Transfer of learning occurs when people apply information, strategies, and skills they have learned to a new situation or context. Transfer is not a discrete activity, but is rather an integral part of the learning process. Researchers attempt to identify when and how transfer occurs and to offer strategies to improve transfer.

Overview

The ''formal discipline'' (or ''mental discipline'') approach to learning believed that specific mental faculties could be strengthened by particular courses of training and that these strengthened faculties transferred to other situations, based on

faculty psychology Faculty psychology is the idea that the mind is separated into faculties, or sections, and that each of these faculties are assigned to certain mental tasks. Some examples of the mental tasks assigned to these faculties include judgement, compassion ...

which viewed the mind as a collection of separate modules or faculties assigned to various mental tasks. This approach resulted in school curricula that required students to study subjects such as mathematics and Latin in order to strengthen reasoning and memory faculties. Disputing formal discipline,

Edward Thorndike Edward Lee Thorndike (August 31, 1874 – August 9, 1949) was an American psychologist who spent nearly his entire career at Teachers College, Columbia University. His work on comparative psychology and the learning process led to the theory of ...

and

Robert S. Woodworth Robert Sessions Woodworth (October 17, 1869 – July 4, 1962) was an American academic psychologist and the creator of the personality test which bears his name. A graduate of Harvard and Columbia, he studied under William James along with othe ...

in 1901 postulated that the transfer of learning was restricted or assisted by the elements in common between the original context and the next context. The notion was originally introduced as ''transfer of practice''. They explored how individuals would transfer learning in one context to another similar context and how "improvement in one mental function" could influence a related one. Their theory implied that transfer of learning depends on how similar the learning task and transfer tasks are, or where "identical elements are concerned in the influencing and influenced function", now known as the ''identical element theory''. Thorndike urged schools to design curricula with tasks similar to those students would encounter outside of school to facilitate the transfer of learning. In contrast to Thorndike,

Edwin Ray Guthrie Edwin Ray Guthrie (; January 9, 1886 – April 23, 1969) was a behavioral psychologist who began his career as a mathematics teacher and philosopher. However, he became a psychologist at the age of 33. He spent most of his career at the Universit ...

's law of contiguity expected little transfer of learning. Guthrie recommended studying in the exact conditions in which one would be tested, because of his view that "we learn what we do in the presence of specific stimuli". The expectation is that training in conditions as similar as possible to those in which learners will have to perform will facilitate transfer. The argument is also made that transfer is not distinct from learning, as people do not encounter situations as blank slates. Perkins and Salomon considered it more a continuum, with no bright line between learning and transfer. Transfer may also be referred to as ''generalization'',

B. F. Skinner Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher. He was a professor of psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974. C ...

's concept of a response to a stimulus occurring to other stimuli. Today, transfer of learning is usually described as the process and the effective extent to which past experiences (also referred to as the ''transfer source'') affect learning and performance in a new situation (the ''transfer target''). However, there remains controversy as to how transfer of learning should be conceptualized and explained, what its prevalence is, what its relation is to learning in general, and whether it exists at all.

Transfer and learning

People store ''propositions'', or basic units of knowledge, in long-term memory. When new information enters the working memory, long-term memory is searched for associations which combine with the new information in working memory. The associations reinforce the new information and help assign meaning to it. Learning that takes place in varying contexts can create more links and encourage generalization of the skill or knowledge. Connections between past learning and new learning can provide a context or framework for the new information, helping students to determine sense and meaning, and encouraging retention of the new information. These connections can build up a framework of associative networks that students can call upon for future problem-solving. Information stored in memory is "flexible, interpretive, generically altered, and its recall and transfer are largely context-dependent". When Thorndike refers to similarity of elements between learning and transfer, the elements can be conditions or procedures. Conditions can be environmental, physical, mental, or emotional, and the possible combinations of conditions are countless. Procedures include sequences of events or information. Although the theory is that the similarity of elements facilitates transfer, there is a challenge in identifying which specific elements had an effect on the learner at the time of learning. Factors that can affect transfer include: *Context and degree of original learning: how well the learner acquired the knowledge. *Similarity: commonalities between original learning and new, such as environment and other memory cues. *Critical attributes: characteristics that make something unique. *Association: connections between multiple events, actions, bits of information, and so on; as well as the conditions and emotions connected to it by the learner. Learners can increase transfer through effective practice and by mindfully abstracting knowledge. Abstraction is the process of examining our experiences for similarities. Methods for abstracting knowledge include seeking the underlying principles in what is learned, creating models, and identifying analogies and metaphors, all of which assist with creating associations and encouraging transfer.

Transfer taxonomies

Transfer of learning can be cognitive, socio-emotional, or motor. The following table presents different types of transfer.

Teaching for transfer

Transfer is less a deliberate activity by the learner than it is a result of the environment at the time of learning. Teachers, being part of the learning environment, can be an instrument of transfer (both positive and negative). Recommendations for teaching for transfer include the ''hugging'' and ''bridging'' strategies; providing authentic environment and activities within a conceptual framework; encouraging problem-based learning;

community of practice A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who "share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly". The concept was first proposed by cognitive anthropologist Jean Lave and educati ...

; cognitive apprenticeship; and game-based learning.

Hugging and bridging

Hugging and bridging as techniques for positive transfer were suggested by the research of Perkins and Salomon. Hugging is when the teacher encourages transfer by incorporating similarities between the learning situation and the future situations in which the learning might be used. Some methods for hugging include simulation games, mental practice, and contingency learning. Bridging is when the teacher encourages transfer by helping students to find connections between learning and to abstract their existing knowledge to new concepts. Some methods for bridging include

brainstorming Brainstorming is a group creativity technique by which efforts are made to find a conclusion for a specific problem by gathering a list of ideas spontaneously contributed by its members. In other words, brainstorming is a situation where a grou ...

, developing analogies, and

metacognition Metacognition is an awareness of one's thought processes and an understanding of the patterns behind them. The term comes from the root word ''meta'', meaning "beyond", or "on top of".Metcalfe, J., & Shimamura, A. P. (1994). ''Metacognition: knowi ...

Overview

Transfer and learning

Transfer taxonomies

Teaching for transfer

Hugging and bridging

See also

References

Further reading