledge from my social status and culture. This prior knowledge helped me for the main assignment because I use to read columns about sport as well as newsletters.
I believe that I will transfer from this class what I learned about the rhetorical appeals. I figured out the usefulness of balancing the appeals in an argumentation and I will transfer this knowledge to my everyday life when I have to convince.
Transfer of knowledge is important because it’s the process that allows reaping the benefits of this knowledge. If there is no transfer, the knowledge stays abstract and will be removed from memory. I believe that most of the time, transfer happens in a specific situation unexpected, thus when you don’t think about transfer. However, transfer can also be incited by a will of the learner. For instance a golf player, who goes to practice straight after watching a video of golf technique, thinks about transferring the knowledge.
I'm glad that I'm not the only who mention about practice. As a skier, you have to spend countless amount of time and effort to become professional. I think knowledge is the same way. in order to perfection in certain area of the subject, you need a lot of practice.
DeleteThe author defines transfer as “the ability to extend what has been learned in one context to new context”. This is, transfer is that uses prior knowledge to help learning new knowledge or build up prior knowledge by learning new language. A student can achieve successful transfer in many ways. There are some contributing factors that the author introduced which I think that essential to successful transfer. The first factor is that “degree of mastery of the original subject”. It is impossible that make the transfer without fully master the initial learning. It is like, you want to use correct grammar (make a good transfer) in writing, and you have to completely master grammar. Additionally, “transfer is affected by the degree to which people learn with understanding rather then merely memorize sets of facts or follow a fixed set of procedures”. Flexibility in the use of transfer needs you completely understand what you have learned. You can nicely make transfer only when you have fully understanding of you knowledge. Furthermore, there is also a problem that “transfer is affected by the context of original learning: people can learn in one context, yet fail to transfer to other context”. That is, some people are probably capable in certain fields, but are not adept at other fields. Therefore, in order to achieve good transfer, students need to know what their strengths are, and consciously utilize it. It will make transfer more effectively.
ReplyDeleteActually, I think even the most basic knowledge has helped me with assignments. For example, the transfer of grammar and vocabulary definitely provide the possibility to me to do assignments. Without these basic knowledge, I have no way to writing. In addition, my prior experiences also have helped me with assignments. With my prior experiences, I know how to use emotional appeal (pathos) to evoke emotional response of my audience even though I don’t know what pathos is at that time. Besides, the knowledge I have learned from my prior writing classes also has helped me with assignment. According these knowledge, I know how to make my writing organized, and how to write logically.
I believe I will transfer the concept of audience from WRIT 1122. In my opinion, writing is about how to convey ideas, and make readers identify what you are trying to say. Thus, keep my audience in mind will help me to make stronger arguments because when I know who my audience is, I will clear what content, tone and form I should approach.
I will transfer this knowledge to my WRIT 1133 class next quarter in the near term. I believe no matter which writing class I take or even write for fun, I always need to keep my audience in mind (as long as I am writing).
Transfer of knowledge is extremely important because it is an effective way to learn new things, and it also provides the foundation to analyze things. If you don’t make transfer when you learn new things, it will be very hard to get progress. For example, imagine we are learning mathematic. If we don’t make transfer of formula we have learned to solve problems, we can never solve any problem. Similarly, if we are writing our movie analysis paper without any transfer of knowledge, we cannot analyze at all.
I believe transfer happens whether I think about it or not. For example, when I am watching TV, I need to make transfer of my prior knowledge; otherwise, I cannot understand anything. The transfer process is automatically, and I don’t need to make it on purpose. Actually, it is even harder to hold it back.
