6. Applying

Applying is a strongly procedural skill requiring successive processing.  Recognising that a concept or technique can be applied to a situation is a form of transfer and requires a holistic leap of understanding (ie. simultaneous processing). Students may typically be skilled at applying a procedure, concept or skill in a familiar or readily-recognised situation, or with teacher guidance, but may not apply what they know or can do in an unfamiliar situation without prompting.  This failure to transfer learning is one of the major inadequacies of students� school education.

On the other hand, some highly creative and able students readily transfer their knowledge but may still lack the procedural skills of applying, so that their performance remains rudimentary though insightful.

Students competent in the skill of applying will have a commitment to drawing on all their skills, knowledge and experience to enrich and enhance their understanding and performance in any context and on any kind of task.

Applying: Teaching in the Junior School

 From the start of Kindergarten, children are taught to apply what they have been taught: classroom rules, motor skills, procedures.  Stages 1 and 2 focus on the essential successive processing or procedural skills.  Students with difficulties in applying at this level will generally be those who indicate mental and physical organisational difficulties.  They will often be holistic thinkers (with a right hemispheric dominance); the use of graphic organisers will assist these students in acquiring skills of application.  It is also important that in these early stages, students are given practice in thinking of new and unobvious applications for familiar skills and concepts.

The Junior School generally is in a strong position to familiarise students with transferring skills learned in English, HSIE, Science or the Creative Arts, into other subject areas. One of the tasks of the Years 5-8 curriculum will be to counter the boxed thinking that the disciplines generate; and to avoid setting up discipline walls that prevent the flow of thinking and skills from one subject to another.  A desired outcome from the Junior School is the ability to transfer concepts, techniques, rules and procedures from one context or subject to another.

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