Mrs Melissa Chew, Head of Department (Mathematics) at St Hilda’s Primary School worked with SingTeach’s Guest Editor, Dr David Huang, on his project investigating creative transfer – a process by which learners expand and adapt their knowledge, rather than just merely applying existing knowledge in near and far contexts. She shares how the experience was, the lessons she has learned and how she has applied this in her classroom practice.

What is Creative Transfer?

“I participated in Dr Huang’s pilot study for his project researching creative transfer in 2019,” Mrs Melissa Chew, Head of Department (Mathematics) from St Hilda’s Primary School, shares. “A few teachers and I collaborated with Dr Huang’s team on his initial project study which involved trying out the tasks prepared by the research team, analysing students’ responses and helping improve the tasks for the main study. This is how I discovered the creative transfer approach in developing knowledge.”

Transfer, she explains, occurs when a learner applies knowledge or skills learned in one context to a different context. As this signals that the learner’s level of comprehension is high enough that they are able to recognize how their knowledge or skill can be relevant outside of its original learning conditions, transfer is often considered as a sign of true learning. Creative transfer, where learners adapt their knowledge in transfer, is thus regarded as the highest level of transfer.

Overcoming Challenges

“Even though we experienced some bumps in the road during the research study, we persevered and it has been a rewarding experience thus far,” Melissa remarks.

“The first issue we had to overcome was finding a time slot for our students to complete the tasks assigned during the study. Thus, we scheduled these exercises to be conducted after the semestral assessments as a post–examination activity.”

Another challenge faced was that in order to encourage creative transfer, teachers would need to model metacognitive strategies effectively for students to follow. To do so, teachers needed to first understand the meaning of metacognition–thinking about thinking–in order to devise a lesson strategy.

“Creative transfer and metacognition are interrelated,” Melissa notes. “Metacognition is an individual’s ability to be aware of the need to monitor and regulate their own thinking, and any transfer task must be linked to already existing knowledge.”

She emphasizes that when students are aware of their thought process, it becomes easier for them to discover what they already know, and how to adapt that to different situations.

Solving Word Problems through Metacognition

“In brainstorming how to model the use of metacognitive strategies in solving a word problem, my colleagues and I concluded that we should share our thought process aloud to the students,” Melissa shares. “After reading the word problem aloud to the class, we described our process of understanding what the problem is asking us to solve for.”

“While formulating a plan to solve the word problem,” she continues, “we also shared with the class on what we could use to solve the problem, such as previously learned strategies. We would then have to decide if there was a need to abort, change or stick to the chosen plan in order to solve the question.” Through this process of thinking aloud, teachers are thus modelling the use of metacognitive strategies in effective problem–solving.

After the teacher’s demonstration, students were given their own word problems and were reminded of the resources available to them while tackling the problem–from previously learned strategies to help from more capable friends or their teachers.

While students worked through their plan of how to approach the problem, the teachers guided them through the process of questioning themselves and their thinking as a way to monitor and regulate their progress. As the students synthesized what they learned, they were able to generate new ideas from existing knowledge – or, in other words, embark on creative transfer.

Life-Deep Learning

According to Melissa, working on the project with Dr Huang has taught her a great deal about life–deep learning. “My team and I continue to encourage our students to build a habit of reflecting on their own thinking. When students engage in metacognitive thinking, they are constantly thinking about what they are doing and deciding on the best plan to complete any task that is assigned to them.”

She also points out that when students learn how to carry out the process of creative transfer, they may acquire a deep and long–term mastery of the subject.

“Furthermore, when students learn how to develop, expand and adapt their knowledge, they discover that their knowledge and skills are actually applicable in many different contexts. This is one of the ways on how we can nurture our young minds to engage in life–long and life–deep learning, and prepare them to thrive in an increasingly complex world,” she says.