Far Transfer Essay
From a cognitive perspective, analyze the effect of transfer of training on problem solving. Evaluate the impact of near transfer and far transfer in any one applied area.
What is Transfer?
Transfer is defined as the application of skill or knowledge gained in one situation in the performance of a new, novel task (Pennington, Nicolich & Rahm, 1995). Whenever knowledge previously acquired influences current learning, transfer as occurred (Woolfolk, 1995). For example, learning to get along with family members may prepare an individual to interact in a positive way with peers, learning to drive a car helps to prepare for learning to drive a van later, learning mathematics prepares for the study of physics and chess players may even become …show more content…
better strategic thinkers in business (Perkins & Salomon, 1992). Transfer of training is based on the concept of transfer of learning, which occurs when information or skills learned at one place and time is used in another setting (Eggen & Kauchak, 1994). In a way, any learning requires a degree of transfer, that is, transfer is always unreservedly contrastive: it assumes learning within a specific context and enquires about impact beyond that context (Perkins & Salomon, 1992). There are three main types of transfer: positive transfer, negative transfer and zero transfer.
Positive transfer is defined as the subsequent learning aided by prior learning (Biehler & Snowman, 1990). For example, people who are proficient in more than one language may find it easier to learn a new language than unilingual individuals (Perkins & Salomon, 1992). The effect of past learning on present learning is not always positive, and past learning can cause the attempt to apply previously learned but unsuitable methods to a new situation (Woolfolk, 1995). The attempt to apply strategies that are familiar but inappropriate to a new situation is known as negative transfer (Woolfolk, 1995), that is, negative transfer hinders the acquisition of new knowledge due to familiarity of pre-learned skills, knowledge or information. While negative transfer can be a problematic phenomenon of learning, it typically only causes problems in the early stages of learning in a new domain and with experience, learners correct for the effects of negative transfer (Perkins & Salomon, 1992). Zero transfer is when previous knowledge has neither a positive nor negative effect on current knowledge, for example a student learned a technique in maths but did not apply it to a physics problem which could be solved with this method (Eggen & Kauchak, 1994). Transfer can also be further divided into near transfer and far transfer. Near transfer refers to transfer between similar contexts, whereas far transfer describes transfer between contexts that at first seem to be completely different or at least, only slightly similar (Perkins & Salomon, 1992). Near transfer is observed far more frequently than far transfer, and it is also seen to occur more readily than far transfer (Tomic, 1995). There is no formal measure for transfer difference; however it is a useful idea in understanding different transfer occurrences (Woltz, Gardner & Gyll, 2000).
In order for transfer to occur, certain conditions are necessary, such as, thorough and diverse practice, explicit abstraction, active self monitoring, arousing mindfulness and use of metaphors or analogy (Perkins & Salomon, 1992). Thorough and diverse practice refers to intensive and extensive practice, which creates routine expertise, which is based on procedural knowledge (Guberman & Greenfield, 1991). Luria (1976, in Perkins & Salomon, 1992) found that there was major influence on a number of cognitive measures regarding literacy in a population where reading and writing played multiple roles, demonstrating the necessity of thorough and diverse practice. Explicit abstraction is sometimes necessary for transfer to occur and refers to the abstraction of critical attributes of a situation (Perkins & Salomon, 1992). Gick & Holyoak (1983) presented subjects with stories illustrating problems and their solutions and then had the subjects attempt to solve a different, but comparable transfer problem. The results indicated that if two previous analogies were presented, subjects often derived a problem schema, suggesting that explicit abstractions of principles from a situation foster transfer. Active self-monitoring, or metacognitive reflection on ones thinking processes, appears to promote transfer of training (Perkins & Salomon, 1992). This was illustrated in a study carried out by Belmont et al, (1982), in which a combination of efforts were used to teach children with intellectual disabilities simple memory strategies and then it was tested to see if these children would use the strategies in slightly different contexts. Results indicated that children who had also been taught to monitor their own thought processes in simple ways were more successful, illustrating the importance of active self-monitoring in problem solving. Mindfulness can be described as a generalized state of attentiveness to the activities an individual is occupied with and to their environment (Langer, 1989), which encourages transfer by attention to how one completed a similar task previously.
