Transfer theory

Transfer theory is the ability to take your prior knowledge or skills in a certain area and apply them to a new situation or setting.  In being able to do this, the learning curve at a new job can greatly be decreased and essentially progress can be made at a quicker pace.

As far as examples, I will offer one from both my personal and professional life.  As far as personal, I am the proud father of four children.  You are probably wondering where transfer theory comes into play, but it involves potty training.  As your child learns about using the restroom, you begin with pull-ups to help avoid accidents but at the same time, you are teaching the child that they can pull them off and on when they need use the restroom.  When the child becomes more adept to being able to control their urges, you move them into wearing regular underwear.  Although the feel of the pull-up versus the underwear is different, the child can transfer the learning he/she did with the pull-ups into now wearing regular underwear.  In my professional life, the idea of transfer theory is always at the forefront when hiring new coaches.  We are always looking for candidates that have at least some type of experience with the sports they are going to be coaching.  Basically, we want to know if they can transfer that prior knowledge onto the student-athlete and make them successful.  Finally, we as administrators are always looking for transfer when teachers attend staff developments.  We want them to transfer what they learned in their training to their classroom situations.

I believe it is critical for the superintendent candidate have at least that one year of experience before joining the program.  Even with one year of experience, they will be introduced to some concepts that they can then have as a basis as they continue to move up in their educational careers.  I for one believe that my administrative experience really helped me with the practice test I took last week as I was able to utilize my prior knowledge to assist me in answering some of the questions.