Transfer of Learning

Definition

Transfer is the ability to extend what has been learned in one context to new contexts. The quality of learning is measured not just by immediate recall but by whether it transfers to novel problems and settings. Some learning experiences produce good memory but poor transfer; others produce both. Transfer depends on learning with understanding rather than memorization, and is promoted by learning with multiple contexts that help learners abstract underlying principles.

In the Book

The book traces transfer research from Thorndike's early challenge to "formal discipline" (the idea that studying Latin would broadly strengthen the mind) through modern cognitive science. It presents classic experiments: children taught dart-throwing with an explanation of refraction of light transferred better to a new water depth than children who only practiced; students who learned to find the area of a parallelogram through understanding its structural relationship to rectangles transferred to novel shapes, while students taught a memorized formula did not.

The NRC report states that transfer depends on several factors: (1) adequate initial learning—without mastery of the original material, transfer cannot occur; (2) learning with understanding rather than memorization; (3) recognition that knowledge taught in only a single context is less likely to support flexible transfer; and (4) that "all new learning involves transfer based on previous learning."

Negative transfer—where prior learning inhibits new learning—also occurs. The water jar problems show how a set of successful prior experiences can establish a mental set (Einstellung) that blocks more efficient solutions later. Context matters: authentic problems motivate learning, but overly contextualized knowledge may fail to transfer. The most effective transfer comes from "a balance of specific examples and general principles, not from either one alone."

Why It Matters

Transfer is the ultimate purpose of education: students should learn to think and act effectively in contexts beyond the classroom. This concept explains why curricula focused on broad coverage without depth often fail students: isolated facts transfer poorly. It implies that effective instruction must include varied practice, abstraction of underlying principles, and explicit attention to conditions of applicability. In professional development and organizational learning, this principle suggests that training fails when it occurs only in a classroom context; transfer improves with multiple contexts and guided opportunities to apply learning. The concept also applies to personal learning: acquiring a skill in one domain is no guarantee it will transfer to another, even a superficially similar one.