MABINI COLLEGES

Graduate School
College of Teacher Education
Daet, Camarines Norte

Name: MARIA ELENA B. PLOPINO

Course: Masteral Studies major in Educational Leadership

WRITTEN REPORT
This is a written report that must be submitted right after the oral presentation. Use APA
format. Do not forget your references. The suggested parts are as follows; Introduction,
Discussion, Summary, Insights, Implications and References.

TOPIC: TRANSFER OF LEARNING

INTRODUCTION
Transfer is an act of moving something or someone to another place. Learning is an act
of gaining knowledge or skill by experience, study, being taught, or creative thought. The
notion was originally introduced as transfer of practice by: Edward Thorndike and
Robert S. Woodworth. They explored how individuals would transfer learning in one
context to another context that shared similar characteristics – or more formally how
“improvement in one mental function” could influence another related one. Their theory
implied that transfer of learning depends on the proportion to which the learning task
and the transfer task are similar, or where “identical elements are concerned in the
influencing and influenced function,” now known as identical element theory.

DISCUSSION
WHAT IS TRANSFER OF LEARNING?
Transfer of learning is the study of the dependency of human conduct, learning, or
performance on prior experience. Transfer of learning occurs when people apply
information, strategies, and skills they have learned to a new situation or context.
Transfer of learning occurs when the learner (a) recognizes common features among
concepts, skills, or principles, (b) links the information in memory; and (c) sees the value
of utilizing what was learned in one situation in another. Examples of Transfer of
Learning; knowledge of French may help student learn Spanish, learning to drive a car
helps a person to later drive a truck, learning mathematics prepares students to study
physics, learning to get along with siblings may prepare one for getting along better with
others, tying shoelaces, crossing a street, walking (or driving) to a house address,
typewriter and keyboard, tools and transfer.

LEVELS AND TYPES OF TRANSFER

1. Positive Transfer
Transfer is said to be positive when learning in one context improves learning or
performance in another context. Positive transfer occurs when a previously learned
behavior increases some aspect of performance on a similar new behavior. Positive
transfer is more common than negative transfer which occurs when an old behavior
interferes with the performance of a similar new behavior.
Examples are speakers of one language find it easier to learn related rather than
unrelated second languages, learning how to operate one machine makes it easier to
operate a similar new machine and a student discovering their learning style in a math
class.
2. Negative Transfer
Negative transfer occurs when previous learning or experience inhibits or interferes with
learning or performance in a new context. Negative transfer is the interference of the
previous knowledge with new learning, where one set of events could hurt performance
on related tasks. It is also a pattern of error in learning and behavior. It occurs when
a learned, previously adaptive response to one stimulus interferes with the acquisition of
an adaptive response to a novel stimulus that is similar to the first. Examples are
contrasts in vocabulary, pronunciation and syntax create difficulties, typically causes
problems only in the early stages, switching from a manual transmission vehicle to
an automatic transmission vehicle, and students dealing with subject–verb agreement.
3. Near Transfer
Another distinction used is between near and far transfer. Usually these terms
distinguish the closeness or distance between the original learning and the transfer task.
Near transfer has also been seen as the transfer of learning within the school context, or
between a school task and a very similar task. Examples are when a mechanic repairs
an engine in a new model of car, but with a design similar to prior models, when a nearly
similar problem or task is encountered, it is automatically solved or accomplished with
little or no conscious thought, once we have learned to tie a shoelace, it is highly likely
that the skill generalize to tying all shoelaces regardless of length or color or thickness of
the lace, or the design of the shoe.
4. Far Transfer
Far transfer is used to refer to the transfer of learning from the school context to a non-
school context. Far transfer tasks involve skills and knowledge being applied in
situations that change. It requires instruction where learners are trained to adapt
guidelines to changing situations or environments. Although this type of training is more
difficult to instruct it does allow the learner to adapt to new situations.  Far Transfer is a
tacit knowledge. Examples are India and the Knowledge Economy assesses India’s
progress in becoming a knowledge economy and suggests actions to strengthen the
economic and institutional regime, develop educated and skilled workers, create an
efficient innovation system, and build a dynamic information infrastructure and a
person who learned the principles of wind flow to design a windmill can transfer that
knowledge to direct the sail on a sailboat.
5. High Road and Low Road Transfer
Low road transfer happens when stimulus conditions in the transfer context are
sufficiently similar to those in a prior context of learning to trigger well-developed semi-
automatic responses. High road transfer, in contrast, depends on mindful abstraction
from the context of learning or application and a deliberate search for connections.
Examples is that we use technology to help students memorize information (low-road
transfer) or to search for connections (high-road transfer)? For students to be successful
in low-road transfer, the situation has to be almost identical to the original and only
requires a very specific response. Social Studies games prepare students to repeat
specific facts.

SUMMARY
 Transfer of learning occurs when people apply information, strategies, and skills
they have learned to a new situation or context. Transfer of learning occurs when
the learner (a) recognizes common features among concepts, skills, or principles,
(b) links the information in memory; and (c) sees the value of utilizing what was
learned in one situation in another.
 Factors that affects transfer (a) initial acquisition of knowledge is necessary for
transfer, (b) context and degree of original learning: how well the learner acquired
the knowledge, (c) similarity: commonalities between original learning and new,
such as environment and other memory cues, (d) Critical attributes:
characteristics that make something unique, (e) association: connections between
 multiple events, actions, bits of information, and so on; as well as the conditions
and emotions connected to it by the learner.
 Motivation affects the amount of time people are willing to devote to learning.
Attempts to cover too much too quickly may hinder transfer. Strategies for
promoting transfer (a) teach subject matter in meaningful contexts, (b) employ
informed instruction, (c) teach subject matter in circumstances as similar as
possible to those in which it will be employed, (d) present opportunities for
allocating practice after the information has been originally learned. (e) encourage
positive attitudes toward subject matter, (f) provide chances to practice using the
subject matter in situations that embody the full range of practical applications
that the learners are likely to come across.

INSIGHTS
 Transfer is improved when the learner abstracts the profound principles
underlying the information being learned, and that abstraction is assisted by
chances to experience concepts and principles in numerous contexts.
 In school, students study a topic until reaching some level of mastery and then
move on to the next topic. However, research suggests that transfer is improved by
visiting the topics often rather than once intensely.
 Students must generalize, have a desire to solve new problems, move toward new
situations and ultimately take risks.

IMPLICATIONS
 If there were no transfer, students would need to be taught every act that they
would ever perform in any situation. Because the learning situation often differs
from the context of application, the goal of training is not accomplished unless
transfer occurs. All new learning involves transfer based on previous learning. If
we did not transfer some of our prior knowledge, then each new learning situation
would start from the scratch. Assumption of education: what is taught in a course
will be used in relevant situations in other courses, in the workplace and out of
school. It is the very essence of understanding, interacting and creating.
Furthermore, it is the ultimate aim of teaching and learning.

REFERENCES
https://built-in.com/data-science/transfer-learning
https://Learning Theories (uoregon.edu)
https://youtu.be/N8QfkT8L9lo