With the transition from online to in-person learning this fall, help students transfer their knowledge and skills by using expansive framing. Transfer is more difficult when the content and the learning context (both physical and social ones) change, You may find your students struggling to transfer what they learned online. Help students in your course apply appropriate prior knowledge from their online courses by creating links between your classroom and other contexts.
Five aspects of the learning context can be bridged with expansive framing: setting, time, place, participants, and roles. When framing expansively with setting, do not have students recall material from their classroom or Zoom context. Instead, ask students to “specify other settings in which the content has, are, or will be likely to come up in their lives” (Engle et al, 2011). Mapping content to students’ lives, rather than courses, broadens the learning context to include both academic and non-academic settings so that transfer may occur more freely. More explanations and examples of the other aspects can be found in Engle et al, 2011.
Know a colleague who might benefit from this information? CITL encourages you to share this information with your friends and colleagues. Interested in learning more? Consider attending a CITL workshop or contact our office for an individual consultation.
Engle, R.A., Nguyen, P.D., Mendelson, A. 2011. The Influence of Framing on Transfer: Initial Evidence From a Tutoring Experiment, Instructional Science, 39, 603-628.
Daniel T Hickey
That is awesome Charmian!
Charmian Lam
Thanks for the comment, Dan!