Post blog entry #3 in reaction to the "Learning and Transfer"

As a child, I was often told "practice makes perfect" when I was learning about something new. Repetition helped me to remember how to remember basic things like adding, spelling and talking. With the assistance of my teachers, family and life experiences, I was able to take the base of information I learned through repetition and build upon it to achieve more meaningful learning. I never had a need to think about my learning experience beyond that point until now.

Chapter 3 of How People Learn (Bransford, J., 2000, p.51-78) discusses this process of learning and how we have the ability transfer knowledge. My take away from this reading is that learners need to have time and motivation in order to gain and apply knowledge. As I read through the chapter, I had a particularly tough time with wrapping my brain around the information on the pages. There were very complex and difficult ideas about learning, knowledge application and how knowledge is or is not easily transferred across applications and experiences. All of this information seemed quite complex, and though I understood the explicit meaning, I was unable to directly apply it to my own experiences. After some time and motivation (completing this blog) the reading became a part of my experience.

I remembered a passage from Harold Wenglinsky's book, Using Technology Wisely (2005). He described a situation where Socrates taught a slave about square roots. Socrates quickly realizes that he cannot easily explain this complex computation to a slave that has little to no education or background in mathematics. Instead, he begins to draw geometric shapes in the dirt with a stick and asks questions to gauge his student's understanding. Socrates engages the boy in the learning process by allowing him to draw the shapes himself and express his own thoughts until he eventually reaches a point of frustration, where the slave does not believe he is capable of learning such a difficult concept. Socrates continued to coach the boy because he knew that the motivation to solve the problem was present, and it was only a matter of time before the information from the drawings would transfer to an understanding of square roots. Eventually, Socrates did accomplish his task of teaching the slave square roots.

Much like Socrates used the geometric shapes in the dirt, I used this example and transferred what I learned from this story to this week's chapter. I think it is also important to note that both of these scenarios did not require any computer related technology, but both required tools for assistance in order to really understand what was being taught. In the case of Socrates, a stick was used to assist in the learning process. For me, it was a book that I had read in the past and my pre-existing knowledge that I used to make this chapter more meaningful.


Bransford, J. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press.

Wenglinsky, H. (2005). Using technology wisely: The keys to success in schools. The TEC series. New York: Teachers College Press.