T is for Transfer
How This Document Works
Sharon Mitchler
Kara Taczak
Table of Contents
Sonja Andrus
Liane Robertson
Howard Tinberg
Matthew Davis
Link to artist site
References
Appendices
The video above discusses the phases of TFT research and the ways Kathleen Blake Yancey ensured collaboration among the researchers, and among the research phases.
Field-based Funding for Reseach
Researching students requires time, energy, and funds. Each phase of research sought funding from a variety of sources to support the research, including paying students for their time in interviews. Research funds from discipline-specific sources were central to the completion of the research work across all three phases of TFT research. Yancey's led the grant writing efforts with vision and amazing organization and time management.
Transfer of Transfer
This study engaged TFT in different types of courses and at different institutions than our first iteration. Findings around students’ preparation for transfer and their adaptation of transfer principles -- the writing transfer mindset and just-in-time concepts emerging from this study -- informed our understanding of students’ use of content in ways they found most useful. - Writing-transfer-mindset and just-in-time concepts - Multiple institutions and types of institutions - Multiple types of courses (FYC, technical & professional writing)
View a related infographic
TFT Curriculum
3 Central, Interlocking Elements
Key Terms: Eight key terms guide readings, class activities, and major assignments. They are introduced, modeled, and reiterated throughout the term: rhetorical situation/exigence, audience, genre, reflection, knowledge, context, discourse community, and purpose. Reflection: Reiterative and intentional, reflection is designed as a 360-degree practice in three ways: (a) through students’ reading of reflective theory; (b)through informal reflective activities; and, and (c) through reiterative reflective assignments linked to reflective activities. Theory of Writing: Space to theorize and develop framework by reflectively engaging key terms & their writing experiences.
- Each element is essential for transfer to happen.
- Also important is the choice of readings for your student population.
- Scaffolding the assignments requires careful planning for your local context.
- Learning to learn and understanding how transfer works in learning are important parts of the curriculum.
Howard Tinberg
Howard Tinberg, a professor of English (emeritus) at Bristol Community College, Massachusetts and former editor of the journal Teaching English in the Two-Year College, is the author of Border Talk: Writing and Knowing in the Two-Year College and Writing with Consequence: What Writing Does in the Disciplines. He is co-author of The Community College Writer: Exceeding Expectations, and Teaching, Learning and the Holocaust: An Integrative Approach. He is co-editor of Deep Reading: Teaching Reading in the Writing Classroom, What is “College-Level” Writing? and of What is “College-Level” Writing? Vol 2. He is a former Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, the premier national organization for college teachers of writing and rhetoric.
Transfer-Focused Teaching (Transcript)
The theory of knowledge transfer poses this crucial question: Can such transfer be taught or is transfer of learning accidental or ad hoc, dependent on uncontrollable variables and the idiosyncrasies of individual learners? The question is particularly resonant for those who teach writing, notably through the universally required course, first-year composition, which carries the promise of preparing students to succeed as writers across varied contexts and situations (see Yancey, Robertson, and Taczak for an example of “teaching for transfer” in composition and Downs and Wardle for their “writing about writing” curriculum). Considerations of writing transfer has prompted reflection within the field of Writing Studies as to what constitutes “threshold concepts,” concepts and ways of knowledge at the core of a discipline (Meyer and Land; Adler-Kassner and Wardle). To what extent does transfer depend on the explicit teaching of those concepts?
Sonja Andrus
Sonja Andrus is Professor of English at University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College. Her research interests include Teaching for Transfer (TFT), writing program administration, and assessment.
"The Teaching for Transfer Curriculum"
Yancey, Kathleen B., et al. "The Teaching for Transfer Curriculum: The Role of Concurrent Transfer and Inside- and Outside-School Contexts in Supporting Students' Writing Development." College Composition and Communication, vol. 71, no. 2, 2019, pp. 268-295. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w6jl5RNu1Pvu-78R3a-ySC-jvINr0vjN/view?usp=sharing
Transfer Discussions
Publications and Conferences
https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/publications/elon-statements/elon-statement-on-writing-transfer/
Critical Transitions: Writing and the Question of Transfer
In 2011, scholars who were engaged in writing transfer research gathered for the Elon Research Seminar and attended the inaugural Conference on Writing and the Question of Transfer. At “transfer camp” multiple collaborations, ideas for research, edited collections and other publications, profiled ongoing and emerging transfer research in writing studies.
Liane Robertson
Liane Robertson is Associate Professor and Director of First-Year Composition at the University of South Florida. She is co-author of Writing Across Contexts: Transfer, Composition, and Sites of Writing. Her most recent work appears in College Composition and Communication, The WAC Journal, and several chapters in edited collections.
