Improving Learning Transfer

Improving Learning Transfer in Organizations features contributions from leading experts in the field learning transfer, and offers the most current information, ideas, and theories on the topic and aptly illustrates how to put transfer systems into action. In this book, the authors move beyond explanation to intervention by contributing their most recent thinking on how best to intervene in organizational contexts to influence the transfer of learning. Written for chief learning officers, training and development practitioners, management development professionals, and human resource management practitioners, this important volume shows how to create systems that ensure employees are getting and retaining the information, skills, and knowledge necessary to accomplish tasks on the job. Improving Learning Transfer in Organizations addresses learning transfer on both the individual and organizational level. This volume shows how to diagnose learning transfer systems, create a transfer-ready profile, and assess and place employees to maximize transfer. The book includes information on how to determine what process should be followed to design an organization-specific learning transfer system intervention. The authors focus on the actual learning process and show how to use front-end analysis to avoid transfer problems. In addition, they outline the issues associated with such popular work-based learning initiatives as action learning and communities of practice, and they also present applications on learning transfer within e-learning and team training contexts.

Cyril Kirwan's book addresses this critical issue at a number of levels. Firstly, it explores what learning transfer actually is (it's about application of learning back at work, as well as maintenance of that learning over time). Secondly, it describes the main factors that affect transfer, in terms of trainee characteristics, training design factors, and work environment characteristics. It also examines how those factors exert their effect, which ones are more important, how they interact with one another, and in doing so constructs a practical learning transfer model for practitioners. The book also describes in some detail what the various factors working for or against learning transfer look like in practice. Finally, using case studies, it points the way towards what can be done before, during and after training to improve the rate of transfer.

In today's constantly changing business environment, capable people are crucial to an organization's success, and developing their capabilities through training, learning and development initiatives is a major investment. While measuring the return on that investment is important, attempts to do so are much less valuable if they are not accompanied by a clear understanding of all of the factors than can affect the application of new skills and knowledge on the job - in other words, a clear understanding of what affects learning transfer. So, if organisations are to remain competitive, and develop the highly skilled people that will contribute to their future performance, improving learning transfer should be a priority. Cyril Kirwan's book addresses this critical issue at a number of levels. Firstly, it explores what learning transfer actually is (it's about application of learning back at work, as well as maintenance of that learning over time). Secondly, it describes the main factors that affect transfer, in terms of trainee characteristics, training design factors, and work environment characteristics. It also examines how those factors exert their effect, which ones are more important, how they interact with one another, and in doing so constructs a practical learning transfer model for practitioners. The book also describes in some detail what the various factors working for or against learning transfer look like in practice. Finally, using case studies, it points the way towards what can be done before, during and after training to improve the rate of transfer. This highly practical book will help trainers, development specialists and line managers ensure that their training is about real outcomes and not just inputs.

First released in the Spring of 1999, How People Learn has been expanded to show how the theories and insights from the original book can translate into actions and practice, now making a real connection between classroom activities and learning behavior. This edition includes far-reaching suggestions for research that could increase the impact that classroom teaching has on actual learning. Like the original edition, this book offers exciting new research about the mind and the brain that provides answers to a number of compelling questions. When do infants begin to learn? How do experts learn and how is this different from non-experts? What can teachers and schools do-with curricula, classroom settings, and teaching methodsâ€"to help children learn most effectively? New evidence from many branches of science has significantly added to our understanding of what it means to know, from the neural processes that occur during learning to the influence of culture on what people see and absorb. How People Learn examines these findings and their implications for what we teach, how we teach it, and how we assess what our children learn. The book uses exemplary teaching to illustrate how approaches based on what we now know result in in-depth learning. This new knowledge calls into question concepts and practices firmly entrenched in our current education system. Topics include: How learning actually changes the physical structure of the brain. How existing knowledge affects what people notice and how they learn. What the thought processes of experts tell us about how to teach. The amazing learning potential of infants. The relationship of classroom learning and everyday settings of community and workplace. Learning needs and opportunities for teachers. A realistic look at the role of technology in education.

Improve learning transfer in your organisation with this book which provides a step-by-step methodology for facilitating genuine behavioural change and accountability back in the workplace.

