How can we get students to transfer learning between contexts? An overview of the research and some suggestions for teachers

1. The Trouble with
Transfer
How can we get students
to transfer learning
between contexts?
David Didau
R esearchED N at ional C onf erence
1 0 t h S e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 6

2. A definition of learning
Learning is:
• the long-term retention of knowledge and
skills and the ability to transfer between
contexts
Retention = durability
Transfer = flexibility

3. Performance
Learning

4. Warsaw

5. The trouble with transfer
“Unfortunately, what we learn does not
spontaneously or automatically generalise to
new contexts and so teachers need to
facilitate this process.”
Didau & Rose, (2016: 62)

6. A taxonomy of transfer
Content: What is transferred?
Learned skill procedure restoration Principle or
heuristic
Performance
change
speed accuracy approach
Memory
demands
Execute only Recognise &
execute
Recall,
recognise &
execute
Barnett & Ceci (2002)

7. Context:
When & where transferred from and to
Barnett & Ceci (2002)
Knowledge
domain
Mouse vs
rat
Biology vs
botany
Biology vs
economics
Science vs
history
Science vs
art
Physical
context
Same
classroom
Different
classroom
School vs
research lab
School vs
home
School vs
beach
Temporal
context
Same lesson Next day Weeks later Months
later
Years later
Functional
context
Both clearly
academic
Both academic
but one
nonevaluative
Academic vs
filling in tax
forms
Academic vs
informal
questionnaire
Academic vs
at play
Social
context
Both
individual
Individual vs
pair
Individual vs
small group
Individual vs
large group
Individual vs
society
Modality Both written MCQ vs
essay
Written test
vs oral exam
Lecture vs
wine tasting
Lecture vs
wood carving
Near Far

8. Memory & context
• What we remember is dependent on the
context in which we learn and retrieve
information Smith (1985) &Weingartner (1977)
• Varying the conditions of encoding &
retrieval weaken contextual cues Smith et al
(1978)
• But, transfer is still tricky without explicit
prompting Woodridge et al (2014)

9. How does learning transfer to new
situations?
• The transfer of knowledge
or skills to a novel problem requires both
knowledge of the problem’s context and a
deep understanding of the problem’s
underlying structure
Deans for Impact The Science of Learning

10. Experts vs Novices
Two groups were given a series of physics
problems to sort in any way they wished.
• The novices sorted by surface features: on
inclined planes, involves springs, falling
objects
• The experts sorted by deep structure:
conservation of energy, kinematics,
Newton’s second law
Chi, Feltovich, Glaser (1981)

11. 4. How does learning transfer to new
situations?
• The transfer of knowledge
or skills to a novel problem requires both
knowledge of the problem’s context and a
deep understanding of the problem’s
underlying structure
• We understand new ideas via examples,
but it’s often hard
to see the unifying underlying concepts in
different examples
Deans for Impact The Science of Learning

12. The Wason Card Test
• Which card(s) must you turn over in order
to test the claim that if a card shows a 3
on one side, then its opposite side will
show the letter M?
3 N8 M

13. Cheating (Cosmides & Tooby)
• Which card(s) must you turn over to check
that if someone is drinking alcohol, then
they must be at least 18 years old?
16 Beer18 Cola

14. Flexible vs inflexible knowledge
“Knowledge is flexible when it can be
accessed out of the context in which it
was learned and applied in new
contexts.”
Dan Willingham

15. What we need to know
• Transfer can be facilitated by explicitly
telling students that they will need to
retrieve what they’re studying in a new
context
• Memory is context dependent – vary the
conditions of learning to weaken
dependencies
• The more you know, the easier it is to
transfer what you know
• Examples & narratives help

16. @LearningSpy
learningspy.co.uk
ddidau@gmail.com