Transfer of Training and its impact on problem solving
Problem solving transfer occurs when an individual is able to employ what they have learned in order to solve problems that are different to problems presented during instruction (Kapa, 2007). Transfer of strategies between problems sharing similar formal structure is assisted by a semantic recoding that demonstrates the structural parallels between the problems (Gamo, Sander & Richard, 2010). Many studies have been carried out regarding transfer of training on problem solving. In a study carried out on six-year old children regarding transfer in analogical problem solving by Chen and Daehler (1989), subjects spontaneously transferred similar solutions, even when base and target problems shared few surface similarities. Results indicated that abstract representation of a solution principle and the ability to establish when it should be applied are significant aspects of effective transfer in problem solving. McDaniel and Schlager (1990) found that the requirement of discovering a strategy during training encourages the activation or improvement that are useful for generating a novel strategy. That is, the generation of a novel strategy provided better transfer in problem solving than being provided with a strategy in training. Research also indicated that individuals studying worked examples gain most from high-variability examples invest less time and mental effort in practice and achieve superior and less effort demanding transfer performance than individuals who first attempted to solve examples, then study worked examples (Paas & Merriënboer, 1994). This indicates that previously obtained knowledge has a positive influence on transfer in problem solving, inducing easier and more accurate transfer.
However, transfer does not always occur, and a large amount of research has documented poor transfer between the original situation where the skill or knowledge was obtained and new situations (Bereby-Meyer & Kaplan, 2005). This is demonstrated in the study carried out by Belmont et al (1982), in which children with intellectual disabilities were taught simple memory tasks to see if they could be applied in other situations. While some of the subjects did demonstrate transfer, it was discovered that only subjects who had been taught to monitor their thought processes as well who were more successful, and the majority of the subjects did not display transfer. Thorndike (1923) also found no transfer to have occurred in his classic study carried out to test if studying Latin prepared students for better performance in other subjects (Perkins & Salomon, 1992). At the time, it was widely believed that the study of Latin encouraged discipline of the mind, and taught general intellectual skills, which transferred over into other subjects, improving the student’s performance in other disciplines (Catania, 1998). Nonetheless, the results of Thorndike’s research indicated that no transfer occurred between skills acquired through the study of Latin and better performance in other subjects, leading Thorndike to conclude that transfer only occurs between tasks which share “identical elements” and most situations were too dissimilar for transfer to occur (Perkins & Salomon, 1992). However, research carried out by Brown (1989 in Guberman & Greenfield, 1991) has demonstrated that surface resemblance between problems is neither necessary nor sufficient for transfer to occur (Guberman & Greenfield, 1991). Some research indicates that transfer varies with the type of knowledge under consideration (Brown, 1989 in Guberman & Greenfield, 1991).
The impact of near transfer and far transfer in education
Near transfer conditions refer to skill performance demands that differ only in small ways from performance demands during the attainment of the skill originally and far transfer conditions describe few similarities between training and transfer demands (Woltz, Gardner & Gyll, 2000). Near transfer differs from far transfer in that far transfer does not depend on surface stimulus resemblances (Kapa, 2007). Most effort in teaching and education is ultimately aimed at transfer, making skills as general as possible for transfer (Eggen & Kauchak, 1994). Unfortunately many studies have documented poor transfer across situations, which is the experience of many educators. However, research has often indicated that transfer is improved when learners are actively involved in the learning process (Bereby-Meyer & Kaplan, 2005). Research has also demonstrated that near transfer is much more likely to occur than far transfer and it is also easier to teach in a learning environment (Eggen & Kauchak, 1994)
Near transfer is far more readily observed in both an educational environment and experimental environment than far transfer as it occurs more easily than far transfer (Perkins & Salomon, 1992). An example of near transfer occurring is a student is able to complete math problems on a test which were similar to the ones practiced in class, or when examples used to test a student’s understanding of the application of theorems are similar to the examples used to teach said theorem (Eggen & Kauchak, 1994). This kind of transfer is regularly observed in an educational environment and can enable students to use the skills learned in one subject to aid them in another (Woolfolk, 1995) e.g. learning addition in maths can be transferred to the addition of balances in accounting at a later stage in life. Self-explanation was shown to have a greater impact on near transfer with students with low levels of prior topic knowledge (Renkl, Stark, Gruber & Mandl, 1998). This suggests that students benefit from self explanation with the improvement of near transfer of knowledge into other domains.