In today's constantly changing business environment, capable people are crucial to an organization's success, and developing their capabilities through training, learning and development initiatives is a major investment. While measuring the return on that investment is important, attempts to do so are much less valuable if they are not accompanied by a clear understanding of all of the factors than can affect the application of new skills and knowledge on the job - in other words, a clear understanding of what affects learning transfer. So, if organisations are to remain competitive, and develop the highly skilled people that will contribute to their future performance, improving learning transfer should be a priority. Cyril Kirwan's book addresses this critical issue at a number of levels. Firstly, it explores what learning transfer actually is (it's about application of learning back at work, as well as maintenance of that learning over time). Secondly, it describes the main factors that affect transfer, in terms of trainee characteristics, training design factors, and work environment characteristics. It also examines how those factors exert their effect, which ones are more important, how they interact with one another, and in doing so constructs a practical learning transfer model for practitioners. The book also describes in some detail what the various factors working for or against learning transfer look like in practice. Finally, using case studies, it points the way towards what can be done before, during and after training to improve the rate of transfer. This highly practical book will help trainers, development specialists and line managers ensure that their training is about real outcomes and not just inputs.

"It is a pleasure to have a full length treatise on this most important topic, and may this focus on transfer become much more debated, taught, and valued in our schools." - John Hattie Teach students to use their learning to unlock new situations. How do you prepare your students for a future that you can’t see? And how do you do it without exhausting yourself? Teachers need a framework that allows them to keep pace with our rapidly changing world without having to overhaul everything they do. Learning That Transfers empowers teachers and curriculum designers alike to harness the critical concepts of traditional disciplines while building students’ capacity to navigate, interpret, and transfer their learning to solve novel and complex modern problems. Using a backwards design approach, this hands-on guide walks teachers step-by-step through the process of identifying curricular goals, establishing assessment targets, and planning curriculum and instruction that facilitates the transfer of learning to new and challenging situations. Key features include Thinking prompts to spur reflection and inform curricular planning and design. Next-day strategies that offer tips for practical, immediate action in the classroom. Design steps that outline critical moments in creating curriculum for learning that transfers. Links to case studies, discipline-specific examples, and podcast interviews with educators. A companion website that hosts templates, planning guides, and flexible options for adapting current curriculum documents. Using a framework that combines standards and the best available research on how we learn, design curriculum and instruction that prepares your students to meet the challenges of an uncertain future, while addressing the unique needs of your school community.

In Teaching for Transfer: A Guide for Designing Learning With Real-World Application, author Michael McDowell provides K-12 teachers with a road map for reconfiguring classroom instruction to ensure that students learn to expertly apply their knowledge and skills to different contexts, or to engage in transfer-level work. McDowell outlines the three levels of complexity in learning-(1) surface, (2) deep, and (3) transfer-and explains that while the foundational levels of surface and deep are essential and allow students to understand and relate ideas, transfer is key, as it involves the interdisciplinary problem solving students need to practice to become creative, well-rounded citizens who can meet and overcome unexpected challenges. Offering ample research, concrete strategies, grade-level examples, and end-of-chapter next steps and reflection questions, McDowell demonstrates the importance of transfer-level learning and the means by which readers can support this skill development in their students.

This text addresses the problem of how our past or current learning influences, is generalised and is applied or adapted to similar or new situations. It illustrates how transfer of learning can be promoted in the classroom and everyday life.

The book addresses a crucial issue for all involved in education and training: the transfer of learning to new and different contexts. Educators, employers and learners face the problem of ensuring that what is learnt in the classroom is able to be adapted and used in the workplace. It focuses on adult learners in professional and vocational contexts. The authors provide an accessible book on the transfer of learning which draws on multi-disciplinary perspectives from education, psychology and management. The Transfer of Learning will be useful both for postgraduate students and for practitioners wanting to deepen their understanding of transfer and for those interested in practical applications. It combines theory and practice from international research and the authors' own case studies of transfer involving learners engaged in professional development and study towards qualifications. Theories of adult learning, change and lifelong learning are discussed in relation to the transfer of learning. The purpose of this book is to emphasise to tertiary educators and trainers the importance of transfer and in doing so highlight the participants' voices as central foci in coming to an understanding of the process. By doing this it balances the literature which has to date emphasized transfer from a trainer's and/or organization's perspective. There has been little if any substantive material on tertiary transfer issues and yet demands are increasing for tertiary education providers to be more accountable and more focused on developing students' ability to use their learning in everyday work situations. The book is unique in that it adopts a phenomenological perspective and underscores the significance of the participants' voices in understanding issues.