Preparation For Future Learning Research Articles

Learning from instruction: the case of mathematics

Starting from a brief analysis of adaptive competence in mathematics, this article describes a series of research-based characteristics of the kind of learning processes that should be elicited in students to facilitate and support in them the progressive acquisition of such competence. Four major characteristics are discussed in some detail: learning is constructive, self-regulated, situated or contextual, and collaborative. A rather new approach to transfer of learning is then presented in which transfer is conceived as the preparation for future learning. Throughout the article it is argued that, notwithstanding the progress made in research on learning from instruction, numerous and complex issues and problems remain for continued inquiry.

Responsive Teaching Toward Responsive Teachers: Mediating Transfer through Intentionality, Enactment, and Articulation

Using a framework for responsive teaching as the theoretical foundation, this study examines ways teacher educators mediate teachers' transfer of responsive teaching. Guided by Bransford & Schwartz (1999) in defining transfer as preparation for future learning, our research explored teachers' transfer of learning as the teachers developed self-extending systems (Clay, 1991, 2001) as responsive literacy specialists. The intensive teaching of one student and the accompanying instructional tools used in the Literacy Lab fostered the development of responsive teaching in a variety of ways. Primary data sources included videotaped lessons, community conversations, and reflective essays. Analysis of the data revealed three elements that mediated transfer: intentionality, enactment, and articulation. Since transfer of responsive teaching does not happen automatically for all teachers, this study discusses the centrality of intentionally creating a range of spaces to enact and articulate transfer.