Skills transfer to real life, job market critical in CBC rollout

Curriculum ought to be big on developing skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work. [Courtesy]

If you have ever wondered how a certain subject knowledge you acquired in school is really applicable and useful in real life, or questioned why you were made to study such a ‘useless subject,’ then this article is for you.

But first I hope we can all agree that an effective competency-based curriculum (CBC) ought to be big on developing skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work. Communication, creativity, critical thinking, collaboration; to state it simply, these are the four skills that students will need to be successful in the 21st century.  As the world evolves toward greater interconnectedness, it is our students to whom we entrust the responsibility of building a better global community.

Yes, these critical skills are essential. An individual’s ability to think outside the box, find future solutions to future problems, collaborate and reach a consensus across cultural and international borders. How these skills are transferred to the learner and how the learner applies them in the labour market and real life should be one of the key areas CBC should be placing premium on.

“Transfer of learning” is the term used to describe applying what one has learned in a particular situation to another in a different context. This kind of extension could take place during a school year within an individual class when applying what is learned about one problem to another, to different and future classes, to home situations, and to a workplace situation (now and in the future).

Researchers posit that the pressure of high-stakes standardised tests does not support or encourage teachers to prioritise reinforcing this practice. This is one of the areas where the 8-4-4 curriculum failed to address and is evident in our graduates.

You know a curriculum has failed, or needs a serious recalibration when its products (the graduates) wonder of what use some of its study areas/subject matter was. It’s common to hear Kenyans wonder why they ‘painstakingly’ studied say the mole concept, or calculous, etc, when they cannot aptly apply it in real life. It’s not that these study areas are useless, but it’s because we have gaps in our transfer skills, the application of it. We seem to have problems drawing connections between things, finding points of convergence. And that speaks, to some extent, of our critical thinking skills.

We want our students to be able to apply the knowledge and skills they learn to other challenges inside and outside of school. The goal of our curriculum is not to have students pass exams, but to be competent problem solvers, effective communicators, critical thinkers and lifelong learners. The goal of studying history, for instance, is not to memorise the dates of major battles, but to develop a broad historical perspective that they can apply to understanding the world around them today and in the future.

So how, exactly, can educators equip students to become more conscious of, and interested in, “transferring their learning” to more challenging and higher order thinking contexts? What can CBC borrow? How can we bridge the prevailing gaps evident and resultant of the outgoing curriculum?

There are a number of kinds of “transfer,” most notably ones categorised in a continuum as “near” and “far”. Near transfer tends to be focused on procedures or a routine where learned skills in one area are more easily applied consistently to a somewhat similar situation. For example, students might apply the essay writing skills they learn in English class to writing essays in Social Studies courses, or we apply much of what we learn about driving a car to driving a bus or a truck. You catch the drift?

As we move a little further on the continuum, once students studying history have learned about the Mau Mau war, for instance, they can begin to explore the similarities and differences between that event and clamour for independence in other countries and at other times. These kinds of near transfers are easier to encourage and have a higher likelihood of success than what’s at the other side of the continuum — far transfer.

In the more difficult area of far transfer, students use their judgment about applying their skills and knowledge from one context to a substantially different one. For example, a chess player might apply the strategies they have learned there to understanding and, perhaps, even running a political campaign. Or someone might learn about concepts related to wind flow from studying windmills and relate them to using a sail on a boat.

Many teachers operate under the assumption that transfer happens automatically and, in a number of cases, it does — using basic reading skills in multiple contexts is one example. However, studies show that many students have difficulties in applying knowledge they learned in one class to another, and to outside situations. How often in our own classes will students learn new words on a quiz or vocabulary review but not use them in their writing, or second language learners will know the grammatical conventions of a language, but are unable to use them in conversation?

Assuming automatic transfer of learning will more likely lead us to live out the old Chinese proverb: “people have to stand still for a long time with their mouths open before roast chickens will fly into them.” Transfer and application of skills will not happen magically. Educators must be deliberate in equipping learners with the requisite transfer skills.

Maximising initial experience

It should go without saying that in order for transfer to occur, students need to gain a good understanding of the concepts that we wish them to be able to apply to new problems. As Nobel Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman said, it’s “the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.” Memorising a list of facts or a list of procedures is unlikely to promote sufficient understanding of a concept for students to be able to apply it in a new situation.

When planning how best to help students gain this necessary good understanding of concepts, teachers might want to keep in mind the substantial research supporting instructional strategies like cooperative learning and inductive teaching, and the equally large amount of research questioning the effectiveness of a heavy emphasis on lecture and direct instruction.

Activate prior knowledge

One strategy that researchers suggest using in an effective initial learning experience to maximise transfer potential is building upon the knowledge students already bring to a topic, which can enhance the likelihood of developing a genuine understanding of concepts. In addition to relating a lesson to familiar contexts, it strengthens and models the idea of transfer. Memories with personal meaning are most likely to become long-term memories available for later retrieval.

Deliberate practice

The pressure to “cover” the syllabus, especially prior to annual standardised tests, does not encourage teachers to often create the time needed to create the necessary conditions for transfer to occur.  This time is needed for, among other things, students to utilise deliberate practice to increase understanding. This type of practice, which includes active monitoring of one’s learning and regular receiving feedback, is critical for maximising the possibility of transfer. There are many ways time could be used for deliberate practice that would enhance student understanding of concepts so that transfer could be promoted. For example, after students learn the qualities of a successful presentation, instead of giving one presentation in front of the entire class, they could give it multiple times in small groups with time for structured feedback from classmates and revision.

Explain in their own words

Another important use of time to promote greater understanding of key concepts is to have students explain in their own words — to others or to themselves— what they are learning. Substantial research has shown that not only does this type of explaining help students identify their incorrect assumptions, but it also helps them to generalise concepts for future applications.

Simulations

Simulations are especially recommended for promoting near transfer to similar future situations. They put students in the kinds of roles that they may very well find themselves in future. Students can role-play job interviews instead of just talking about appropriate interview responses and behaviour, or play different roles in complex racial or union-management negotiations. Student use of online computer simulations have also been found to have a positive effect on learning transfer.

Group learning

The National Academy of Sciences, a United States non-profit, non-governmental organisation, examined how school environments tend to compare to the settings in other aspects of everyday life. They found that schools are much more focused on individualised work than in most other non-school situations. For successful transfer to occur to non-classroom situations, they recommend that schools place a greater emphasis on shared learning. Another strategy for knowledge transfer is using an analogy or metaphor — we can use what was known previously and apply it to a new situation to make it better understood — such as comparing the functioning of the heart to a pump.

Extended learning, on the other hand, is an important part of school life, contributing to student progress and attainment. It plays a key role in extending the knowledge, understanding and skills that are developed in school and provides opportunities for students to consolidate, enrich and extend their learning. This is a programme that CBC implementers might want to consider applying in instruction to enhance the transfer and application of skills.

The question “why are we learning this?” is not a rare one in most teachers’ classrooms. We might find it arising less frequently in the future if we make “transfer of learning” a higher priority in our instructional efforts. These, perhaps, should be some of the key notes our educators should be taking in the implementation of CBC now that the teacher-training ship has sailed.