Learning Transfer

The articles required for this weeks reading assignment touched on a topic that I think is very relevant in regard to the state of the education system in the country today. The topic being how the knowledge transferred to the student during the education process can then be transferred by the student into practical use in the real or professional world.

Knowledge gained in the education process is typically targeted at the fundamental level. For instance in a basic writing class you learn how to organize your thoughts, choose your words, structure your sentences, build your paragraphs, and so on. You don’t focus so much on what type of media you’re writing for; a book, magazine, blog, website, etc. because the basics of writing are the same across them all. With only a few modifications you can gear your writing towards a specific goal but the process is generally the same. You can certainly choose to further your education by taking classes that go into greater detail like a literary author can choose to take more writing and English courses where an accountant may only need a basic writing course to provide them with all they need to know to communicate in a professional setting.

Of course our education doesn’t stop when we leave school, we continue to learn when we begin our careers. In the workplace we acquire a deeper knowledge about our chosen profession that wouldn’t make sense to teach every college student like industry standards for your field. There are many professions that require further study like medicine, law, and engineering but the information gained at the undergraduate level should not only translate but be a necessary foundation for them all.

I view undergraduate classes like acquiring a set of tools and the instruction on how to use them. I’m given a hammer and taught how to use it, I’m given a saw and taught how to use it, I’m given a screwdriver and taught how to use it, and so on. I can take those tools and build houses for people or for dogs or birds or even dolls but with a firm knowledge of my tools I can apply myself to many different trades.

Sadly, as mentioned in Developing Academic Skills That Transfer to the Workplace, some people including some employers can view words like “liberal arts” as being nondescript and non-relevant to many professional fields. But as the article mentions, if you rebrand liberal arts to “this degree develops critical thinking and problem-solving skills and helps people communicate more effectively in a variety of contexts” employers will see a set of skills that they want on their team.

CFA Staff | Posted In: Academics, & |, C. F. A. S. (2017, March 9). Developing Academic Skills That Transfer to the Workplace. Retrieved from https://collegeforamerica.org/developing-academic-skills-workplace/

Transfer of Knowledge Between Education and Workplace Settings. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237539394_Transfer_of_Knowledge_Between_Education_and_Workplace_Settings