If I have to sum up the author’s idea in few sentences I would put it as a: transfer is the essential to learning. The word transfer doesn’t apply to how you receive the information. It is more important to look at it how to apply these information to other aspect of the subject. One thing that really stood out to my mind is that transfer and cultural practices. Have you ever heard about 10,000 hours rule theory? If not, here is the brief summary to this theory. In order to be profession in something, you have to practice for 10,000 hours. For example, Tiger practice golf more than four or five hours a day since he was in early teenage year. So, he accomplished his possession and became the professional later on his career. The cultural practice have been an important part for Asian culture. I remember when I was about six years old, my parents would tutor me for hours. Most of it was major subjects such as math and science. In Thailand, I took college biology, college physics, and college chemistry since I was fifteen years old. Oh, I start calculus I since I was fifteen as well. By the age of eighteen, Thai students are almost done with Differential Equation (required math major/ engineering major class.) Around the age of fifteen, I remember I was sitting in the tutor trying to study with the older kids because I want to be ahead of my game. I was in petroleum chemistry class. With in this type of society, it forced me to transfer and “suck up” every text in a very little time. I moved to the U.S. at the age of fifteen-ish. I experienced the big culture change. Like everyone know that the U.S. high school is not very competitive compare to some places like European Countries or Asian countries. People in here are focus more on: how students are best receive the information and how to maximize their ability. I think this idea is very important. For example, our Writ 1122 class is somewhat adopt in to this theory as well, we use different types of tools to maximize the students ability. I think, in this class, drawing have the big influence to transfer/apply the idea to their project. It is much easier to see the actual picture and apply from that point. I, personally, believe that 10,000 hours rule is the key to a successful “career.” The 10,000 hours rule required a ton of practice. This is another reason why “Asian kids are good in math and science (or school in general).” It is because we were training since we were young at under critical stances (parents, and surrounding environment).
ReplyDeleteRhetorical thinking and rhetorical situation writing will transfer and apply to the rest of my college writing assignments and beyond college as well. Very first day of Writ 1122, I was introduced to a new term that I never thought about it in my life. It always there with my writing, but I never realize about it until “Bitzer” handout and went to a lot of practice under the topic. Rhetorical is a another solution for writing. It is the way to make your paper become a paper.
DeleteHey Petey,
DeleteIt was interesting to read about your academic experiences in Thailand. Transferring that cultural knowledge coming here is an entirely new field from what I know as an American who has never lived abroad. I wonder how that is when you go back to Thailand. Good writing man.
Transfer is important because it what makes you a well-rounded person. The ability to have knowledge in multiple areas and be able to apply that is a valuable skill. The transfer of knowledge means that you can take what you’ve learned in various areas of life and apply them to certain situations. I think that this is what it means to have intelligence. When you can take your knowledge and apply it in real life, whether it be in work, relationships, or any other area of life. “All new learning involves transfer based on previous learning”(Learning and Transfer).
ReplyDeleteOne of the teories that the “Learning and Transfer” piece talks about is the “similarities between conditions of learning and conditions of transfer.” I think that how you learn is very closly related to how you transfer knowledge. If you learn things quickly then it may be that you also quickly apply what you learn to different situations.
Coming into this class I had done a little work with rhetorical analysis’s and with the terms surrounding rhetorical analysis. This made a lot of the material review for me because I was able to transfer the knowledge that I had learned in high school and apply it now in this class. This class was helpful because through the blogs and main assignments I could use not only my previous knowledge, but the knowledge that I had learned in class; transferring knowledge from all different times and places into my assignments.
All of the terms that we discussed, the situations we learned (rhetorical) and the work that we did on our assignments will help me in better writing for other classes. What we have learned will serve as a foundation for my future writing endeavors, which will further strengthen my writing.
This knowledge will transfer everywhere I go in everything I do. Writing will always be a big part of my life and I will continuously use it in career.
Transfer of knowledge is really important because you can use knowledge that you use anywhere. If you only applied the knowledge you used in one area to that one area then you are restricting yourself. I think that if you purposefully try to transfer knowledge then it will work for your benefit.
I really agree that transfer of knowledge makes you a well-rounded person. Also, it's a very interesting thought that the rate someone learns is the rate someone transfers. It would make a really good science experiment.
DeleteHey Christine,
DeleteI agree that this class will help in my future writing endeavors. It helps a lot to learn about how to form a cohesive and full argument, because almost all of our academic papers from this point on will require this. Learning about ethos, pathos, and logos was really important for me in that aspect.
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ReplyDeleteTransfer happens when we learn a subject and transfer it to another environment. For example, we can transfer of the knowledge from this class to writing assignments in other classes, like writing a business plan for BUS 1000.
ReplyDeleteSuccessful transfer occurs when the student learns a subject thoroughly and well. With complete understanding of a subject, the knowledge is prepped to be passed on to other environments. Transfer can’t happen when information is memorized or learned halfheartedly. The example about students transferring their knowledge from programming LOGO to other environments portrays how understanding, not just knowing, is necessary for transfer.
I came into WRIT 1122 with a scattering of rhetoric ability, a repetitive knowledge of “essay structure for school,” and a heavy lather of grammar ability. My high school required us to take a grammar test every year. I will never forget my grammar. My writing ability was weak, but I also transferred in the desire to write better. I have written poorly my whole life and I’m tired of the mediocre spiral. Now, after all the knowledge I have gained so far in WRIT 1122, I have improved my writing ability and applied it to the business plan I wrote in BUS 1000. The transfer of knowledge helped me write an active and engaging business plan.
