Chapter 15

1. Chapter 15 Transfer and Problem Solving

2. Chapter Overview • Transfer • Problem Solving • Facilitating Transfer and Problem Solving in the Classroom

3. Transfer • Transfer: when something you learn in one situation affects how you learn or perform in another situation • Transfer is an important concept for learning • If we did not transfer learning from one situation to another, then we would have to learn how to do everything from scratch

4. Transfer • Types of transfer • Positive vs. Negative transfer • Positive transfer: learning in one situation facilitates learning or performance in another situation • Example: Knowing how to add and subtract allows us to balance our checkbook • Negative transfer: learning in one situations hinders our learning or performance in another situation • Example: playing tennis well and playing racquetball poorly

5. Transfer • Types of transfer continued… • Vertical vs. Lateral transfer • Vertical transfer: An individual learns know knowledge or skills by building on basic, pre-requisite knowledge • Example: Learning to calculate mean and standard deviation before the t-test • Lateral transfer: Knowledge of a topic is not essential to learning a new topic, but helps somewhat • Example: Knowledge of French is not essential for learning Spanish, yet knowing French can facilitate learning Spanish

6. Transfer • Types of transfer • Specific vs. General transfer • Specific transfer: The original learning task and the transfer task overlap in content • Example: driving a car versus driving a truck • General transfer: The original task and the transfer task are different in content • Example: driving an automatic versus driving a standard

7. Transfer • Theories of transfer • Formal discipline • Early theory of transfer • Emphasized the importance of exercising the mind so that one can learn more quickly and deal with new situations; “mind as muscle” • Focused on general transfer • Not well-regarded

8. Transfer • Theories of transfer • Early Behaviorist – Thorndike’s Identical Elements: Transfer will occur only if the original and the transfer tasks have identical elements • Learning is facilitated because of the information, habits, interests , attitudes, and ideals that are produced when studying various topics

9. Transfer • Theories of transfer • Later Behaviorist – Similarity of Stimuli and Responses: • When stimuli and responses are similar in 2 situations, transfer will occur • When stimuli are different and responses are similar, some positive transfer will occur • When stimuli are similar and responses are different, negative transfer will occur

10. Transfer • Theories of transfer • Information processing perspective: Transfer requires the individual to retrieve the stored information and skills at the appropriate time so that transfer can take place • Retrieval cues determine what relevant knowledge, if any, will be retrieved • The more closely associated a transfer event is to one that is stored, the more likely it is that transfer will take place

11. Transfer • Theories of transfer • Contextual perspective – situated learning: Learning should take place in the context in which it will be used later • Skills don’t necessarily transfer from school to life, classroom to classroom, etc. • We find it hard to compute a 15% tip on a restaurant bill • To facilitate transfer, we should teach for transfer

12. Transfer • Factors affecting transfer • Meaningful learning promotes better transfer than rote learning • The more thoroughly something is learned, the more likely it is to be transferred • The more similar two situations are, the more likely it is that transfer will take place • Principles are more easily transferred than knowledge • Numerous and varied opportunities for practice increase the likelihood of transfer • Time is not a friend to transfer

13. Problem Solving • Problem solving is a complex activity in which we engage every day • Some problems are easy and familiar, others are more difficult

14. Problem Solving • Basic concepts in problem solving • Components of a problem • Givens: information that is provided when the problem is presented • Goal: the desired end or goal state • Operations: the actions that are performed to reach the goal

15. Problem Solving • Basic concepts in problem solving • Algorithms and heuristics • Algorithm: Specific, step-by-step procedures for solving a problem that will lead to the correct answer • Heuristic: general rule of thumb that may lead to the correct answer

16. Problem Solving • Basic concepts in problem solving • Well-defined versus ill-defined problems • Well-defined problems: givens, operations, and goals are stated and understood; most research has focused on this type of problem • Ill-defined problems: givens, operations, and/or goals are unknown or unclear; most real-life problem solving is ill-defined

17. Problem Solving • Theories of problem solving • Trial-and-error learning • Problem solving that is characterized by mostly unfocused exploration for a possible solution • Works only if there are a limited number of possibilities to be tried • Young children use this approach

18. Problem Solving • Theories of problem solving • Response hierarchy: An individual tries out a set of responses to a stimulus based on the degree of habit strength; the organism basically runs through his/her repertoire of responses to a stimulus to see which one works

19. Problem Solving • Theories of problem solving • Gestalt psychology: problem solving requires insight, which allows for a restructuring of the problem situation – not well supported; insight is not always necessary for problem solving

