Resisting Overzealous Transfer: Coordinating Previously Successful Routines With Needs for New Learning

Does teaching presence transfer between MBA teaching environments? A comparative investigation of instructional design practices associated with teaching presence

“…Transfer situations can also be opportunities for invention and reorganization, however, and are not confined to simply carrying forward and applying the same knowledge (Lobato, 2012). Adaptive transfer involves not just routine application of knowledge and skills in a new context, but rather suggests adapting and revising prior knowledge in the context of the transfer (Schwartz, Chase, & Bransford, 2012). In much the same way that adjustments may be made in the destination context, backward transfer refers to the phenomenon where dealing with the new situation may in fact lead to revisions in a prior conception.…”

Age differences in cognitive skill learning, retention and transfer: The case of the Tower of Hanoi Puzzle

“…In addition, because transfer involves adapting knowledge, not just applying it (Schwartz, Chase, & Bransford, 2012), failure to transfer is often caused by a lack of deep initial learning (Chi & VanLehn, 2012). In other words, when learners do not acquire the problem schema during practice, and when they fail to notice the similarity between the examples and the subsequent novel task, their transfer abilities are limited (Chen, 1999).…”

Introduction to “New Conceptualizations of Transfer of Learning”

“…The approaches described in the following articles collectively indicate that transfer can occur in a diversity of ways when learners are actively involved in interpreting new situations. A greater appreciation of the diversity of transfer may help us to see troubling aspects of positive transfer (Schwartz et al, 2012/this issue) as well as positive aspects of so-called negative transfer (Lobato, 2012/this issue). All too often, negative transfer is shorthand for "transfer in a way that conflicts with what the teacher/experimenter intended."…”

“…The generalization potential for learning is just as important a facet of efficiency, even though far more research on assessment is needed to develop adequate measures of generalization potential. Several specific proposals for training flexibility in thought are presented in the articles that follow: focusing on interactions between surface features (Chi & VanLehn, 2012/this issue), invention-based training (Schwartz et al, 2012/this issue), comparison-based training (Richland et al, 2012/this issue), actor-oriented approaches (Lobato, 2012/this issue), taking advantage of well-grounded perception and action processes (Day & Goldstone, 2012/this issue), and explicit framings to encourage developing transportable representations (Engle et al, 2012/this issue). Rote training procedures may achieve efficient learning of specific behaviors, but this is only a short-term goal.…”