In this video, Matthew Davis and Kara Taczak discuss several TFT-related research issues, including recent trends in TFT research, international transfer research, and the future of TFT research.
Each Phase Developed Further
Each Phase Collaborated
3 Phases of TFT Research
In each new phase, Yancey guided researchers to collaborate with one another and across phases to share results and develop more nuanced understandings of the data.
From early roots as a dissertation project to a cross-institutional project that spanned the nation and types of colleges, TFT has been explored through a variety of lenses.
In each phase of research, new participants added framing to the project that reflected their teaching realities, further strengthening the study results.
Table of Contents
- T is For Transfer
- How the Document Works
- Author Bios
- Transfer Passport Map, page 1
- Building a Foundation for Teaching for Transfer
- Teaching for Transfer (TFT and Other Curricula)
- Transfer Passport Map, page 2
- Research Phases of TFT and Adaptations to TFT
- The Future of Transfer Research
- References
- Appendices
- TFT Research Findings Across Multiple Contexts
Sharon Mitchler
Sharon Mitchler is professor of English and Humanities at Centralia College, a rural community college in Washington State. She is a former national chair of the Two-Year College English Association. Her research interests include TEaching for Transfer (TFT) and critical rural pedagogy.
How This Document Works
This document is an interactive PDF. You will find buttons that you can press to open additional windows to read information, play audio clips, watch videos, and more.
Buttons appear as a variety of icons on the background images, designed appropriately for the content behind them. Some elements have multiple layers of interactivity available.
Kara Taczak
Kara Taczak is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida, the co-editor of Composition Studies, and incoming co-editor of College Composition and Communication. Her award-winning research centers on composition theory and pedagogy, specifically focusing on Teaching for Transfer (TFT) and reflection.
Also important in the book is a part where we review the data and trace out the students’ use of prior knowledge. Here with your eyes that prior knowledge occurs in three different ways. First is assemblage and an assemblage what often occurs is students graft disconnected sometimes arbitrary new concepts onto earlier prior knowledge. The second is a remix or a process which students integrate new knowledge of prior knowledge for a much more sophisticated and flexible account. And then the last is a critical incident or more of a setback a situation where students encounter a failure in writing and use it to retheorize their own understanding of writing. And with each of these three uses of prior knowledge we give specific examples from the research them from research itself.
We also include in the appendices specific research materials, we include the original TFT syllabus, and we include lesson plans so that others might use an adapt from them.
Since the book has come out in 2014, we have had two other phases of research happen so we consider the Writing Across Contexts to be the first phase of research and with each phase of research we have been concerned with the efficacy of the curriculum and whether or not it could support different institutional type different student demographics and be used in other writing classrooms. And we have found that the TFT curriculum is in fact adaptable and can be used in different types of an all of these different types of contexts and for more information on each of these phases we do have a another section on the map that goes into the institutional types, the questions that were asked, and the specific findings so you can just click on that part of the map to hear more.
Transcript for Writing Across Contexts
Hello! I am going to be talking about Writing Across Context, a book near dear and to my heart, as I am one of the co-authors on it. I am Kara Taczak, the other co-authors are Kathleen Blake Yancey and Liane Robertson. The book is about to turn 10 years old in 2024 so we're about to celebrate this big milestone for it celebrating the decade anniversary of it coming up here so very exciting for that, and so I'm just gonna get into a quick overview summary of what the book is all about and touch on a couple other quick points about it.
The first thing that I wanted to mention is the book one two national awards, the first was the Council of Writing Program Administrators Best Book Award in 2016, and it also won the Conference College Composition and Communication Research Impact award in 2015, so very exciting to have one both of those awards. So what is the book about? Well we focused on three first year composition curricular to determine the efficacy of each finding that one them, The TFT or Teaching for Transfer curriculum, supported students transfer of writing knowledge and practice and ways of the other curriculum one and expressive is curriculum and the other a media cultural studies curriculum did not. It also provides a pretty comprehensive view of the research on transfer of writing knowledge and practice in that moment so in 2014. Additionally, it also provides the three signature interlocking components of TFT, the first being the key terms, the second systematic focus on reflection, which includes readings and activities and assignment, and the third the student’s development of a theory writing that they can use to frame new writing situations. And for a more specific breakdown of these interlocking components, you can see another part of the map called the Teaching for Transfer curriculum that breaks down those three components.
Matthew Davis
Matthew Davis is an associate professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he has directed the composition program, professional writing program, and the Center for Media & Society. He currently serves as UMB’s inaugural WAC co-director and as a co-editor of the journal Composition Studies; he publishes on transfer, multimodality, and digital rhetoric.
Understanding a Transfer Timeline
Transfer has been studied for over a century. Understanding the history of the road to the TFT curriculum, and Yancey's other work in transfer-related research, is essential.
