[Teaching_Composition] Why study transfer?

[Kathy Fitch]

Yes, you're on to something important, there, Elizabeth:  it's that mantle
of expectations that FYC must cope with that's key.  I'm thinking of your
recent FYC as Intro to Writing Studies, then, and wondering how that work
meshes with this.  The article seems to proclaim that FYC should shrug off
that mantle in favor of turning more inward, in a sense, and envisioning
itself as a true intro to the discipline rather than as a service course.
How do you see that work and this work feeding each other?  

I chose the study of Poetry as an example because talk of transfer theory
always seems to me to edge up on questions of critical thinking and
creativity. Could be that a course focused on creativity (as FYC, I think,
used to be much more than it is now with the turn away from expressivist
approaches, and the separation from literature) would actually offer
something *more* in the way of transferable thinking (critical, creative)
skills, and this might be, ironically, partially because it is relatively
free of that pressure to prove its worth.

To me, it seems notable that successful transfer of writing skills is in
many ways less about the writing itself (the thing that the transfer
pressure seems to center on) than about the meta skills, like

--Dwelling comfortably in the land of "no single correct answer" 
--Understanding that "no single correct answer" doesn't mean that some
answers aren't better than others in the instance at hand.
--Formulating questions.
--Switching critical lenses with growing ease, and recognizing that one's
critical lens influences what one sees.
--Honing the perceptual skills that feed the pool of "intellectual raw data"
that makes complex conceptions possible.
--Knowing how to move from both the general to the specific (deduction) and
the specific to the general (induction).
--Understanding and appreciating both fixed and organic forms.
--Developing a willingness to be an explorer, not an expert.
--Conversely, knowing how to identify and emulate the moves and marks of the
expert.
--Making cross-disciplinary, cross-media connections.
--Willingly setting aside the widely accepted "correct" answers to explore
other options.
--Considering the moral and ethical domains.
--And so many others.  

Quite agree with the person who noted that when students bemoan having to
read each teacher, they're actually demonstrating that they are acquiring
some of these skills.  These aren't always convenient sorts of skills to
have, since putting them into play entails complicated (if satisfying) work,
but if students have the ability to put them into play, then something good
has happened, fussing aside.

Perhaps the goal, here, is less to shape pedagogy in response to transfer
pressures, and more to shape the nature of how transfer is understood as it
applies to writing.

Kathy