There are many more transfers from WRIT 1122 that extend beyond writing ability. I am taking away my understanding of rhetorical situation into the real world. It’s fascinating to me that great moments are defined by great rhetorical situations. I will constantly seek out “great moments” like Winston Churchill because they are defining moments. I will also transfer out the insight that it’s ok to use “I” in essays and speech. Not only will my writing contain the use of I to add personalization, my speech will use “I” and “we” and “us” in the same way.
Transfer knowledge is important because it gives school and learning a purpose. School is worthless if it is confined by the walls of a class room. Knowledge is worth more than gold if it finds its way into the real world. Transfer makes all types of learning useful in some way, even if it’s small. No matter the subject, it will connect with everything else I have learned so far in my life. I get butterflies in my stomach when I think of the possible transfers and overlaps of knowledge that are happening right now and will happen in the future.
Transfer happens all the time. We just need to catch ourselves in the act of using it.
I also came to WRIT 1122 with a repetitive knowledge of an essay structure. I feel like that s all the writing high school ever teaches...I also completely agree with the fact that transfer makes school worth something.
DeleteTransferring is taking something you have learned and making use of it in another context. In order to have successful transfers, there are many things that are needed. One of them is that you must understand the information first before you can transfer it to anther context. The experiment with the target underwater proved that. The students who were given background knowledge and understood how the reflection was actually a bit off threw the darts much better than the ones that did not know.
ReplyDeleteI came into this class knowing basic writing skills, but not much else. Those have helped me because they gave me a basis to build my skills on. However, I have learned a lot more about analyzing pieces of writing and writing in different genres since I have been in this class, which I think will help me later in life. I will not always be writing essays. I may need to write a blog at some point, or a column, or some other writing style that requires a different method, and I will be able to transfer the skills I gained in this class to those tasks.
Transferring is very important because if you just go through life not applying the things you’ve learned in school to the real world, for example, then there was no point in you going to school. You go through life using what you already know to help you complete the tasks laid out for you. That is essentially transferring. I do believe that you need to think about things in order for transfer to happen. Unless the students who learned about reflection consciously thought about what they learned when they went to throw their darts, they wouldn’t of done as good. Just knowing that information doesn’t mean that their aim will improve without them thinking of how to use that information.
I'm with you on writing a blog. It really helped me improve my writing in stream of consciousness. It's like a sport that requires constant practice.
DeleteI would define transfer as being able to take different things you have learned in one situation and be able to apply them to whole new situations. For example, if I learned how to write a professional legal case brief, I could take the skill I learned of writing professionally and apply it to other forms of writing.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the chapter, successful transfer occurs when “initial learning is a key determinant of the development of expertise.” Unless the knowledge that is being transferred is expertly taught and learned, it is going to be difficult to successfully transfer that knowledge to other disciplines. Another contributing factor to the ability to the transfer of knowledge is recognizing that everything you learn has a purpose. Although everything you are learning in school might seem useless now, you never know that you might be able to successfully apply it to something in the future. The idea of transfer keeps learning a continuous process, because even with stuff you already know, it can always be applied to new aspects. This leads to the creation of new knowledge.
I came into this class knowing two things: that I can write well and that I can always improve. I think coming in with that mindset alone helps a lot when it comes to the transfer of knowledge. I came in with a good background in writing from my high school and previous college level research papers. Writing research papers definitely helps with WRIT 1122, since the class is based on forming arguments. A research paper is composed of a similar process to the process we use to argue our pieces, so that definitely helped a lot. I think that from WRIT 1122 specifically implementing pathos into all of my arguments will be something that I take away. It is something that I have done previously, but never realized its importance and effectiveness until this class. I’d like to apply pathos-based arguments to my daily life, along with future essays. It is useful to appeal to the emotions of an audience in order to sway their views.
The transfer of knowledge is important because if knowledge were not cross functional, no new ideas would form. We would be effectively stuck as a society in a continuous cycle of no innovation. Transfer happens subconsciously in my opinion also. Sometimes, you can’t really control how your brain works and connections will just click. That is why our society continues to move forward; we don’t have to put in the extra effort to connect the dots and everyone can do so.
I agree with you when you say that transfer happens subconsciously. When we see some thing we cannot help to think. We cannot control that. When we are thinking, transfer is happening.
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