High Road versus Low Road

Recently, I had the opportunity to have a great discussion about teaching for transfer with a group of colleagues. We read The Problem of Teaching for Transfer: Taking the Low Road or the High Road by Jeffrey Wilhelm. The article discusses two types of transfer; the high road and the low road. The," road is when learning becomes "semi-automatic", or the rises to the level of recall. Following this road, students are able to learn and memorized steps to a process and simply apply these steps to situations that are identical or similar to what is taught. This type of transfer of learning can be asses through standardized assessments. On the other hand, transfer of learning that follows the high road focuses on the application of prior learning in new and creative ways. Students engaged in activities that follow the high road, cannot solely rely on procedures learned from prior examples instead students must "dig out" new understanding and create meaning to answer questions. Because the high road can include multiple outcomes, assessing this type of understanding requires more complex models such as rubrics and written feedback.

So does this mean that we need to choose one road over the other? No.

Good instruction must allow students to travel both roads. Students need to build background knowledge and routines when learning new concepts. Students  getting their "reps" in will help to create a base of understanding of a concept. Additionally, students need opportunities to productively struggle in creating new knowledge through higher-level tasks and activities.

Developing understanding includes both the learning of facts and skills as well as applying those facts, skills, and other background knowledge to create new meaning and solve new problems. As we move into second half of the year I leave you with this question; how are you creating opportunities for students to travel both roads?