Far transfer occurs when students adapt knowledge previously obtained and apply it to unique situations, but this is rarer than near transfer as it requires a greater depth of understanding of the knowledge (Eggen & Kauchak, 1994).
However, there has been increasing evidence that far transfer, as well as near transfer, can be observed in an educational environment. In a study carried out by Wong, Lawson and Keeves (2002) self-explanation was found to have a positive effect on far transfer, with students who used the self-explanation method of learning exhibiting better performance on far transfer tasks. Tomic (1995) carried out research on primary school children of average ability investigating the effects of an inductive reasoning training programme for teaching children and found that the results demonstrated significant positive training effect on children’s inductive reasoning tasks and a near-far transfer was observed, with children able to complete tasks for which they had not been trained, however, far-far transfer was not observed. A study carried out by Kapa (2007) involving the introduction of metacognitive support mechanisms (MSMs) in different phases of the problem solving process designed to influence student’s transfer from near transfer to far transfer, which showed that the MSMs administered were significantly effective for the improvement of both near and far transfer on the problem solving process. This demonstrates that far transfer can be achieved in an educational environment, which is a desirable outcome as it allows what is learned in the classroom to be applied in ‘real world’ situations (Woolfolk,
1995).
Transfer of training is the application of skills obtained in a previous situation being applied in a current situation (Eggen & Kauchak, 1994). There are many types of transfer and conditions that contribute to transfer (Bereby-Meyer & Kaplan, 2005). Transfer of training has been shown to play a significant role in problem solving, as described above, and with positive transfer, problem solving is more successful. Both near and far transfer also play a role in education. Near transfer occurs more commonly than far transfer, but both allow the usage of knowledge previously learned to be applied in other situations, either extremely similar (near transfer) or different (far transfer) (Eggen & Kauchak, 1994), and both are key concepts in education. That is, knowledge learned in a schooling environment such as proper grammar, may be applied in everyday life, such as speaking with proper diction, which is the main goal of the educator while teaching (Woolfolk, 1995). While in many cases transfer does not occur, when the correct conditions are in place transfer more often than not will occur (Perkins & Salomon, 1992). This leads to the conclusion that transfer in educational environments will occur in abundance if the conditions are present.
What is Transfer?
Transfer is defined as the application of skill or knowledge gained in one situation in the performance of a new, novel task (Pennington, Nicolich & Rahm, 1995). Whenever knowledge previously acquired influences current learning, transfer as occurred (Woolfolk, 1995). For example, learning to get along with family members may prepare an individual to interact in a positive way with peers, learning to drive a car helps to prepare for learning to drive a van later, learning mathematics prepares for the study of physics and chess players may even become …show more content…
better strategic thinkers in business (Perkins & Salomon, 1992). Transfer of training is based on the concept of transfer of learning, which occurs when information or skills learned at one place and time is used in another setting (Eggen & Kauchak, 1994). In a way, any learning requires a degree of transfer, that is, transfer is always unreservedly contrastive: it assumes learning within a specific context and enquires about impact beyond that context (Perkins & Salomon, 1992). There are three main types of transfer: positive transfer, negative transfer and zero transfer.
Positive transfer is defined as the subsequent learning aided by prior learning (Biehler & Snowman, 1990). For example, people who are proficient in more than one language may find it easier to learn a new language than unilingual individuals (Perkins & Salomon, 1992). The effect of past learning on present learning is not always positive, and past learning can cause the attempt to apply previously learned but unsuitable methods to a new situation (Woolfolk, 1995). The attempt to apply strategies that are familiar but inappropriate to a new situation is known as negative transfer (Woolfolk, 1995), that is, negative transfer hinders the acquisition of new knowledge due to familiarity of pre-learned skills, knowledge or information. While negative transfer can be a problematic phenomenon of learning, it typically only causes problems in the early stages of learning in a new domain and with experience, learners correct for the effects of negative transfer (Perkins & Salomon, 1992). Zero transfer is when previous knowledge has neither a positive nor negative effect on current knowledge, for example a student learned a technique in maths but did not apply it to a physics problem which could be solved with this method (Eggen & Kauchak, 1994). Transfer can also be further divided into near transfer and far transfer. Near transfer refers to transfer between similar contexts, whereas far transfer describes transfer between contexts that at first seem to be completely different or at least, only slightly similar (Perkins & Salomon, 1992). Near transfer is observed far more frequently than far transfer, and it is also seen to occur more readily than far transfer (Tomic, 1995). There is no formal measure for transfer difference; however it is a useful idea in understanding different transfer occurrences (Woltz, Gardner & Gyll, 2000).
