Types Of Transfer In Learning

What is transfer?

In “Using Self-Transfer To Drive 21st Century Assessment,” I offered that transfer was “the practice of applying knowledge or meaning from a familiar context to an unfamiliar context.”

“This movement requires re-contextualizing what they know, which first requires that they strip ‘what they know’ of all context, consider it in isolation, then adapt it to work elsewhere, a cognitively demanding practice. Of course, this doesn’t happen by admonishing students to “transfer their knowledge,” but rather is the result of transfer-by-design: continuously providing scaffolded learning opportunities for students to prove understanding–and make deeper meaning–by ‘moving’ their understanding…

Transfer is important, but let’s not think just about transfer– let’s think first about the learner, then about their native environments. Then, further, let’s hope for the self-initiated application of knowledge. Unprompted. Unformatted. The spontaneous, personal, and creative application of understanding in dynamic physical and digital environments.”

Categories Of Cognitive Transfer: 14 Ways Students Can Transfer What They Know

Near: Near transfer occurs when there is little ‘distance’ from how the content was learned to where it’s applied (the transfer target)

Example:

Far: Far transfer occurs when there is great ‘distance’ from how the content was learned to where it’s applied

Example:

Clear: Clear transfer is when the opportunity for transfer is obvious.

Example:

Obscure: Obscure transfer is when the opportunity for transfer is not obvious.

Example:

Prompted: Prompted transfer occurs when the learner is reminded or required to attempt transfer

Example:

Unprompted: Unprompted transfer occurs when the learner is reminded or required to attempt transfer

Example:

Unpublished: Unpublished transfer is when the act or product of transfer is not made public

Example:

Published: Published transfer is when the act or product of transfer is made public

Example:

Creative: Creative transfer occurs when the student has or chooses to creatively adapt or alter the what’s being transferred

Example:

Unchanged: Unchanged transfer occurs when the student simply apples what has been learned to a new and unfamiliar situation

Example:

Academic: Academic transfer occurs when the transfer is from one academic context to another

Example:

Authentic: Authentic transfer is when the transfer is from an academic to an authentic context

Example:

Part: Part transfer occurs when only a portion of what was learned is transferred

Example:

Whole: Whole transfer occurs when the content transferred is done so in whole

Example: