Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
The primary purpose of school is to give
students the skills and knowledge necessary
for them to function effectively as adults
in reality.
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.1 What is transfer of learning?
? consider the two students:
? Henry is bilingual:He speaks both English and
Spanish fluently.He begins a French course in high
school and immediately recognizes many similarities
between French and Spanish.,Aha,”he thinks,“my
knowledge of Spanish will help me learn French”.
? Ted’s mathematics class has been working with
decimals for several weeks,His teacher asked,“which
number is larger,4.4 or 4.14?” Ted recalls something
that he knows about whole numbers,Number with
three digits are larger than numbers with only two
digits.,The larger number is 4.14”,he concludes.
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.1 What is transfer of learning?
? When something students have previously learned
affects how they learn or perform in another
situation,transfer is occurring.(the effect of one kind
of learning on the another kind of learning),e.g,
write in pencil and in pen,drive a car and a truck,
learn mathematics and physics.
? Transfer takes place whenever our existing
knowledge,abilities,and skills affect the learning or
performance of new tasks.
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.1 What is transfer of learning?
? Transfer of learning from one situation to
another depends on the degree of similarity
between the situation in which the skill or
concept was learned and the situation to
which it is to be applied.
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.2 the kinds of transfer of learning
? (1) positive and negative transfer:
? Positive transfer occurs when something that
a person has learned in one situation helps
that person learn or perform in another
situation,
? Negative transfer occurs when prior
knowledge hinders a person’s learning or
performance at a later time,
? Question,How to minimize negative transfer?
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? (2) forward and backward transfer:
? (3) general transfer and specific transfer:
? General transfer is content independent,which
affects a wide range of new knowledge and skills
(Learning in one situation affects learning and
performance in a somewhat dissimilar situation).e.g,
taking notes,
? Specific transfer is content dependent,which affects
only particular knowledge and skills within a
circumscribed subject matter.(when transfer occurs
because the original task and the transfer task
overlap in content,we have specific transfer).
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? (3) general transfer and specific transfer:
? Specific transfer occurs far more frequently
than general transfer(Gray,Orasanu,1987),In
fact,the question of whether general transfer
occurs at all has been the subject of
considerable debate,
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.2 the kinds of transfer of learning
? (4) near transfer and far transfer
? Near transfer of skills and knowledge are
applied the same way every time the skills and
knowledge are used.e.g,from drive a car to
drive a bus.
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? (4) near transfer and far transfer
? Far transfer tasks involve skills and
knowledge being applied in situations that
change,One of the benefits of far transfer is
that once the skills and knowledge are
acquired,the learner is able to make
judgments and adapt to different situations.
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? (4) near transfer and far transfer
? A person who learned the principles of wind
flow to design a windmill can transfer that
knowledge to direct the sail on a sailboat,
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.3 The measurement of transfer
? Experimental design for forward transfer:
? Steps:
? (1)several equal groups
? (2)independent variable
? (3) measurement and comparison
? (4) conclusion
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.3 The measurement of transfer
? Experimental group,
? task A --- task B --- measurement
? Control group:
? No task --- task B ---measurement
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.4 Theories about transfer of learning
? (1)formal discipline theory.
? This is the oldest theory of transfer of
learning,It appeared at the end of 19
century,Its foundation of thought is called
faculty psychology,which was put forward
by a German psychologist,C.V,Wolff in the
middle of 18 century.
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.4 Theories about transfer of learning
? According to formal discipline theory,only
when two kinds of learning share a common
faculty,can they transfer from one to another,
When we are engaged in one kind of study,
the faculty will be strengthened and enlarged,
so,we will do much better in the another
kind of study,because it requires the same
faculty,and it has been strengthened,
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.4 Theories about transfer of learning
? So,the emphasis in instruction is to how to exercise
to strength of all kinds of faculties.
? This theory got much support in the daily
experience,and could be easily be accepted by us.
Even today,it has great influence on the educational
practice.
? But this theory has never been got any support of
empirical evidence,Can one’s faculties be
strengthened,and can it be automatically
transferred to the next activities? Nobody knows,So,
it was questioned by other psychologists
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.4 Theories about transfer of learning
? (2) identical elements theory
? It was put forward in the beginning of 20 century,
The experimental foundation is his famous picture
size estimation experiments,One of the most
famous experiments is to estimate the size of
triangles,It showed that after participants had
made much progress in estimating the size of small
triangles,they can not estimate correctly the size of
big triangles,Although the two activities required
the same faculty,they did not do a good work in the
other work,
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.4 Theories about transfer of learning
? According to this result,Thorndyke proposed his
identical elements theory of transfer of learning,
which was later call common elements theory,The
main idea is that only when two kinds of learning
activities share the identical elements,can one kind
of learning activity be transfer to another kind of
activity,For example,in activity A,it includes
1,2,3,4,5,and activity B includes 3,4,5,6,7,activity A
can influence activity B,because they have share the
same elements 3,4,5,
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.4 Theories about transfer of learning
? But the identical elements in this theory only
refers to the common stimulus and response,
and it only emphasized the objective
characteristics of learning situations,
Another famous psychologist paid his
attention to the subjective characteristics of
learners,he is a German psychologist,
named W,Kholer,
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.4 Theories about transfer of learning
? (3) transposition theory
? It was proposed in 1930’s,The experimental
evidence is Kholer’s famous study with small
chickens.