In order for transfer to occur, certain conditions are necessary, such as, thorough and diverse practice, explicit abstraction, active self monitoring, arousing mindfulness and use of metaphors or analogy (Perkins & Salomon, 1992). Thorough and diverse practice refers to intensive and extensive practice, which creates routine expertise, which is based on procedural knowledge (Guberman & Greenfield, 1991). Luria (1976, in Perkins & Salomon, 1992) found that there was major influence on a number of cognitive measures regarding literacy in a population where reading and writing played multiple roles, demonstrating the necessity of thorough and diverse practice. Explicit abstraction is sometimes necessary for transfer to occur and refers to the abstraction of critical attributes of a situation (Perkins & Salomon, 1992). Gick & Holyoak (1983) presented subjects with stories illustrating problems and their solutions and then had the subjects attempt to solve a different, but comparable transfer problem. The results indicated that if two previous analogies were presented, subjects often derived a problem schema, suggesting that explicit abstractions of principles from a situation foster transfer. Active self-monitoring, or metacognitive reflection on ones thinking processes, appears to promote transfer of training (Perkins & Salomon, 1992). This was illustrated in a study carried out by Belmont et al, (1982), in which a combination of efforts were used to teach children with intellectual disabilities simple memory strategies and then it was tested to see if these children would use the strategies in slightly different contexts. Results indicated that children who had also been taught to monitor their own thought processes in simple ways were more successful, illustrating the importance of active self-monitoring in problem solving. Mindfulness can be described as a generalized state of attentiveness to the activities an individual is occupied with and to their environment (Langer, 1989), which encourages transfer by attention to how one completed a similar task previously.
Transfer of Training and its impact on problem solving
Problem solving transfer occurs when an individual is able to employ what they have learned in order to solve problems that are different to problems presented during instruction (Kapa, 2007). Transfer of strategies between problems sharing similar formal structure is assisted by a semantic recoding that demonstrates the structural parallels between the problems (Gamo, Sander & Richard, 2010). Many studies have been carried out regarding transfer of training on problem solving. In a study carried out on six-year old children regarding transfer in analogical problem solving by Chen and Daehler (1989), subjects spontaneously transferred similar solutions, even when base and target problems shared few surface similarities. Results indicated that abstract representation of a solution principle and the ability to establish when it should be applied are significant aspects of effective transfer in problem solving. McDaniel and Schlager (1990) found that the requirement of discovering a strategy during training encourages the activation or improvement that are useful for generating a novel strategy. That is, the generation of a novel strategy provided better transfer in problem solving than being provided with a strategy in training. Research also indicated that individuals studying worked examples gain most from high-variability examples invest less time and mental effort in practice and achieve superior and less effort demanding transfer performance than individuals who first attempted to solve examples, then study worked examples (Paas & Merriënboer, 1994). This indicates that previously obtained knowledge has a positive influence on transfer in problem solving, inducing easier and more accurate transfer.
However, transfer does not always occur, and a large amount of research has documented poor transfer between the original situation where the skill or knowledge was obtained and new situations (Bereby-Meyer & Kaplan, 2005). This is demonstrated in the study carried out by Belmont et al (1982), in which children with intellectual disabilities were taught simple memory tasks to see if they could be applied in other situations. While some of the subjects did demonstrate transfer, it was discovered that only subjects who had been taught to monitor their thought processes as well who were more successful, and the majority of the subjects did not display transfer. Thorndike (1923) also found no transfer to have occurred in his classic study carried out to test if studying Latin prepared students for better performance in other subjects (Perkins & Salomon, 1992). At the time, it was widely believed that the study of Latin encouraged discipline of the mind, and taught general intellectual skills, which transferred over into other subjects, improving the student’s performance in other disciplines (Catania, 1998). Nonetheless, the results of Thorndike’s research indicated that no transfer occurred between skills acquired through the study of Latin and better performance in other subjects, leading Thorndike to conclude that transfer only occurs between tasks which share “identical elements” and most situations were too dissimilar for transfer to occur (Perkins & Salomon, 1992). However, research carried out by Brown (1989 in Guberman & Greenfield, 1991) has demonstrated that surface resemblance between problems is neither necessary nor sufficient for transfer to occur (Guberman & Greenfield, 1991). Some research indicates that transfer varies with the type of knowledge under consideration (Brown, 1989 in Guberman & Greenfield, 1991).
