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"Transfer of learning is concerned with the extent to which people actually apply
what they learn. It is an interesting area because it is easy to assume that the
progression is always strictly logical. We take the course and then we find out if we
can transfer the new knowledge. This is a bit misleading. What seems to happen is
that people evaluate the course while they are in it by asking whether the
knowledge they are gaining will be of any use to them once the course is over"(St. Clair,2015, pg.170).

This quote resonated with me because many adult learners take courses to become experts in the area being taught to later transfer that knowledge.
I am currently taking this course to learn more about facilitation within the adult education sector because I plan to continue my career journey in the field.

Challenge:

However, there are other learners who might not feel the same and might ask questions about the utility of the course, they might ask questions like: how will I use this knowledge or will it be useful in my career?

As adult educators, we have to be ready to answer those questions and at the same time guide our students to find the answer themselves. In my opinion this might be a challenge if the facilitator is not ready or prepared to handle those scenarios appropriately.

Reference:

St. Clair, R. (2015). Creating courses for adults: Design for learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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“But we educators can do a number of things to increase the likelihood that the knowledge we create in our programs both is useful and will be used. If learners decide that they are not going to adopt the ways of thinking and acting that we explain in our teaching, there is not a lot we can do about it.”

This chapter inspired me to review my courses in the Fall and look for ways that I am encouraging transfer. Fortunately, the courses I teach are easily extrapolated to the professional environment. With the knowledge gained in this chapter, I would like to ensure that I provide a concrete link to exactly how it can be transferred. The quote above stood out to me because, over the last few years, I have poured a lot of time, energy, and heart into my teaching practices and I will continue to do so with all the practical information gained in this course. However, I know that I tend to look inward when the intended outcome is not achieved. This quote is a good reminder that as an educator, I will do all I can to provide the best learning experience, but some things are out of my control.

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Quote: “For many educational programs working with adults, transfer of learning is the most important outcome. The whole point of the enterprise is that participants will take what they have learned in the course and apply it” (St. Clair, 2015, p.168).

This quote resonates as the participants are aiming to achieve higher education in a post-secondary institute, my role as a student advisor witnesses learning transfer on a daily basis. The goal is to have students understand the resources and support available and students actually receive the services. In order for this to happen, they need to be able to apply the skills and knowledge learned in the orientation sessions and presented materials. Throughout their academic school year, the student advisors continuously provide assistance and guidance to ensure students fully take advantage of the services to maximize their learning experience.

St. Clair, R. (2015). Creating courses for adults: Design for learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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“Transfer is often the most important demonstration of the value of our programs. By showing that people have a new way to do things, that they have added a new string to their bow, we can’t argue that they have increased capacity. This concept, this argument, is a powerful and effective way to capture the value of much of our work” (St. Clair, p.169).

As an educator, the challenge in learning transfer often reflects the pre-existing and external barriers to learning in the classroom. For simplicities sake, I will capture that as resistance: we can do our best to overcome that in design, but ultimately the learning transfer can only be measured by figuring out what came through despite the obstacles. So, measurement to gauge transfer can only demonstrate that a learner captured something, but the goal of transfer should be bigger: did the lesson resonate? Did the student get something they can apply to their arsenal of knowledge that may serve them in a larger way than the lesson intended? isn’t the actual truth of transfer in resonance? This quote spoke to that concept for me.

St. Clair, R. (2015). Creating courses for adults: Design for learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, pp. 167-192

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“To some extent, people will always take what they need or want from classes, and our job is to provide a range of knowledge that may be more or less useful for each learner” (St. Clair, 2015, pg. 170).

This quote specifically resonated with me because of my experience in teaching pharmacy assistant students. After completion of the program, some students will go on to work in compounding, some in retail, some in hospitals and some even in sales. Knowing this I have to ensure that a wide range of specialties are addressed throughout my facilitation. This also largely affects participation in these areas which can serve as a challenge for the instructor to ensure each student is getting the most out of the class. I find that a solution to this problem is to insert group work and experiential learning as much as I can, this more or less forces students to engage with the content and each other. When students are asked to work together or perform some part of what they have learned they are becoming masters of the content and can more easily transfer those skills to a real world work environment in the future.