? The experimental design is as the following:
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.4 Theories about transfer of learning
? According to the results,Kholer maintained
that the critical point of transfer of learning
is the two activities share the same relation.
That is,the common relation in two learning
situations leads to the transfer of learning.
? This theory greatly enriched the knowledge
about the mechanisms of transfer of learning,
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.4 Theories about transfer of learning
? (4) theory of transfer surface
? C.E.Osgood in 1949,Whether it is positive or
negative transfer and its amount depends on
the similarities of stimuli and responses in
learning tasks and transfer tasks,The ideas
can be illustrated as the following:
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.4 Theories about transfer of learning
? (5) learning set theory
? H.F.Harlow,1949.
? With practice on many problems,new
problems of a similar nature are solved with
the rapidity characteristic of insight,
demonstrating that insightful behavior
depends,in part,on experience,The
experimental result is as the following:
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.4 Theories about transfer of learning
? (6) production theory
? Singley,Anderson,
? Transfer depends on the production overlaps of learning
tasks and transfer tasks.
＊ content to content,general psy.to abnormal psy.
＊ skills to skills:riding bicycle to driving car
＊ content to skills,learning about computers to learning
to program
＊ skills to content,construction of electronic circuits to
electronic theory.
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.5 Factors affecting transfer
? (1) amount of instructional time,The more time
students spend studying a particular topic,the
more likely they are to transfer what they learn
to a new situation(Bjork,et al.1992),When
students study a great many topics without
learning very much about any one of them,they
are unlikely to apply what they have learned at a
later date,(the less is more principle:study a few
things in depth and learn them well,rather than
study many topics superficially,Brophy,1992)
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.5 Factors affecting transfer
? (2) extent to which learning is meaningful.
? The advantages of meaningful learning over rote
learning,information is stored more quickly and is
retrieved more easily,the information learned in a
meaningful fashion is more likely to be transferred to
a new situation (Mayer,Wittrock,1996),
? Meaningful learning involves connecting information
with what one already knows,The more associations
students make between new information and the
various other thing in their long-term memories,the
more likely it is they will find(retrieve) that
information at a time when it will be useful,
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.5 Factors affecting transfer
? (3) extent to which principles rather than facts are
learned
? People can transfer general(and perhaps somewhat
abstract) principles more easily than specific,
concrete facts ( J,R,Anderson,1996).e.g.
? ﹡ Boston’s central business district is located near
Boston Harbor.
? ﹡ The central business district of most older cities,
which were settled before the development of
modern transportation,are found in close proximity
to a navigable body of water,such as ocean or a river.
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.5 Factors affecting transfer
? Which statement would be more helpful to you
if you were trying to find your way around
Liverpool,Toronto,or Pittsburgh? Why?
? Specific facts have an important place in the
classroom,yet facts themselves have limited
utility in new situations,However,the more we
emphasize general principles,the more we
facilitate students’ ability to transfer what they
learn,
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.5 Factors affecting transfer
? (4) variety of examples and opportunities for
practice,
? Students are more likely to apply something they
learn if,within the course of instruction,they are
given many examples and opportunities to
practice in different situations (Cox,1997).
? For instance.
Chapter 10 Transfer of
learning
? Use the knowledge of
fraction in different
situation.
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.5 Factors affecting transfer
? (5) similarities of the two situations
? Transfer is more likely to occur when a new
situation appears to be similar to a previous
situation(Bassok,1990).The implication of this
principle is the value of authentic activities in the
curriculum,Of the many examples and
opportunities for practice that we give our students,
at least some should be very similar to the
situations that students are likely to encounter in
future studies or in the outside world,
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.5 Factors affecting transfer
? (6) length of time between the two situations.
? (7) perception of information as context-free rather
than context-bound.
? Transfer math to physics,grammar to creative
writing,history to current events,and health to
personal habits,
? Context-bound information are unlikely to be
transferred to situations outside that context,So,
when we teach material within a particular academic
discipline,then we should relate that material to
other disciplines and to the outside world as often as
possible.(Perkins,1992)
Questions
? 1,How to help students transfer what
they learn to new situations?
? 2,What are your comments on formal
discipline theory?
? 3,What is identical element,according to
your own opinion?
