In the second grade, Danielle was identified as a student with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. During the elementary school years, she had such a busy brain that she failed to learn some of the strategies that have become automatic for her friends. Now Danielle is in high school and has made up her mind to be a medical doctor. She realizes some of the demands of the profession because

Question

her mom is a doctor. Danielle is serious about learning and determined to teach herself some learning strategies to improve her academic achievement.

Identify at least one learning strategy that will transfer to many of the subjects Danielle will take in high school and college.

Describe the stages of learning she will experience as she teaches herself the strategy and develops the ability to transfer the strategy to new learning situations.

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Suggested Response: Danielle and all learners benefit from learning strategies that help them organize and remember.
Suppose Danielle is teaching herself to use visual tools such as concept maps to organize and remember information. These strategies transfer to many topics across many domains of study.
The first stage of learning the strategy is the acquisition phase. Danielle needs to read instructions about using the strategy, find examples on the Internet or from friends, and learn when and how to use the strategy. She needs to rehearse by using the strategy as she reads her homework assignments.
The next stage is the retention phase. Danielle needs to keep practicing and overlearn the strategy until it becomes automatic for her to organize material using concept mapping or a similar visual tool. She might find another student who uses concept mapping to compare notes and give her feedback. She might also ask a teacher to look at her concept maps and give her feedback.
The third stage is called the transfer phase. In this phase Danielle develops strategic transfer and tries to use the strategy with new learning situations. Until now she used the strategy successfully to organize material she read from her texts. Now she branches out to new learning problems. For example, she might take a complex concept that is covered in an entire chapter and boil it down to a concept map. She might take her notes from lectures about one of the body systems and turn her notes into a concept map. She might even merge concepts across chapters to solve problems of recognizing relationships among concepts.
If Danielle teaches herself this strategy and practices it until it becomes automatic, she should make academic gains.
Text Reference: Teaching for Transfer