St. Clair, R. (2015). Creating courses for adults: Design for learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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“When we think about transfer of learning, we are really trying to think about ways to make the wall between the classroom and real life more transparent and porous. Ideally, we want learners to gain knowledge that they can see the use for, that recognizes the context of their lives outside the classroom and links the course content to that context” (St. Clair, 2015, p. 202).

This quote resonated with me, highlighting the importance of making real-world connections when teaching. When you take the walls out of the classroom, students can see that there is a connection between what they’re learning and what is happening in the real world. I want them to realize that it’s not just incidental learning and that what I am teaching are things they will be able to use throughout their life.

Promoting transfer of learning in the classroom involves helping students apply their knowledge and skills to new and unfamiliar situations. For example, scaffolding learning, providing real-world examples, fostering critical thinking, promoting active learning, and encouraging reflection. Lastly, offering timely and constructive feedback to students, highlighting how they can transfer their learning to different contexts, is also beneficial. This feedback helps them understand how to apply their knowledge and skills in various situations.

St. Clair, R. (2015). Creating courses for adults: Design for learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Ch. 9, You Can Take it With You!, pp. 167-182.

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Quote: “by showing that people have a new way to do things, that they have added a new string to their bow, we can argue that they have increased capacity” (St. Clair, 2015, p. 169).

The challenge I chose is, this fall I will be venturing down a path more specific to dental hygiene and away from my typical nursing program teaching.  I was asked to take a core theory course closely following a lab course.  When I read the quote above, I immediately thought that I will be adding a new string to my bow.  I have never in my lifetime thought I would be taking on such a large and important course in the dental program and with that, I have varying degrees of emotions.  My focus will be those strings that I have already earned in my bow.  I have taught a theory/lab component multiple times in other programs, I have experience both in teaching and practice and I have a strong support system.  I want to rise up to this challenge and think of some innovative activities that will cut the dryness of the content.  With the knowledge I have learned in this course, I want to really review the set objectives, assignments etc. to really ensure my delivery is well suited for the course content.
As an educator I want to help students earn a string or two in their bow! I want to ensure my objectives align well with the learners requirements to facilitate this. I value education so highly, I hope that even my enthusiasm for learning will transfer to the learners.

St. Clair (2015). Creating courses for adults: Design for learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

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The quote that resonated with me from St. Clair (2015) is "Following from the earlier discussion of the need for adults to have a reason to learn something, it perhaps is not surprising that they are also more likely to transfer what they learn if they come into the course with the expectation that it will help them with a problem.  The other side, of course is that if they are present without believing there is any real reason to be there, the transfer of learning will be far more limited.  It makes sense that if people are not motivated to learn they will not have anything to apply."

I can see this being true in the course I am currently teaching which is an apprenticeship program for early childhood education.  My students work in childcare centres, and some of them have worked in them for 15+ years.  I think they want to be there because they want the diploma...but not all of them are there because they want to learn new material.  Perhaps they think they already know the field so well that there is nothing new to learn.  I notice a big difference between this cohort of students and the younger, first year traditional ECE students who view everything as new and innovative.

The struggle as an instructor is to keep the students engaged and try to instill excitement and new ideas in them which they can take back to their classrooms.

One way I do this is in the creative expressions class I am currently teaching is to have them do a new creative activity every class.  They are engaged in the activity and the hope is that by having them be engaged with the activity and also discussing the benefits of the activity, that they will get excited and maybe implement something new.

The feedback I have gotten from class is that some of them are absorbing what they are learning and are taking it back to their classrooms, and some are saying that change is too difficult.  I struggle with what to say to those students who are hesitant of the transfer of learning and curious if anyone has any ideas as to how I can motivate them more?

St. Clair, R. (2015). Creating courses for adults: Design for learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. (pp167-182).

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“The degree to which the course response to learner needs and interest in the here and now affects the degree to which the course will have a longer-term impact on the participants”.

As we know, one of the characteristics of adult learners is their readiness to learn and generally, adult learners seek education to resolve real-life issues they are facing. When the learning content is closely aligned to their individual needs and preference, their motivation will increase accordingly, and thus engagement and knowledge retention will increase. Consequently, as St. Clair (2015) indicated above, this increased engagement and retention will have a positive, long term impact on the individual.