The primary purpose of school is to give
students the skills and knowledge necessary
for them to function effectively as adults
in reality.
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.1 What is transfer of learning?
? consider the two students:
? Henry is bilingual:He speaks both English and
Spanish fluently.He begins a French course in high
school and immediately recognizes many similarities
between French and Spanish.,Aha,”he thinks,“my
knowledge of Spanish will help me learn French”.
? Ted’s mathematics class has been working with
decimals for several weeks,His teacher asked,“which
number is larger,4.4 or 4.14?” Ted recalls something
that he knows about whole numbers,Number with
three digits are larger than numbers with only two
digits.,The larger number is 4.14”,he concludes.
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.1 What is transfer of learning?
? When something students have previously learned
affects how they learn or perform in another
situation,transfer is occurring.(the effect of one kind
of learning on the another kind of learning),e.g,
write in pencil and in pen,drive a car and a truck,
learn mathematics and physics.
? Transfer takes place whenever our existing
knowledge,abilities,and skills affect the learning or
performance of new tasks.
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.1 What is transfer of learning?
? Transfer of learning from one situation to
another depends on the degree of similarity
between the situation in which the skill or
concept was learned and the situation to
which it is to be applied.
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.2 the kinds of transfer of learning
? (1) positive and negative transfer:
? Positive transfer occurs when something that
a person has learned in one situation helps
that person learn or perform in another
situation,
? Negative transfer occurs when prior
knowledge hinders a person’s learning or
performance at a later time,
? Question,How to minimize negative transfer?
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? (2) forward and backward transfer:
? (3) general transfer and specific transfer:
? General transfer is content independent,which
affects a wide range of new knowledge and skills
(Learning in one situation affects learning and
performance in a somewhat dissimilar situation).e.g,
taking notes,
? Specific transfer is content dependent,which affects
only particular knowledge and skills within a
circumscribed subject matter.(when transfer occurs
because the original task and the transfer task
overlap in content,we have specific transfer).
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? (3) general transfer and specific transfer:
? Specific transfer occurs far more frequently
than general transfer(Gray,Orasanu,1987),In
fact,the question of whether general transfer
occurs at all has been the subject of
considerable debate,
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.2 the kinds of transfer of learning
? (4) near transfer and far transfer
? Near transfer of skills and knowledge are
applied the same way every time the skills and
knowledge are used.e.g,from drive a car to
drive a bus.
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? (4) near transfer and far transfer
? Far transfer tasks involve skills and
knowledge being applied in situations that
change,One of the benefits of far transfer is
that once the skills and knowledge are
acquired,the learner is able to make
judgments and adapt to different situations.
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? (4) near transfer and far transfer
? A person who learned the principles of wind
flow to design a windmill can transfer that
knowledge to direct the sail on a sailboat,
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.3 The measurement of transfer
? Experimental design for forward transfer:
? Steps:
? (1)several equal groups
? (2)independent variable
? (3) measurement and comparison
? (4) conclusion
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.3 The measurement of transfer
? Experimental group,
? task A --- task B --- measurement
? Control group:
? No task --- task B ---measurement
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.4 Theories about transfer of learning
? (1)formal discipline theory.
? This is the oldest theory of transfer of
learning,It appeared at the end of 19
century,Its foundation of thought is called
faculty psychology,which was put forward
by a German psychologist,C.V,Wolff in the
middle of 18 century.
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.4 Theories about transfer of learning
? According to formal discipline theory,only
when two kinds of learning share a common
faculty,can they transfer from one to another,
When we are engaged in one kind of study,
the faculty will be strengthened and enlarged,
so,we will do much better in the another
kind of study,because it requires the same
faculty,and it has been strengthened,
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.4 Theories about transfer of learning
? So,the emphasis in instruction is to how to exercise
to strength of all kinds of faculties.
? This theory got much support in the daily
experience,and could be easily be accepted by us.
Even today,it has great influence on the educational
practice.
? But this theory has never been got any support of
empirical evidence,Can one’s faculties be
strengthened,and can it be automatically
transferred to the next activities? Nobody knows,So,
it was questioned by other psychologists
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.4 Theories about transfer of learning
? (2) identical elements theory
? It was put forward in the beginning of 20 century,
The experimental foundation is his famous picture
size estimation experiments,One of the most
famous experiments is to estimate the size of
triangles,It showed that after participants had
made much progress in estimating the size of small
triangles,they can not estimate correctly the size of
big triangles,Although the two activities required
the same faculty,they did not do a good work in the
other work,
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.4 Theories about transfer of learning
? According to this result,Thorndyke proposed his
identical elements theory of transfer of learning,
which was later call common elements theory,The
main idea is that only when two kinds of learning
activities share the identical elements,can one kind
of learning activity be transfer to another kind of
activity,For example,in activity A,it includes
1,2,3,4,5,and activity B includes 3,4,5,6,7,activity A
can influence activity B,because they have share the
same elements 3,4,5,
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.4 Theories about transfer of learning
? But the identical elements in this theory only
refers to the common stimulus and response,
and it only emphasized the objective
characteristics of learning situations,
Another famous psychologist paid his
attention to the subjective characteristics of
learners,he is a German psychologist,
named W,Kholer,
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.4 Theories about transfer of learning
? (3) transposition theory
? It was proposed in 1930’s,The experimental
evidence is Kholer’s famous study with small
chickens.
