Please join us on Friday at 1:00 PM via zoom to hear Dr. Damji Heo Stratton speak on...
Title: The Transfer of Learning in the Context of Learning Calculus Concepts
(contact the colloquium coordinators -- Kristen Roland (rolandke) or Nadun Dissanayake (nadunkul) -- for zoom info)
Damji Heo Stratton, Ph.D., is working as an e-Learning Research & Data Analyst Specialist II at Missouri Online, the University of Missouri System. She is also the Learning Analytics for STEM Education Research (LASER) Scholar. As a data analyst and learning scientist, her current academic research interests include learning at scale, learning analytics, cloud computing, transfer of Learning, STEM Education, as well as the gender inequality issue in the STEM education contexts.
Abstract: In this colloquium talk, I will give a brief overview on the topic of transfer of learning. Then, I will present two studies that demonstrate how the transfer of learning is applied in the context of learning calculus concepts. The first study investigated the relationship between instruction conditions and performance on direct application and transfer problems using Calculus 1 contents. Eighty-one participants were assigned to either the ICalCulus (ICalC) group or Tell & Practice (TP) group. Results from Bayesian one-way ANCOVAs indicated that participants in the ICalC group outperformed the TP group on further Preparation for Future Learning (PFL) tasks from the delayed post-test in the second session. Bayesian repeated measures ANCOVAs showed cross-over interaction effects between time and the group condition for both PFL and further PFL, which indicates the stronger retention effect of the ICalC strategy. The follow-up study explored if there were any common patterns among the cases of negative transfer in the participants’ answers on implicit differentiation problems from the same dataset using the multiple case study methodology. The participants’ answers indicated three main sources of negative transfer including 1) trigonometric identity, 2) u, v substitution technique of integration by parts, and 3) partial derivative. There were also other cases of negative transfer that applied improper concepts or the mixture of negative transfer and failed positive transfer. The findings and the limitation of the studies suggest directions to design more effective instructional strategies to facilitate PFL.