As a strategy, it is important as a facilitator, to ensure that my objectives align with the needs of the learner audience. Furthermore, just as it is important to outline how the learning content will positively impact the learners in addressing their current challenges, I can articulate how the course outcomes will have a long-term impact. As an example, I was once enrolled in a “Toast Masters” class, to help me build skills and knowledge in public speaking. This helped me to build the skills I needed to succeed in my role as an ambassador at an agricultural fair. However, years later, those same skills have been transferred to new situations and contexts and have continued to benefit me. If I hadn’t had a specific need or motivation to learn, my engagement in the ‘Toast Masters’ club would have been reduced, and I would have been less motivated to acquire the skills successfully. Whether in the short- or long term, any educational experience that does not engage its participants is unlikely to be successful in meeting the anticipated learning outcomes

St., Clair, Ralf. Creating Courses for Adults : Design for Learning, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.proxy.library.brocku.ca/lib/brocku/detail.action?docID=1895573.

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The quote I have chosen is the following: “The point is that changes in the way we do things are rarely easy and rarely affect only ourselves; they have to fit with our environment in some way” (St. Clair, 2015 p. 171).

This represents both a challenge and a strategy in a way. Looking through a facilitator’s lens, the challenge of the environment itself plays a big role in how learning is transferred and applied. In some situations, the organizational culture or team environment may not be conducive to implement any new skills or knowledge transfer; a toxic team can sabotage knowledge transfer from a senior employee to a rookie employee. Tossing a new idea or person into the mix of learning a new task could shake up how the team runs. On the other hand, challenging a learner to change the way they do their tasks or learning a new program allows the environment to align to potential values or mission a organization is moving towards – by bringing a facilitator in, it can help ease knowledge transfer or help the environment and the learner adapt and become aligned. It can also allow the individual to seek support from others and build that comradery the organization might be needed.

As a future facilitator, I need to consider the environment and the material I am teaching. I can simply do a needs analysis or evaluate and build facilitation plans around several themes the learners and management see. Sometimes the facilitator and learner need to come together to create a strategy in how learning can change an environment and make it easier for us in our day-to-day life. The change that is effective is learning – and this might be hard for some folks to accept. They may have been doing things for so long a certain way and believing that way to be true, but in reality, it might not be. My role as a facilitator should be a thought provoking and engaging one, allowing learners to understand different perspectives.

St. Clair, R. (2015). Creating courses for adults: Design for learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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The quote: "The need for adults to have a reason to learn something. It perhaps is not surprising that they are more likely to transfer what they learn if they come into the course with the expectation that it will help them with a problem" (St. Clair, 2015, p. 171).

Knowles (2012) argues that when adults encounter problems, they seek knowledge as solutions to those problems. This idea is further supported by research conducted by St. Clair which shows that adult learners are more likely to apply what they learn when they understand the relevance of the knowledge. A purposeful learning environment that transfers to real-life applications is crucial for adult learners. As a motorcycle training instructor, for example, I will continue to provide real-world examples to illustrate how the concepts in the curriculum taught can be applied to the road, helping adult learners transfer their knowledge to the road. After reading the quote, it affirmed what I had already experienced from teaching. Learning with a purpose motivates adults and sets an expectation to gain skills that are transferable.

Knowles, M. S., Holton, I. E. F., & Swanson, R. A. (2012). Adult learner. Taylor & Francis Group.

St. Clair, R. (2015). Creating courses for adults: Design for learning. Jossey-Bass.

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"the need for adults to have a reason to learn something, it perhaps is not surprising that they are also more likely to transfer what they learn if they come into the course with the expectation that it will help them with a problem" (St. Clair, 2015, p. 171).

I want to discuss a strategy for transferring my learning, specifically with adult education.
As I progress in this program, my next course will be curriculum design for adult learners. My long-term goal is to be a professor in the dental hygiene program. Reading this quote and thinking about my next learning journey, I can reflect on the importance of considering real-world problems that dental professionals face. For example, dental hygienists must know how to identify and treat different diseases, manage clients with dental anxiety, and work with clients from diverse backgrounds.
As I begin my next course on designing a curriculum, I plan to take what I learn and think of it from a dental hygiene perspective, thinking of developing a curriculum that focuses on real-world issues. Doing so will allow adult learners to develop the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in their careers. After all, a learning transfer occurs best when adult learners can think about how it relates to past knowledge and helps to remember new information better and apply it in different situations.