View the full infographic
T is for Transfer
Sonja Andrus
Created on January 8, 2024
A look at Yancey's work on Transfer-Related Research
Start designing with a free template
Discover more than 1500 professional designs like these:
View
Essential Business Proposal
View
Project Roadmap Timeline
View
Step-by-Step Timeline: How to Develop an Idea
View
Artificial Intelligence History Timeline
View
Momentum: First Operational Steps
View
Momentum: Employee Introduction Presentation
View
Mind Map: The 4 Pillars of Success
Explore all templates
Transcript
T is for Transfer
How This Document Works
Sharon Mitchler
Kara Taczak
Table of Contents
Sonja Andrus
Liane Robertson
Howard Tinberg
Matthew Davis
Link to artist site
References
Appendices
The video above discusses the phases of TFT research and the ways Kathleen Blake Yancey ensured collaboration among the researchers, and among the research phases.
Field-based Funding for Reseach
Researching students requires time, energy, and funds. Each phase of research sought funding from a variety of sources to support the research, including paying students for their time in interviews. Research funds from discipline-specific sources were central to the completion of the research work across all three phases of TFT research. Yancey's led the grant writing efforts with vision and amazing organization and time management.
Transfer of Transfer
This study engaged TFT in different types of courses and at different institutions than our first iteration. Findings around students’ preparation for transfer and their adaptation of transfer principles -- the writing transfer mindset and just-in-time concepts emerging from this study -- informed our understanding of students’ use of content in ways they found most useful. - Writing-transfer-mindset and just-in-time concepts - Multiple institutions and types of institutions - Multiple types of courses (FYC, technical & professional writing)
View a related infographic
TFT Curriculum
3 Central, Interlocking Elements
Key Terms: Eight key terms guide readings, class activities, and major assignments. They are introduced, modeled, and reiterated throughout the term: rhetorical situation/exigence, audience, genre, reflection, knowledge, context, discourse community, and purpose. Reflection: Reiterative and intentional, reflection is designed as a 360-degree practice in three ways: (a) through students’ reading of reflective theory; (b)through informal reflective activities; and, and (c) through reiterative reflective assignments linked to reflective activities. Theory of Writing: Space to theorize and develop framework by reflectively engaging key terms & their writing experiences.
Howard Tinberg
Howard Tinberg, a professor of English (emeritus) at Bristol Community College, Massachusetts and former editor of the journal Teaching English in the Two-Year College, is the author of Border Talk: Writing and Knowing in the Two-Year College and Writing with Consequence: What Writing Does in the Disciplines. He is co-author of The Community College Writer: Exceeding Expectations, and Teaching, Learning and the Holocaust: An Integrative Approach. He is co-editor of Deep Reading: Teaching Reading in the Writing Classroom, What is “College-Level” Writing? and of What is “College-Level” Writing? Vol 2. He is a former Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, the premier national organization for college teachers of writing and rhetoric.
Transfer-Focused Teaching (Transcript)
The theory of knowledge transfer poses this crucial question: Can such transfer be taught or is transfer of learning accidental or ad hoc, dependent on uncontrollable variables and the idiosyncrasies of individual learners? The question is particularly resonant for those who teach writing, notably through the universally required course, first-year composition, which carries the promise of preparing students to succeed as writers across varied contexts and situations (see Yancey, Robertson, and Taczak for an example of “teaching for transfer” in composition and Downs and Wardle for their “writing about writing” curriculum). Considerations of writing transfer has prompted reflection within the field of Writing Studies as to what constitutes “threshold concepts,” concepts and ways of knowledge at the core of a discipline (Meyer and Land; Adler-Kassner and Wardle). To what extent does transfer depend on the explicit teaching of those concepts?
Sonja Andrus
Sonja Andrus is Professor of English at University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College. Her research interests include Teaching for Transfer (TFT), writing program administration, and assessment.
"The Teaching for Transfer Curriculum"
Yancey, Kathleen B., et al. "The Teaching for Transfer Curriculum: The Role of Concurrent Transfer and Inside- and Outside-School Contexts in Supporting Students' Writing Development." College Composition and Communication, vol. 71, no. 2, 2019, pp. 268-295. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w6jl5RNu1Pvu-78R3a-ySC-jvINr0vjN/view?usp=sharing
Transfer Discussions
Publications and Conferences
https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/publications/elon-statements/elon-statement-on-writing-transfer/
Critical Transitions: Writing and the Question of Transfer
In 2011, scholars who were engaged in writing transfer research gathered for the Elon Research Seminar and attended the inaugural Conference on Writing and the Question of Transfer. At “transfer camp” multiple collaborations, ideas for research, edited collections and other publications, profiled ongoing and emerging transfer research in writing studies.
