Teaching for Transfer

Self-Assessment, Learning Outcomes, and Reflection as Necessary Components of Student Learning in FYC

Caitlin Martin Miami University CCCC 2013

Key Question
How can reflective self-assessment facilitate backward-reaching and forwardreaching transfer?

Teacher-Research Methods
Surveys during the class (Fall 2012) Textual analysis of student work (both inclass and final projects) Interviews in Spring 2013 IRB approval in October 2012

Forward & Backward Reaching Transfer

As discussed by Dana Driscoll (2011)
Backward reaching transfer occurs when an individual encounters a new situation and uses prior knowledge. Forward reaching transfer is the ability of individuals to anticipate future situations where they might need the knowledge and skills they are currently learning.

These are both aspects of high road transfer, defined by Salomon and Perkins (1989) as the ability to abstract from prior knowledge in order to see how what an individual has previously learned is applicable to a new and different situation.

Transfer and Outcomes

Telling students the outcomes for a writing project or course often isnt enough for students to understand their learning and opportunities for transfer. Outcomes are often designed with the instructor or assessor in mind, using field-specific vocabulary and terms. The language of outcomes might be very different than what students experienced in previous contexts or will need in future contexts, which can be a hindrance to students seeing opportunities for transfer.

Two Interventions
What can I do to help students understand the outcomes? What could I do to incorporate them more fully in class?

Two interventions: 1. Reflect/Project/Imagine activities to engage backward- and forward-reaching transfer 2. Student self-assessment of writing using rubrics

Jennys Inquiry 3 RPI Assignment is to complete research on a current public issue/controversy (conducting an annotated bibliography and synthesis paper), then write an argumentative/persuasive project (either an extended paper or two persuasive texts) to real audiences.

When asked if they found the RPI activities helpful at the midterm, students said. . .
16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 6 Strongly Disagree 9 Disagree 9 Slightly Disagree 14 Slighty Agree 3 Agree 1 Strongly Agree

After the semester, students said

Initially, I think it helps you to not get overwhelmed by the inquiry. But other than that, like I never looked back at them to see what strategies I would be using or after [completing the RPI] I didnt think about it at all (Colleen, personal interview)

 [The RPI] let you take some things from the previous work and it also lets you basically know what things youre going to have to work on for each assignment that you havent done yet (Adam, personal interview)

Students Self-Assessing using Rubrics

The rubrics became a place of dialogue between the students and myself. In their comments, students often restated the descriptions of the criterion without explaining how they had done so. Some students began to rephrase the descriptions, showing connections they were making between previous writing experiences and the current one. Even though students were asked to leave comments on all rubrics, many did not.

Gretchens Inquiry 1 Comments

Gretchens comments on her audience and purpose for her first assignment show her working through what it means to have an audience. We can also see connections being made between class discussions and her thinking about her project.

Adams Inquiry 1 Comments

Adams comments on his employment of audience and purpose shows he has a concrete idea of who his audience is, but he isnt thinking about the purpose of his inquiry.
However, he gives himself an average rating, which makes me believe he understandings having an audience is only part of the criterion.

 After the semester, Adam said he had completely messed up this first inquiry. Because of this, he explains how he used the RPI activities to reflect on previous rubrics, saying I remember going back and looking at my previous assignments, especially the first one because the first one I looked over, realized I really didnt like adapt to an audience at all (personal interview).

Implementation in Class
Some students might see RPI activities as busy work. . . But these activities can help students understand the assignment theyre working on and how they might already be prepared for writing it, making new assignments less confusing or intimidating.

What about rubrics?

It can take time for students to understand how to use a rubric. As one student put it, Looking at the rubric while writing really helped to keep my paper to stay focused on the analysis. It is a tool that I have neglected for a while but found it very beneficial for this paper and will use the rubric in papers to come (Evan, Inquiry 2 rubric). It might be helpful, however, to build in specific revision activities based off of the rubric ratings so that students dont simply fill them out and then move on, not thinking about them again.

Works Cited
Driscoll, Dana Lynn. (2011) Connected, disconnected, or uncertain: Student attitudes about future writing contexts and perceptions of transfer from first year writing to the disciplines. Across the disciplines, 8(2). Retrieved from http://wac.colostate.edu/atd/articles/driscoll2011/inde x.cfm Salomon, Gavriel and Perkins, David N. (1989) Rocky roads to transfer: Rethinking mechanisms of a neglected phenomenon. Educational psychologist, 24(2). pp. 113-142.