St. Clair, R. (2015). Creating courses for adults: Design for learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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I am currently taking a conflict resolution course.

The quote I have chosen is “building opportunities to work with learners in designing the course… helping the educator start from problems that learners see as important. Any strategy that can tie the course back to the real-life concerns of learners is likely to make transfer more probable and more substantial” (St. Clair, 2015, p. 172)

The instructor for the course I am taking had us share some past situations of conflict during the first few weeks of the course. As the course moved forward she would have us refer back to those situations of conflict so we could relate our new learning to them. She also encouraged us to apply the skills we were learning each week to situations that came up during our week so we could have some “hands-on” practice and be able to discuss how the strategies were going in a real life situation.

I personally have found this helpful at times but I have struggled to put my learning into context if I do not have anything going on conflict-wise that week. I am not sure how effective my learning transfer will be for this course because I do not have a lot of conflict situations in my life so I feel that by the time I have something come up, I will have forgotten all of the negotiation steps and will revert back to my typical means of conflict resolution.

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Quote: "The educator should never lose sight of the key role that participants play in making transfer of learning happen...by raising learners’ awareness of application and its challenges, educators can make the issue explicit and get ideas from the people who are most likely to know how to make it work" (St. Clair, 2015, p. 178).

Perspective: Facilitator

Challenge: Overcoming the Application Gap

Strategy: Leveraging Participants' Knowledge and Ideas

In the process of transferring learning from employee onboarding and orientation sessions to practical application, one significant challenge that facilitators often encounter is the "application gap." This refers to learners' difficulty in effectively applying their newly acquired knowledge and skills in real-world scenarios. Participants may struggle to bridge the gap between theory and practice, hindering the full realization of the learning objectives.

To address this challenge, facilitators should never lose sight of participants' key role in making the transfer of learning happen. By acknowledging and actively involving participants in the learning process, educators can raise their awareness of the application challenge and encourage them to contribute their ideas and insights.

In the context of employee onboarding and orientation sessions, facilitators can leverage participants' knowledge and ideas to enhance the transfer of learning. This involves creating opportunities for dialogue and collaboration, where participants can share their experiences, perspectives, and potential solutions related to applying the newly acquired knowledge in their roles.

Through open discussions, group activities, and case studies, facilitators can engage participants in reflecting on their challenges in applying what they have learned. By doing so, facilitators make the application issue explicit and tap into the collective wisdom of the participants, who are most likely to have valuable insights on how to make the learning work in their specific contexts.

By actively involving participants and soliciting their ideas, facilitators create a supportive and collaborative learning environment, fostering a sense of ownership and empowerment among the learners. This strategy not only enhances the transfer of learning but also cultivates a culture of continuous improvement and knowledge sharing within the organization.

To summarize, the quote emphasizes the significance of involving participants in the transfer of learning. Facilitators can overcome the application gap and ensure effective application of knowledge and skills in real-world situations by making learners aware of the application challenge and asking for their ideas.

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Learners as Catalysts: Empowering Transfer of Learning- Mikayla

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Learners as Catalysts: Empowering Transfer of Learning- Mikayla

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"We should never forget that the people who actually do the work of making learning transfer happen are the learners" (St. Clair, 2015, pp. 176).

This quote emphasizes the active role of learners in the process of learning transfer. It highlights the idea that learners play a crucial role in applying and utilizing the knowledge and skills they have acquired in real-life situations. As a response to the statement, I agree that the learners themselves are the key drivers of learning transfer.

In considering the quote and reflecting on the perspective of the facilitator or instructor, it is important to recognize that while facilitators can design and create opportunities for transfer of learning, it ultimately lies with the learners to take ownership and responsibility for applying what they have learned in their own contexts.