Liane Robertson
Liane Robertson is Associate Professor and Director of First-Year Composition at the University of South Florida. She is co-author of Writing Across Contexts: Transfer, Composition, and Sites of Writing. Her most recent work appears in College Composition and Communication, The WAC Journal, and several chapters in edited collections.
In this video, Matthew Davis and Kara Taczak discuss several TFT-related research issues, including recent trends in TFT research, international transfer research, and the future of TFT research.
Each Phase Developed Further
Each Phase Collaborated
3 Phases of TFT Research
In each new phase, Yancey guided researchers to collaborate with one another and across phases to share results and develop more nuanced understandings of the data.
From early roots as a dissertation project to a cross-institutional project that spanned the nation and types of colleges, TFT has been explored through a variety of lenses.
In each phase of research, new participants added framing to the project that reflected their teaching realities, further strengthening the study results.
Table of Contents
Sharon Mitchler
Sharon Mitchler is professor of English and Humanities at Centralia College, a rural community college in Washington State. She is a former national chair of the Two-Year College English Association. Her research interests include TEaching for Transfer (TFT) and critical rural pedagogy.
How This Document Works
This document is an interactive PDF. You will find buttons that you can press to open additional windows to read information, play audio clips, watch videos, and more.
Buttons appear as a variety of icons on the background images, designed appropriately for the content behind them. Some elements have multiple layers of interactivity available.
Kara Taczak
Kara Taczak is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida, the co-editor of Composition Studies, and incoming co-editor of College Composition and Communication. Her award-winning research centers on composition theory and pedagogy, specifically focusing on Teaching for Transfer (TFT) and reflection.
Also important in the book is a part where we review the data and trace out the students’ use of prior knowledge. Here with your eyes that prior knowledge occurs in three different ways. First is assemblage and an assemblage what often occurs is students graft disconnected sometimes arbitrary new concepts onto earlier prior knowledge. The second is a remix or a process which students integrate new knowledge of prior knowledge for a much more sophisticated and flexible account. And then the last is a critical incident or more of a setback a situation where students encounter a failure in writing and use it to retheorize their own understanding of writing. And with each of these three uses of prior knowledge we give specific examples from the research them from research itself. We also include in the appendices specific research materials, we include the original TFT syllabus, and we include lesson plans so that others might use an adapt from them. Since the book has come out in 2014, we have had two other phases of research happen so we consider the Writing Across Contexts to be the first phase of research and with each phase of research we have been concerned with the efficacy of the curriculum and whether or not it could support different institutional type different student demographics and be used in other writing classrooms. And we have found that the TFT curriculum is in fact adaptable and can be used in different types of an all of these different types of contexts and for more information on each of these phases we do have a another section on the map that goes into the institutional types, the questions that were asked, and the specific findings so you can just click on that part of the map to hear more.
Transcript for Writing Across Contexts
Hello! I am going to be talking about Writing Across Context, a book near dear and to my heart, as I am one of the co-authors on it. I am Kara Taczak, the other co-authors are Kathleen Blake Yancey and Liane Robertson. The book is about to turn 10 years old in 2024 so we're about to celebrate this big milestone for it celebrating the decade anniversary of it coming up here so very exciting for that, and so I'm just gonna get into a quick overview summary of what the book is all about and touch on a couple other quick points about it. The first thing that I wanted to mention is the book one two national awards, the first was the Council of Writing Program Administrators Best Book Award in 2016, and it also won the Conference College Composition and Communication Research Impact award in 2015, so very exciting to have one both of those awards. So what is the book about? Well we focused on three first year composition curricular to determine the efficacy of each finding that one them, The TFT or Teaching for Transfer curriculum, supported students transfer of writing knowledge and practice and ways of the other curriculum one and expressive is curriculum and the other a media cultural studies curriculum did not. It also provides a pretty comprehensive view of the research on transfer of writing knowledge and practice in that moment so in 2014. Additionally, it also provides the three signature interlocking components of TFT, the first being the key terms, the second systematic focus on reflection, which includes readings and activities and assignment, and the third the student’s development of a theory writing that they can use to frame new writing situations. And for a more specific breakdown of these interlocking components, you can see another part of the map called the Teaching for Transfer curriculum that breaks down those three components.
Matthew Davis
Matthew Davis is an associate professor of English at the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he has directed the composition program, professional writing program, and the Center for Media & Society. He currently serves as UMB’s inaugural WAC co-director and as a co-editor of the journal Composition Studies; he publishes on transfer, multimodality, and digital rhetoric.
Understanding a Transfer Timeline
Transfer has been studied for over a century. Understanding the history of the road to the TFT curriculum, and Yancey's other work in transfer-related research, is essential.
View the full infographic