To encourage students to think, teachers should fill their class with the language of thinking. Teachers can do this by labeling cognitive behaviors in the classroom (Fogarty, 1994). The label provides important information about the behavior that has transpired or will transpire. It will help both the teachers and the students to monitor their thought processes. This awareness of their thinking encourages the student and teacher to identify and understand what thinking process they are using.

According to Fogarty, this awareness of the thinking, or metacognition, also tends to encourage the teachers to seek out new thinking processes which they have not used in the classroom. Just as by looking at the labels on the cans in our pantry that certain types of canned food is absent, that assists us in our decision to purchase fresh new stocks, labeling our thinking processes makes it easier for us to be aware of not only what we have used but also what has not been used in the classroom.

Fogarty says that teachers therefore must develop a cognitive vocabulary for the classroom so that they and their students recognise clearly what thinking skill is being used. When a student demonstrates a thinking skill without realizing it, the teacher must draw the attention of the class to the correct cognitive label for that thinking skill. If for example, a student is sorting out the different kinds of fruits according to some criteria, then the teacher should tell the class that the stduent is classifying the fruits.

A common cognitive vocabulary or label for thinking helps to avoid confusion about the different thinking skills. In addition, the creation of a common cognitive vocabulary will help students to recognise the cognitive skills being used and also allow them to eventually generalize and apply these labels in other situations. This is essential for transfer of learning to take place. The teacher who wants a class that thinks must create a class that uses cognitive vocabulary for in the words of Vygotsky:

“…thinking is embedded in the language of the classroom.”

All too often, students do not see the connection between what they learn and their lives. It is only natural that students wonder why they are learning for example, the Periodic Table, or about states of matter, quadratic equations and so on. Students too often soon learn that in school, they are not to bother about why they are learning something. The learning is only for the school examinations at the end of a semester or year. Very often teachers do not give reasons or make connections about the relevance of the students’ learning to the rest of their latters’ lives. Yet, schools often claim to be preparing students for life. Teachers must make a more conscious effort to make these connections for their students or this claim is only a huge dishonest public relations exercise.

Making connections for students to see the relevance or significance of what they are learning, or teaching for transfer or bridging, is important. Teaching for transfer is important because it satisfies the innate curiosity of any child about why they are learning something. Satisfying this innate curiosity itself is a very important motivator for their continued interest in their learning. Nobody likes to feel that he is wasting time learning something, even if it has been justified in the name of high stakes examinations. Teaching for transfer will allow him to anticipate useful outcomes from their learning in the classroom. He will will be alerted to occasions when he would be able to apply what he has learned in different contexts. Learning, therefore, becomes more engaging.

Teaching for transfer also means that students will be able to build upon their understanding of concepts. Here again, I refer to my discussion about the need for deep thinking and understanding in my previous posts. For example, when teaching map reading, teachers should also make the connection between map reading and their students’ lives. The most obvious is of course in the actual use of maps like road maps for directions. However, if the teacher takes the time to discuss maps as representations of reality, it becomes a basis for further discussions on the concept of “representation”. It becomes a point of discussion when discussing the art works which are representations of what is in an artist’s mind. In fact, this concept can be used to discuss about the various media as representations. In the world of science, the student would be able to see that even in science, the world is ‘represented” differently. The Newtonian world view and the Einsteinian world view is definitely different.

If the teaching for transfer is done, students can take the ideas and concept beyond the confines of their classroom. This makes their learning in the classroom more akin to the beginnings of the threads of a giant web. They will be free to make the connections and explore concepts and ideas and reflect upon their relevance to their lives. Learning becomes organic and natural. Teaching for transfer will then end this phenomena where students leave behind whatever they have learnt in school, in the examination halls.