As a facilitator, one strategy to support and empower learners in making learning transfer happen is to foster a learner-centered approach. This involves creating an environment that encourages active engagement, critical thinking, and reflection. By providing opportunities for learners to connect the learning content to their own experiences and contexts, they can take an active role in identifying how the knowledge and skills can be applied in their specific situations. Facilitators can also promote self-directed learning and metacognitive strategies. By helping learners develop skills in self-assessment, goal setting, and planning, they can become more effective at identifying transfer opportunities and implementing their learning in practical settings. Facilitators can guide learners in setting clear objectives for themselves, creating action plans, and monitoring their progress.

St. Clair, R. (2015). Creating courses for adults: Design for learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Ch. 9, You Can Take it With You!, pp. 167-182.

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QUOTE: "it can enhance your teaching and its longer-term effects a great deal if you can find a way to learn something about the likely perceptions beforehand, while you are designing the course" (St. Clair, 2015, p. 177)

This quote represents a strategy for improving the transfer of learning for my future students. This quote emphasizes that an educator should understand the perspectives and goals of the learners while developing your course design. This way the course better reflects student perspectives and expectations. In the text they give an example of the software designer where the educator finds out after that the real perceived problem is not what their workshop had focused on at all. Getting the learner perspective can result in increased engagement and motivation and therefore increased transfer of learning. I think this is something I don’t often consider but makes sense in that I should be including the learners in the educational process.

St. Clair, R. (2015). Creating courses for adults: Design for learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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One way to arrange teaching to recognize the potential value of isomorphism is to tie teaching very strongly to the concrete skills and tasks that you hope people can manage by the end of the course. (St. Clair, 2015, p. 172)

As an instructor and tester of paramedics, it is imperative that the skills they are taught and learn in the classroom can be transferred to the field. There is a large series of skills that we must learn and the adage of “jack of all trades, master of none” applies to us very strongly.

St. Clair says isomorphism means we try and learn something in as close an environment in which we apply it. My job to create an emergency setting here, by raising the stress and expecting participants to perform all their applied skills without half-doing them. The challenge that I face as an instructor is creating an environment that would be as close to reality as possible without being in the field constantly. The skills need to be transferred and being able to do assessments, able to perform skills but most importantly answer the questions of why and what. Why are we doing these assessments and what do they mean. If we are simply doing assessments whether physical exams or using equipment to do assessment without a purpose, it is just a finding without a purpose if it doesn’t affect our treatment. We try and force people to work in teams, allows them to function as they would on a real call, adding standardized patients to help them question as they normally would and go through a full assessment without any restrictions.

St. Clair, R. (2015). Creating courses for adults: Design for learning. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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The quote

“The degree to which the course responds to learner needs and interests in the here and now affects the degree to which the course will have a longer-term impact on the participants” (St.Clair, 2015, p. 177).

My context

I teach subjects related to gender diversity and identity at the college level. There are challenges to learning transfer for many reasons that St.Clair (2015) writes about. One is that the learners may not feel they have much to learn or that these topics don’t relate to their work as community and justice workers or even their lives. Of course, we all have a gender and ways of expressing our genders, and we are all, to varying degrees, impacted by societal forces such as sexism and gender-based stereotypes. Making these connections clear to learners is needed to get buy-in and impact learning transfer.

How to address these issues to increase learning transfer

Taking a developmental perspective (Teaching Perspectives Inventory, 2020) would mean integrating opportunities for learners to develop their potential to learn. In this case, Enabling students to hone their critical thinking and media literacy skills is imperative. Many powerful forces at play create the society we live in. We can’t ask students to consider their values and beliefs (and eventually behaviors at work) without taking an intersectional, relational, and evidence-based approach to learning. Creating an activity where students critically consider messages about gender roles and stereotypes rooted in sexism and gender identities could be a good first start. Even better would be asking them to collect and share examples to initiate discussion and reflection. This would incorporate a suggestion from St. Clair (2015) that learners be encouraged to work together to build transfer strategies. Doing so recognizes their expertise and brings them into the course planning. This could look like learner-generated scenarios or learners collecting instances they see of sexism or gender identity misinformation in the media and bringing them to class to use as part of an activity.

I'm looking forward to reading how my group mates answer these questions!

St Clair, R. (2015). Creating Courses for Adults: Design for Learning. John Wiley & Sons.

Teaching Perspectives Inventory. (2020). Retrieved July 2, 2023, from http://www.teachingperspectives.com/tpi/