Transfer

Sousa Chapter 4
Leah Muccio
 What is transfer?
the ability to learn in one situation and then
use that learningin other situations. Sousa p.
135
Transfer is a childs 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:
Thats what its all about!!!
 Cooperative Learning Task
Create your own written definition of
transfer
Transfer is
Focus on the critical attributes
Createa metaphor, simile, or analogy to
explain transfer
Act it out
Explain in a visual form by drawing
 Two parts to the process
Transfer during Transfer of learning
learning How new learning is
The effect of past applied in future
learning has on new situations
learning
 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 Negative Transfer

Past learning is helpful Past learning

to the learner interferes with new
Can lead to greater learning
achievement Affective aspects can
Personal example be very influential
Hailing a cab Personal example
Child afraid of the
vacuum cleaner
 Transfer of Learning
Ultimate goal of education
To prepare children for the world
Key to higher mental processes

Has 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
Teach fewer concepts in greater depth to create
meaning
Similarity
Balance need for similarity to help students remember
and need for difference to help students to recall
Critical Attributes
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 childrens
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
Whats an example where youve 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 youd like to remember?