Transfer
Sousa Chapter 4
Leah Muccio
What is transfer?
“…the ability to learn in one situation and then
use that learning…in other situations.” Sousa p.
135
 “Transfer is a child’s ability to use knowledge
gained in one context or domain and apply it to
other or novel contexts and domains.” Serpell et
al., p. 423
 “…important for learning because it can optimize
the acquisition of knowledge and skills.” Brand,
Reimer, & Opwis, p 1

What is transfer?

The Hokey Pokey of teaching:
That’s what it’s all about!!!
Cooperative Learning Task
 Create
your own written definition of
transfer


Transfer is…
Focus on the critical attributes
 Create
a metaphor, simile, or analogy to
explain transfer


Act it out
Explain in a visual form by drawing
Two parts to the process

Transfer during
learning

The effect of past
learning has on new
learning

Transfer of learning

How new learning is
applied in future
situations
Transfer During Learning
New learning
working
memory
Store by similarity
At the same time….
long term
memory
Retrieve by difference
Types of Transfer

Positive Transfer



Past learning is helpful
to the learner
Can lead to greater
achievement
Personal example
• Hailing a cab

Negative Transfer



Past learning
interferes with new
learning
Affective aspects can
be very influential
Personal example
• Child afraid of the
vacuum cleaner
Transfer of Learning
 Ultimate


To prepare children for the world
Key to higher mental processes
 Has


goal of education
been illusive for teachers
Students rarely transfer skills from one
discipline to another
Students also have challenges applying
knowledge to new situations
Factors Affecting Transfer and how
Teachers Can Address Them

Context and Degree of Original Learning


Similarity


Balance need for similarity to help students remember
and need for difference to help students to recall
Critical Attributes


Teach fewer concepts in greater depth to create
meaning
Identify in curriculum and highlight for students
Association

Feature links to previous learning and provide positive
emotional associations
Current Research
Brand, S., Reimer, T., and Opwis, K.
(2007).
How do we learn in a negative mood? Effects of
negative mood on transfer and learning.
Learning and Instruction, 17, 1-16.
 Study focused on the role of mood on
performance of a transfer task for adult students.
 Negative mood shown to reduce transfer effects
in both experiments.
 Findings seem to contract previous research that
negative mood could lead to more analytical
problem solving approaches.
Current research
Gromko, J.E. (2005). The effect of music
instruction on phonemic awareness in
beginning readers. Journal of Music
Education, 53, 199-209.
 Study tested near-transfer theory that music
instruction would lead to Kindergarten children’s
increased skill with phonemic awareness.
 Children did show greater gains in development
of phoneme segmentation.
 Music intervention effective due to the fact that
both are aural skills.
Current Research
Serpell, Z.N, Boykin, A.W., Madhere, S., and Nasim, A.
(2006). The significance of contextual factors in African
American students’ transfer of learning. Journal of Black
Psychology, 32, 418-441.
 Focused on how communal learning contexts and the
influence of using physical materials versus computer
simulations would influence the performance of African
American students on a transfer task.
 African American children working together scored better
on the transfer task than White children.
 Students using the physical apparatus performed better
on the transfer task.
Other Resources

Seminal Works

Thorndike, E.L. (1903). Educational
psychology. New York: Lemcke & Buechner.
• The granddaddy of transfer theory

Hunter, M. (2004). Mastery teaching.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
• Thorough discussion of ways to promote transfer

Brain Connection

http://www.brainconnection.com/
• A teacher friendly website about how the brain works and
people learn
Questions and Reflection
 Any
questions?
 Take a moment to reflect…



What’s an example where you’ve fostered
transfer of learning in your classroom?
What techniques can you use in the
classroom to further foster both transfer in
learning and transfer of learning?
What are the most salient points about
transfer you’d like to remember?