Chapter 3 - To Teach or Not to Teach for Transfer: That is the Question

Abstract

This chapter addresses the basic question of transfer of learning: What is it that enables a person with specific knowledge, learning, understanding, or skills learned in one area and/or social context to adapt, modify, or extend it in such a way as to be able to apply it to other areas? The chapter provides a framework for achieving general transfer of learning. This theory of transfer does not necessarily imply the use or nonuse of any particular method of teaching. To achieve general transfer requires some learning and instructional principles that have been previously suggested by philosophies of education in various ways and forms. The principles are specifically connected to transfer, to the latest research that supports these principles, and not just to educational “philosophies.” The nine principles that have been outlined are: (1) acquire a large primary knowledge base or high level of expertise in the area that transfer is; (2) acquire some level of knowledge base in subjects outside the primary area; (3) acquire an understanding of the history of the transfer areas; (4) acquire a “spirit of transfer”; (5) understand what transfer of learning is and how it works; (6) develop an orientation to think and encode learning in transfer terms; (7) create cultures of transfer; (8) understand the theory underlying the transfer areas; (9) engage in hours of practice and drill; (10) take time for the learning to incubate; and (11) observe and read the works of people who are exemplars of transfer thinking. The extent to which a learner, a teacher, or a school adopts these principles is the extent to which transfer will occur and only to that extent.