The impact of near transfer and far transfer in education
Near transfer conditions refer to skill performance demands that differ only in small ways from performance demands during the attainment of the skill originally and far transfer conditions describe few similarities between training and transfer demands (Woltz, Gardner & Gyll, 2000). Near transfer differs from far transfer in that far transfer does not depend on surface stimulus resemblances (Kapa, 2007). Most effort in teaching and education is ultimately aimed at transfer, making skills as general as possible for transfer (Eggen & Kauchak, 1994). Unfortunately many studies have documented poor transfer across situations, which is the experience of many educators. However, research has often indicated that transfer is improved when learners are actively involved in the learning process (Bereby-Meyer & Kaplan, 2005). Research has also demonstrated that near transfer is much more likely to occur than far transfer and it is also easier to teach in a learning environment (Eggen & Kauchak, 1994)
Near transfer is far more readily observed in both an educational environment and experimental environment than far transfer as it occurs more easily than far transfer (Perkins & Salomon, 1992). An example of near transfer occurring is a student is able to complete math problems on a test which were similar to the ones practiced in class, or when examples used to test a student’s understanding of the application of theorems are similar to the examples used to teach said theorem (Eggen & Kauchak, 1994). This kind of transfer is regularly observed in an educational environment and can enable students to use the skills learned in one subject to aid them in another (Woolfolk, 1995) e.g. learning addition in maths can be transferred to the addition of balances in accounting at a later stage in life. Self-explanation was shown to have a greater impact on near transfer with students with low levels of prior topic knowledge (Renkl, Stark, Gruber & Mandl, 1998). This suggests that students benefit from self explanation with the improvement of near transfer of knowledge into other domains.
Far transfer occurs when students adapt knowledge previously obtained and apply it to unique situations, but this is rarer than near transfer as it requires a greater depth of understanding of the knowledge (Eggen & Kauchak, 1994).
However, there has been increasing evidence that far transfer, as well as near transfer, can be observed in an educational environment. In a study carried out by Wong, Lawson and Keeves (2002) self-explanation was found to have a positive effect on far transfer, with students who used the self-explanation method of learning exhibiting better performance on far transfer tasks. Tomic (1995) carried out research on primary school children of average ability investigating the effects of an inductive reasoning training programme for teaching children and found that the results demonstrated significant positive training effect on children’s inductive reasoning tasks and a near-far transfer was observed, with children able to complete tasks for which they had not been trained, however, far-far transfer was not observed. A study carried out by Kapa (2007) involving the introduction of metacognitive support mechanisms (MSMs) in different phases of the problem solving process designed to influence student’s transfer from near transfer to far transfer, which showed that the MSMs administered were significantly effective for the improvement of both near and far transfer on the problem solving process. This demonstrates that far transfer can be achieved in an educational environment, which is a desirable outcome as it allows what is learned in the classroom to be applied in ‘real world’ situations (Woolfolk,
1995).
Transfer of training is the application of skills obtained in a previous situation being applied in a current situation (Eggen & Kauchak, 1994). There are many types of transfer and conditions that contribute to transfer (Bereby-Meyer & Kaplan, 2005). Transfer of training has been shown to play a significant role in problem solving, as described above, and with positive transfer, problem solving is more successful. Both near and far transfer also play a role in education. Near transfer occurs more commonly than far transfer, but both allow the usage of knowledge previously learned to be applied in other situations, either extremely similar (near transfer) or different (far transfer) (Eggen & Kauchak, 1994), and both are key concepts in education. That is, knowledge learned in a schooling environment such as proper grammar, may be applied in everyday life, such as speaking with proper diction, which is the main goal of the educator while teaching (Woolfolk, 1995). While in many cases transfer does not occur, when the correct conditions are in place transfer more often than not will occur (Perkins & Salomon, 1992). This leads to the conclusion that transfer in educational environments will occur in abundance if the conditions are present.