Critical thinking

William Whitlock

Professor Kimball and class,

This a post for Unit 8 and is a copy of a relative research article from the internet

How Are Metacognitive Strategies Transferred?

The application of metacognitive strategies in contexts other than those in which they were learned is the primary goal of teaching thinking. Transfer is the educational term for this reuse of strategies. Research supports a positive correlation between instruction in metacognitive strategies and transfer. A distinction is usually made between near transfer and far transfer, the former being when learning is applied in circumstances similar to initial learning, and the latter occurring when connections are made to dissimilar contexts. In If Minds Matter Perkins and Salomon (1992) talk about the fuzziness of near-far transfer and the difficulty in measuring the extent of transfer. In reporting on research in metacognition in "Metacognition Research andTheory: Analysis and Implications for Instructional Design" Osman and Hannafin (1993) manage to defuzz the issue of transfer by classifying metacognitive training strategies into four types, each of which promote transfer somewhat differently. These additional benchmarks allow educational practictioners to gauge transfer more accurately and design instruction which exploits the transfer potential of different metacognitive strategies.

It is this classification scheme that has repeatedly drawn me back to this particular article, an article that at once clarifies both metacognition and transfer, and has practical application to instructional design. It is this perspective that serves as a backdrop for the remainder of this report, a report which presents my interpretation of this article.

As criteria for their classification of metacognitive training strategies Osman and Hannafin (1992) used "training approach" and "relationship to lesson content". They describe metacognitive training strategies that may be embedded, or integrated within a criterion lesson and strategies which may be taught separately - detached - from academic subjects. With respect to the role of lesson content strategies may be dependent on, or independent of, content.Content-dependentstrategies focus explicitly on concepts that promote learning of particular content. Conversely, content-independent strategies are content-free, general strategies not specific to particular academic subjects. The four resultant strategies are described below.

Embedded Content-Dependent Strategies
Embedded content-dependent strategies emphasize near transfer. They are useful in understanding unfamiliar lesson material. They are specific strategies that support particular content and as such require explicit manipulation of lesson content and structure.

Embedded Content-Independent Strategies
Embedded content-independent strategies are general strategies that support particular content but are transferable to content of other lessons. Specific content is used to learn strategies but once learned executive control shifts from the lesson to the student.

Detached Content-Dependent Strategies
Detached content-dependent strategies are general strategies taught separately from content but meant to be applied within particular content. The intention is to improve facility with strategies before using them in context. They hold more potential for transfer than embedded content-dependent strategies.

Detached Content-Independent Strategies
Detached content-independent strategies are taught separately from content and are generic in nature. As such they support a variety of learning tasks and academic subjects. They help students to manipulate lesson material as well as to develop and maintain learning strategies. These strategies often focus more on procedural than conditional knowledge but the goal is strategy generalization and promotion of independent learning. They provide the greatest potential for transfer, that of far transfer.