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Essentials of Learning for Instruction: Generalization Phase |
Retrieval of what is learned does not always occur in the same situation or within the same context that surrounded the original learning. After all, one expects the student learner to be able to use the principle of a lever in moving heavy objects in real life, not simply in the context of his science textbook. In other words, there must be generalization of the learning that has occurred. The recall of what has been learned and its application different contexts is referred to as the transfer of learning, often shortened to transfer.
An example of transfer. A famous study on transfer was performed many years ago (Judd, 1908) and redone later by Hendrickson and Schroeder (1941). Three groups of junior high school boys, chosen to be roughly equal in age and intelligence, were given the task of hitting a target submerged under water by shooting at it with an air rifle. They practiced shooting at a target six inches below the surface. One group simply practiced until they got three consecutive hits. A second group was given a general explanation of the principles of refraction, using a diagram of a rock in a lake, before they practiced. The third group received the same explanation and also a working rule "The deeper the lake is, the farther the real rock will be from the image rock," followed by practice. Transfer of learning was assessed by the boys' performance in hitting a second target, this time at a depth of two inches. It was found that the third group, which had received both the explanation and a working rule, showed the greatest amount of transfer of learning to this second task. The "working rule" was apparently the most important factor in producing transfer.
We can assume that the boys who participated in this study learned how to aim at a submerged target as a result of their practice with the one six inches below the surface. In order to transfer this experience to the situation involving the second target, however, they needed a rule for changing aim with a change in degree of submersion. Those boys who learned about refraction presumably learned this principle in some form. It is particularly significant, though that the group evidencing the greatest transfer named a practical rule that could be directly applied to the new situation. Thus, this study suggests that "understanding the principles" in a general sense, while important to transfer, may not always be sufficient. It may be that the "working rule" was more directly related to the new situation, or that it functioned as a retrieval cue to connect the principles to the new context.
Transfer in school learning. Since transfer is so obviously a goal of school learning, instruction needs to include the means of insuring retrieval in the greatest variety of contexts possible. "Teaching for transfer" may be interpreted as aiming to provide the learner with processes for retrieval that will apply in many kinds of practical contexts. Variety of contexts for learning thus becomes one of the important conditions supporting the transfer phase of the learning process.
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