? The experimental design is as the following:
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.4 Theories about transfer of learning
? According to the results,Kholer maintained
that the critical point of transfer of learning
is the two activities share the same relation.
That is,the common relation in two learning
situations leads to the transfer of learning.
? This theory greatly enriched the knowledge
about the mechanisms of transfer of learning,
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.4 Theories about transfer of learning
? (4) theory of transfer surface
? C.E.Osgood in 1949,Whether it is positive or
negative transfer and its amount depends on
the similarities of stimuli and responses in
learning tasks and transfer tasks,The ideas
can be illustrated as the following:
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.4 Theories about transfer of learning
? (5) learning set theory
? H.F.Harlow,1949.
? With practice on many problems,new
problems of a similar nature are solved with
the rapidity characteristic of insight,
demonstrating that insightful behavior
depends,in part,on experience,The
experimental result is as the following:
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.4 Theories about transfer of learning
? (6) production theory
? Singley,Anderson,
? Transfer depends on the production overlaps of learning
tasks and transfer tasks.
＊ content to content,general psy.to abnormal psy.
＊ skills to skills:riding bicycle to driving car
＊ content to skills,learning about computers to learning
to program
＊ skills to content,construction of electronic circuits to
electronic theory.
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.5 Factors affecting transfer
? (1) amount of instructional time,The more time
students spend studying a particular topic,the
more likely they are to transfer what they learn
to a new situation(Bjork,et al.1992),When
students study a great many topics without
learning very much about any one of them,they
are unlikely to apply what they have learned at a
later date,(the less is more principle:study a few
things in depth and learn them well,rather than
study many topics superficially,Brophy,1992)
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.5 Factors affecting transfer
? (2) extent to which learning is meaningful.
? The advantages of meaningful learning over rote
learning,information is stored more quickly and is
retrieved more easily,the information learned in a
meaningful fashion is more likely to be transferred to
a new situation (Mayer,Wittrock,1996),
? Meaningful learning involves connecting information
with what one already knows,The more associations
students make between new information and the
various other thing in their long-term memories,the
more likely it is they will find(retrieve) that
information at a time when it will be useful,
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.5 Factors affecting transfer
? (3) extent to which principles rather than facts are
learned
? People can transfer general(and perhaps somewhat
abstract) principles more easily than specific,
concrete facts ( J,R,Anderson,1996).e.g.
? ﹡ Boston’s central business district is located near
Boston Harbor.
? ﹡ The central business district of most older cities,
which were settled before the development of
modern transportation,are found in close proximity
to a navigable body of water,such as ocean or a river.
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.5 Factors affecting transfer
? Which statement would be more helpful to you
if you were trying to find your way around
Liverpool,Toronto,or Pittsburgh? Why?
? Specific facts have an important place in the
classroom,yet facts themselves have limited
utility in new situations,However,the more we
emphasize general principles,the more we
facilitate students’ ability to transfer what they
learn,
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.5 Factors affecting transfer
? (4) variety of examples and opportunities for
practice,
? Students are more likely to apply something they
learn if,within the course of instruction,they are
given many examples and opportunities to
practice in different situations (Cox,1997).
? For instance.
Chapter 10 Transfer of
learning
? Use the knowledge of
fraction in different
situation.
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.5 Factors affecting transfer
? (5) similarities of the two situations
? Transfer is more likely to occur when a new
situation appears to be similar to a previous
situation(Bassok,1990).The implication of this
principle is the value of authentic activities in the
curriculum,Of the many examples and
opportunities for practice that we give our students,
at least some should be very similar to the
situations that students are likely to encounter in
future studies or in the outside world,
Chapter 10 Transfer of learning
? 10.5 Factors affecting transfer
? (6) length of time between the two situations.
? (7) perception of information as context-free rather
than context-bound.
? Transfer math to physics,grammar to creative
writing,history to current events,and health to
personal habits,
? Context-bound information are unlikely to be
transferred to situations outside that context,So,
when we teach material within a particular academic
discipline,then we should relate that material to
other disciplines and to the outside world as often as
possible.(Perkins,1992)
Questions
? 1,How to help students transfer what
they learn to new situations?
? 2,What are your comments on formal
discipline theory?
? 3,What is identical element,according to
your own opinion?