20. Problem Solving • Theories of problem solving • Stages: Cognitive approach to explaining problem solving • Preparation: gather information about the problem and its solution • Incubation: think about the problem while engaging in other activities • Inspiration: insight • Verification: check to make sure the solution is correct

21. Problem Solving • Theories of problem solving • Information processing theory: emphasizes the role of working memory capacity, meaningful learning, organization of LTM, retrieval, and strategies • More on this in the next section…

22. Problem Solving • Cognitive factors in problem solving • Working memory capacity: working memory is limited; we can overcome this limitation by storing information externally (write it down) and by using automatic skills

23. Problem Solving • Cognitive factors in problem solving • Encoding and storage of the problem: Sometimes we perceive and encode the problem situation incorrectly • St. Ives example in book, p. 363 • A critical factor is knowing what information is important/irrelevant and encoding it in the correct way (see birds and worms example on page 364) • Experts and novices in a particular domain classify, encode, and store problems in different ways

24. Problem Solving • Cognitive factors in problem solving • Mental sets in encoding: the tendency to approach and encode problems in similar ways • See examples on page 367 • In most cases this facilitates problem solving; occasionally it hinders our ability to solve a problem

25. Problem Solving • Cognitive factors in problem solving • Functional fixedness • We think of objects as having only one function; this causes us to overlook other possible uses, which can hinder problem solving • Functional fixedness and mental set are the result of past experience

26. Problem Solving • Cognitive factors in problem solving • Retrieval from LTM: as you are thinking about a problem, you must be able to retrieve relevant information at the same time so that you can solve it • We start searching logical places; problem cues can help us search for the correct information; anagram example • Anxiety interferes with our ability to retrieve information

27. Problem Solving • Cognitive factors in problem solving • Knowledge base • Expert problem solvers have a more complete and better organized knowledge base for the problems in their area of expertise • They also have more interconnections among that information • Novices lack the knowledge base and are likely to engage in ineffective problem solving strategies

28. Problem Solving • Cognitive factors in problem solving • Metacognition • Successful problem solvers must • Believe they can solve the problem • Know which strategies to use • Plan a course of action • Understand that the problem may take time and effort • Monitor progress

29. Problem Solving • Problem solving strategies • Combining algorithms • Putting together several algorithms, as is done in higher-level mathematics, is often needed • Difficult to use

30. Problem Solving • Problem solving strategies • Hill climbing: a strategy in which individuals engage in activities that will bring them closer to the goal state • It usually leads to the correct solution; can be difficult if part of the problem solution requires a step backwards

31. Problem Solving • Problem solving strategies • Means-ends analysis • The problem solver breaks the original problem into subgoals and works successively on each subgoal until the overall goal is met • Often used • A problem is that the use of subgoals can allow us to forget the overall goal • The Tower of Hanoi problem often is used to demonstrate this strategy

32. Problem solving • Problem solving strategies • Working backwards: begin at the goal state and work your way backward to the beginning • Example: geometry proofs

33. Problem Solving • Problem solving strategies • Drawing analogies: draw an analogy between a problem situation and another situation to give you some insight into the correct solution • Gick & Holyoak (1980) study on page 375 and in handout • Doesn’t always work; we often have to be told to generate an analogy; also, we may draw inappropriate parallels

34. Problem Solving • Problem solving strategies • Representativeness and availability • Representativeness: we jump to a conclusion about a solution based on obvious characteristics of the problem • Availability: a problem is solved based only on information that comes to mind immediately

35. Problem Solving • Meaningful versus meaningless problem solving • If you learn an algorithm at a rote level, you may overlook important information that is meaningful to the problem solution

36. Facilitating Transfer and Problem Solving • Students need to learn information meaningfully and thoroughly • Problem solving strategies should be learned at a meaningful level • One must have a mental set for transfer • Prerequisite skills should be practiced to mastery so that they become automatic • Numerous and varied opportunities for practicing transfer and problem solving should be provided

37. Facilitating Transfer and Problem Solving • Students should practice identifying problems on their own • Differences between ideas should be emphasized in an effort to minimize negative transfer • Allow students to learn problem solving skills through discovery • Teach general learning and problem-solving skills

38. Facilitating Transfer and Problem Solving • Students should learn strategies for defining ill-defined problems • Scaffold students’ early attempts to solve a problem • Cooperative group problem solving can facilitate the development of effective problem solving strategies • Classroom evaluation should measure transfer and problem solving

39. THE END!!!