The document discusses teaching for transfer, which is the ability to apply what is learned in one context to new situations. It explains that there are three parts to transfer: acquisition, internalization, and expert performance. There are also two types of transfer: low-road transfer which is automatic, and high-road transfer which requires flexible and creative thinking. Some tools for teaching for transfer are discussed, such as hugging to emphasize similarities between contexts, bridging to help students make connections, and problem-based learning where students learn content by solving analogous problems. The goal is for students to be able to apply their knowledge in a variety of real-world settings.

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Teaching for transfer
NOSHEEN AGHA
M/EDU/2016/31
When students go out into the world and encounter new experiences, rarely will they
have a manual telling them exactly what to do? They will need to draw on what they
have learned before to solve new challenges. How do we teach them to transfer what
they have learned from one situation to another? How can we teach them to use their
knowledge in new ways? That is the challenge of transfer: How can students use what
they have learned by applying it to solve new problems? Given the vast array of
knowledge needed in life, the teacher’s challenge is to determine what is the least
amount of material that she can teach really well that will allow students to use that
knowledge in the widest possible range of situations.
Transfer is the ability to extend what one has learned in one context to new contexts. It
is ability to use a skill beyond present context. The ultimate goal of schooling is to help
students transfer what they have learned in school to the everyday settings of home,
community, and work to succeed in real life.
For example, students may memorize vocabulary words for a quiz, but they cannot use
the words in their writing. Students may learn mathematical facts, but they do not know
how to apply these concepts when they are confronted with a different kind of problem
outside of school.
Transfer include three parts; acquisition, internalization and expert performance.
 Acquisition is the process of getting something. Acquisition of a skill through
direct instructions, modeling, guided practice and independent practice. For
example English grammar rules knowledge.
 Internalization is 2nd part of transfer means practice, practice and practice many
times to develop automaticity to perform a skill without much thinking about it.
 Expert performance comes when automaticity is gained to use a skill without
thinking about it, use minimal cognitive resources thinking about steps and more
about application.
There are two types of transfer; low road transfer and high road transfer.
 Low road transfer is learning that becomes automatic that can be recalled and
repeated and performed without conscious thought. When stimulus conditions in
the transfer context are similar to those in a prior context of learning to trigger
semi-automatic responses. Low-road transfer just pops up. The low road can be
achieved through memorization and rote performance. Perkins and Salomon
proposed ‘hugging’ – strategies that close the perceptual gap between the
learning and the target domains, mainly by emphasizing the similar features
between the two by, for example, modelling, using role play and simulation, or
simply alerting learners to opportunities to use their learning in new contexts
(Fogarty, Perkins, & Barell, 1992) (Green, January 2015)

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 High-road transfer is learning that is applied flexibly and creatively with
mindfulness and wide-awakeness depends on abstraction from the learning
context and a conscious search for connections. High-road transfer must be “dug
out.” The high road requires personal engagement and commitment, searching
for and seeing new connections and patterns that can be used to create new
meanings, to extrapolate and interpolate, and to apply what is known in a new
way. Perkins and Salomon prescribed ‘bridging’ – explicit strategies that focus
largely on metacognition and inferential reasoning (Butterfield & Nelson, 1989),
such as encouraging students to explicitly plan, monitor and reflect on their
thinking in completing an assignment, or helping them to identify analogies
between what they have learnt and somewhat different applications (Green,
January 2015). Bridging is the strategy to connect a skill learnt in a situation with
a new setting.
For example, if you drive a manual Honda Civic and I throw you the keys to my
Toyota Corolla, you will drive away without a thought. This is low-road transfer.
The tasks of driving the two cars are essentially the same, so driving the new car
can be done with automaticity. But if I throw you the keys to my Massey-
Ferguson tractor that has three clutches, all of a sudden your thinking about
driving will have to become principled and conscious. You will have to see the
connections from what you already know about driving to this new situation and
creatively apply that knowledge. To drive the tractor, you will have to achieve
high- road transfer.
The studies says that retention and retrieval rates are greater when students are
actively involved with the subject matter. The retention rates:
05% through lecture
10% through reading
20% through audio visual
30% through demonstration
50% through discussion
75% through practice by doing
90% through teaching others
Teaching is a high level skill needs to understand the basic guiding principles of
teaching and apply them in classroom. Master teachers must have an understanding of
educational concepts, principles of learning and related theories so able to adopt and
adopt in situation.

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Ten Tools for Teaching for Transfer
Hugging: Making the learning experience more
like the ultimate applications. Students do and feel
something more like the intended applications.
Bridging: Making conceptual connections between
what's learned and other applications. This is more
cerebral, less experiential. Students generalize and
reflect.
1. Setting expectations: Simply alert learners to
occasions where they can apply what they are
learning directly, without transformation or
adjustment. Example: "Remember, you'll be asked
to use these pronouns correctly in the essay due at
the end of the week."
6. Anticipating applications: Ask students to
predict possible applications remote from the
learning context. Example: After students have
practiced a thinking skill or other skill, ask, "Where
might you use this or adapt it? Let's brainstorm. Be
creative." List the ideas and discuss some.
2. Matching: Adjust the learning to make it almost
the same experience as the ultimate applications.
Example: In sports, play practice games. In drama,
full costume rehearsals.
7. Generalizing concepts: Ask students to
generalize from their experience to produce widely
applicable principles, rules, and ideas. Example:
After studying the discovery of radium, ask, "What
big generalizations about scientific discovery does
the discovery of radium suggest? Can you support
your generalizations by other evidence you know
of?"
3. Simulating: Use simulation, role playing, acting
out, to approximate the ultimate applications.
Example: Simulated trials, simulated senate
discussions, etc., as preparation for understanding
and participating in government as a citizen.
8. Using analogies: Engage students in finding and
elaborating an analogy between a topic under study
and something rather different from it. Example: Ask
students to compare and contrast the structure of the
human circulatory system with the structure of water
and waste services in a city.
4. Modelling: Show, demonstrate rather than just
describing, discussing. Example: A math teacher
demonstrates how a problem might be solved,
"thinking aloud" to reveal inner strategic moves.
9. Parallel problem solving: Engage students in
solving problems with parallel structure in two
different areas, to gain an appreciation for the
similarities and contrasts. Example: Have students
investigate a (nonsensitive) problem in their home
environment and a study problem in school, using

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the same problem solving strategy. Help them to
draw out the parallels and differences.
5. Problem-based learning: Have students learn
content they are supposed to use in solving
problems through solving analogous kinds of
problems, pulling in the content as they need it.
Example: Students learn about nutritional needs
under different conditions by planning the menu for
a desert trek and a long sea voyage, getting
nutrition information out of their texts and other
sources as they work.
10. Metacognitive reflection: Prompt and support
students in planning, monitoring, and evaluating their
own thinking. Example: After a quiz or indeed any
thought-demanding activity, have students ask
themselves, "What went well, what was hard, and
how could I handle what was hard better next time?"
These ideas are drawn from How to Teach for Transfer by Robin Fogarty, David Perkins, and John Barell, Palatine,
Illinois: Skylight Publishing, 1992.
References
Green,J.(January2015). Teachingfor transferinEAP:Huggingand bridgingrevisited. English forSpecific
Purposes.doi:DOI:10.1016/j.esp.2014.06.003
Perkins,D.N.(1998). Teachingfortransfer.Educational Leadership.Retrievedfrom
http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/journals/ed_lead/el_198809_perkins.pdf.
Wilhelm,J.D.(2008). The Problemof TeachingforTransfer:Takingthe Low Road or the HighRoad?
Voicesfromthe Middle,15.