So, what did you LEARN last semester?

What do you know about picture composition? What is 3 point lighting? What does calibration mean? These are all questions I frequently find myself asking in my classes at Kutztown University in the Electronic Media program and more than not I am met with blank stares. Transfer of information for some students has NOT happened.
While I have been teaching for 19 years in higher ed., this concept of “transfer” has never been formally explained to me. Many higher ed. instructors and professors only have degrees in their subject areas with no coursework in education. Just because we know a lot about our subject, does not make us good teachers as was discussed in a previous blog. Our many years of teaching may make us aware of various issues in teaching and learning, but we have never been formally taught about how people learn.
This weeks reading material was a gold mine for me. In my department we are currently faced with a situation that involves transfer. Our courses and the order in which students take them, is based on the assumption that skills learned in the early classes will be built upon as students move through the curriculum. Currently, this is not happening. This is being contributed to instructors who teach the beginning level courses and are not covering the material. While that may be part of the problem, I contend that a larger part of the problem is with student transfer.
I am in a program that is technology and equipment based. While students are supposed to learn how to use specific pieces of equipment, they are also supposed to learn the concepts and processes that go into creation of quality video productions. Too often students are learning what buttons to push rather than the functions of the buttons. If they don’t learn the process in the beginning they misinterpret new information because their base knowledge is incorrect and effects positive transfer.
The Electronic Media program lends itself to hands-on learning. The faculty should practice methods of dynamic assessment to determine whether students are “getting” the concept and whether the transfer of information is happening and will continue to happen. Students should be asked to take one concept and apply it to a similar but different situation to see if transfer is actively occurring and knowledge is being applied.
The type of subject matter that we teach in the EM department lends itself to active learning and collaboration, which motivates learning and helps with transfer and the practice of applying what you have learned.

Perhaps if the faculty in my area at KU would have a crash course in “Learning and Transfer” and would employ some of the techniques that assist in successful transfer and learning we would see an increase in the success of our students and not have to re-teach essential skills semester after semester. We could become more active and involved teachers.

It has been a rough week.