Moderate concept summary: Transfer

Ed 304: Ed Psych and Human Development

Author: Melinda Newson, Camille Jamison

Disclosure: ChatGPT was used to create this recourse

Transfer is the process of applying prior knowledge, skills, and experiences to new situations or learning opportunities. It can have both positive and negative effects on learning and performance.

Positive transfer occurs when previous learning enhances performance in a new context. For example, a toddler using their knowledge of letters and sounds to reading new words demonstrates positive transfer. In educational settings, there are various strategies to promote positive transfer, such as encouraging reflection, establishing personal relevance, addressing knowledge gaps, utilizing metaphors, and setting clear learning goals.

On the other hand, negative transfer occurs when past learning interferes with performance in a new context. For instance, a person accustomed to driving on one side of the road may face challenges when adjusting to driving on the opposite side in a different country. Negative transfer can be influenced by factors such as the similarities between the original and new learning contexts, the types of learning experiences, and individual differences including prior knowledge and motivation.

Understanding the dynamics of transfer can help educators design effective instruction that leverages prior knowledge and experiences to enhance learning and facilitate successful adaptation to new situations.

Transfer of learning has significant implications for education, as it can enhance students' ability to apply their knowledge and skills in various contexts. Here are some examples of what transfer will look like in education:

1. Interdisciplinary Learning: Encouraging interdisciplinary learning experiences allows students to transfer knowledge and skills across different subjects. For example, connecting mathematical concepts to real-world science problems or using historical events to understand literature can foster transfer and promote deeper understanding.

2. Problem-Based Learning: Implementing problem-based learning approaches provides students with authentic, real-world problems to solve. This helps them apply their knowledge and skills from multiple disciplines to analyze, reason, and propose solutions, promoting transfer across different contexts.

3. Metacognitive Strategies: Teaching students metacognitive strategies, such as self-reflection, self-questioning, and self-monitoring, enhances their ability to transfer knowledge and skills. By consciously thinking about their learning process, students can better identify connections between different topics and apply their learning to new situations.

4. Transferable Skills Development: Explicitly teaching transferable skills, such as critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, and collaboration, equips students with adaptable tools they can apply across various domains and future contexts. These skills promote transferability and lifelong learning.

5. Authentic Assessments: Employing authentic assessments that mirror real-world tasks and challenges provides students with opportunities to demonstrate their ability to transfer knowledge and skills. Such assessments go beyond memorization and encourage students to apply their learning in meaningful ways.

6. Conceptual Understanding: Fostering conceptual understanding rather than rote memorization allows students to grasp the underlying principles and relationships between ideas. This deeper understanding facilitates transfer, as students can recognize patterns and connections across different topics.

7. Transfer-Oriented Instruction: Designing instruction with transfer in mind involves explicitly highlighting connections between different topics, providing explicit examples of how knowledge and skills can be applied in various situations, and offering opportunities for students to practice transferring their learning.

PRACTICE QUIZ

SATA: How can educators promote positive transfer in the classroom?

Encouraging reflection and self-questioning

Establishing personal relevance of the learning material

Using metaphors and analogies to connect concepts

Setting clear learning goals and objectives

An example of positive transfer is:

Forgetting how to ride a bicycle after learning how to drive a car

Using mathematical skills to solve a physics problem

Failing a test due to interference from previous learning

 Demonstrating a lack of transferability in a practical task

What is the transfer of learning?

The process of forgetting previously learned information

The application of prior knowledge, skills, and experiences to new situations

The process of memorizing new information without understanding it

The ability to recall information learned in one context but not in another