Frontiers of Psychotherapist Development

Frontiers Friday #43. Becoming a Deep Learner (Part IV)
 

1. From Deep Learner: The Biggest Problem in Learning: The Lack of Transfer
   When there is no transfer, there is no learning. 
   Turns out, most educational setting aren't able to "transfer" learning into other context.
   
   Watch this sneak preview of the Deep Learner module. 
    
2. Bookworm: Transfer of Learning
   
   This book by Robert Haskell is a real eye-opener for me and has shaped a large part of not just the final module in Deep Learner, but also a significant portion of how I think about teaching and training of psychotherapists. My suspicion is that by and large, the way that we conduct professional development trainings, does a poor job at transfer of learning. 
   
   Key Grafs:
   - Transfer of learning is universally accepted as the ultimate aim of teaching. However, achieving this goal is one of teaching’s most formidable problems. Researchers have been more successful in showing how people fail to transfer learning than they have been in producing it, and teachers and employers alike bemoan students’ inability to use what they have learned.
   
   - Educational research has long addressed this question under the rubric of transfer. In a sense, transfer is the Holy Grail of educators—something we are ever in search of, that hope pretends lies just beyond the next experiment or reform program
    
3. Research: The Illusion of Explanatory Depth (IOED)
   How well do you know how a toilet flush works? Rate that from a 0 to 10. Now, take a piece of paper and walk through step-by-step, how does a toilet flush work. Again, rate this from a 0 to 10.
   Chances are, your rating is likely to drop. 
   This, is the illusion of explanatory depth (IOED).
   
   Though not exactly spelled out, this research paper by Rozenbilt and Keil (2002) presents with implications of the way we can improve the way we learn. (Hints: 1. Forget re-reading stuff. Quiz yourself first; 2. Teach it to learn it...)
   
   Here's the full paper (no paywall).
   
   Rozenbilt, L., & Keil, F. (2002). The misunderstood limits of folk science: an illusion of explanatory depth. Cognitive Science, 26(5), 521-562. doi:doi:10.1207/s15516709cog2605_1
    
4. Watch: Scott Miller and I Talk About IOED
   In this video, Scott and I talk about a project we were working on called the Difficult Conversations in Therapy (actually, we are still chipping away at the manuscript after all these years. You'd be the first to know once we have a pre-print ready).
   
   We also talk about the IOED phenomena. (Looking back, I sound sleepy in this video--because I was! Click here to go straight to the segment about IOED.)
   
    
5.  Words Worth Contemplating: Sculptors vs Appraisers

   "By analogy, both sculptors and appraisers have the power to raise the market value of a piece of stone. The sculptor raises the market value of a piece of stone by shaping it. The appraiser raises the market value of a piece of stone by judging it.
   
   Teachers need to ask ourselves, “How much of what we do is sculpting, and how much is appraising?” And if we won’t ask ourselves, our alumni need to ask for us."
   ~ Bryan Kaplan, from The Case Against Education

Based on 4 tenets to help you for the rest of your professional career, Deep Learner is specially designed to 
 

1. Extend your mind by tapping into the powerful cutting edge science of how we learn best

What Deep Learner is Not?

1. It is not a bag of tricks;

2. It is not a theoretical online course;

3. It is not a pre-recorded lecture, and a poor substitute of face-to-face learning, and

This course is a must if you want to get help in building your own learning system. And I would like to raise a warning finger at the same time, you will need to challenge many of your ideas what will be required of you to become a more helpful therapist. 

That being said, you are not alone in this, above all, Daryl Chow generously shares his knowledge and experience in an educational and personal way. 

~Bengt Göran Lindberg

Lic. psychotherapist, Supervisor, Sweden.
 

Daryl Chow has an amazing ability to translate incredibly complicated material into comprehensible, bite size chunks of wisdom which can be applied in clinical practice and in daily living. 

Daryl's grounded and gentle style engages participants into a rich, collaborative learning experience. This is the second course I've taken with Daryl (the other being Reigniting Clinical Supervision) and he is truly one of the important voices shaping the field of psychotherapy in the 21st century. 

~Keith Klostermann, PhD, LMFT, LMHC, CFT, NCC, AS
Fulbright Specialist Roster, US State Dept.

The Deep Learner Course brings most ordinary learning experiences back to life. I can now more effectively extract the gems from activities that would have been meaningless before.

~ Bert Munger, Licensed Mental Health Counselor, Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor, Vermont, USA

Dr Chow provides a very in-depth and thought provoking course on what it means to be a deep learner and shows you strategies and tips which will help you not only improve your clinical practice, but your work/life balance as well. 
- Melvin S. Marsh, MS (graduate student)