One of the incredible benefits of an interdisciplinary team and project is the opportunity for students to participate in Surface-Level, Deep-Level, and Transfer-Level learning. The tricky part is figuring out how you can integrate different content areas into one unifying project. The key: conceptual connections.
Let's start our inquiry by defining the ideas of surface, deep, and transfer learning:
- Surface Learning: According to Hattie, Fisher and Frey, "Surface learning is a time when students initially are exposed to concepts, skills, and strategies. Surface learning is critical because it provides a foundation on which to build as students are asked to think more deeply." [1]
- Deep Learning: "Deep learning as a period when students consolidate their understanding and apply and extend some surface learning knowledge to support deeper conceptual understanding. [1]
- Transfer Learning: "Transfer learning [is] the point at which students take their consolidated knowledge and skills and apply what they know to new scenarios and different contexts." [1]
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| Figure 2: Image from @EduTweetOz. |
If we approach units and projects through the lens of surface-deep-transfer, we can begin to see how we can begin organizing and presenting information at just the right time and place for students to go deeper. We have to have a strong surface-level foundation in order to help students see the deeper connections between ideas and content areas that we want.
Let's take these three ideas as an example:
- Science: Relationships in an Ecosystem, Biotic/Abiotic Factors
- Social Studies: Geography, Agriculture Revolution, Ancient River Civilizations
- ELA: Plot, Setting, Conflict
Are you starting to see any connections?
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| Figure 3: From Teaching for Transfer by Michael McDowell. |
Let's start thinking about concepts we might teach. This could include change, cause/effect, relationships, etc. But what if we start with the concept of place. After all, in all three content areas the main focus is on a specific place and the impact that has on other things. Hmm, that is starting to sound like a conceptual question!
Let's run with this concept of place. In fiction, the setting usually impacts the conflict and plot of a story. In Social Studies, an enduring understanding is how geography impacts the development of civilization. In Science, every ecosystem has varying factors that influence which organisms thrive and the relationship between those organisms.
If you take a look at Figure 3, you can start to see how you can structure a unit. One of the first things you might notice is that it doesn't have to start with surface-level learning. You might want to throw students into the deep-end with a transfer-level learning experience to immediately help them see where they are headed. Then you might jump back to surface-level to build their background knowledge and then move to deeper connections in order to start developing the connections that will help them see the conceptual connections and then dive deeper across contents.
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| Figure 4: Conceptual Question Example for the Concept of "Place." |
In our example, the transfer of knowledge is the approach to understanding students would take to connect where something happens with what happens. Theoretically, students would transfer this learning from Science to Social Studies to analyzing and understanding fictional texts.
If you want to learn more about surface-deep-transfer learning, check out the work of Michael McDowell and John Hattie. You can see various instructional strategies for each level of learning here and here.
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| Figure 5: "Where am I in my learning?" Anchor Chart from @mrs_jgomez on Twitter. |
References and Further Reading:
- [1] Hattie, J., Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2017). Visible learning for mathematics, grades K-12: What works best to optimize student learning. Corwin Mathematics.
