Twenty-fifth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

To explore teaching for the transfer of learning specific to an art and design education, a faculty learning community (FLC) at Pratt Institute investigated learning across studio- and non-studio-based courses, different academic levels and disciplines. Faculty from eleven departments participated in “Transfer Sessions” to share a class project they teach, focusing on learning elements they conceived would transfer into and out of their course. Faculty-led sessions consisted of participants teaching at various levels of learning and across disciplines—art, design, humanities, and sciences—framing cross-disciplinary perspectives. The “Transfer Sessions” empowered faculty to engage in a collaborative and participatory process that expanded their knowledge of content in a variety of courses and stimulated dialogue for sharing teaching strategies and learning processes. Participants identified existing and new opportunities for knowledge transfer in and among their classes to support student learning. The data gathered from these sessions enables the FLC to research how transfer supports students’ abilities to develop research and analytical skills, creative processes, to construct and respond to feedback, translate between visual, spoken, and written languages, and develop self-assessment skills. This paper reflects the FLC’s goals and methodologies as a model for facilitating the study of knowledge transfer within a multi-disciplinary learning environment. The study proposes strategies for how faculty can contextualize their teaching, expand their perspective on teaching through the lens of “transfer,” build a community fostering more effective teaching, and support students in developing metacognitive learning skills that can transfer within an academic environment and beyond.