Teaching for Transfer Fostering Generalization in Learning

The transfer of learning is universally accepted as the ultimate aim of teaching. Facilitating knowledge transfer has perplexed educators and psychologists over time and across theoretical frameworks; it remains a central issue for today's practitioners and theorists. This volume examines the reasons for past failures and offers a reconceptualization of the notion of knowledge transfer, its problems and limitations, as well as its possibilities. Leading scholars outline programs of instruction that have effectively produced transfer at a variety of levels from kindergarten to university. They also explore a broad range of issues related to learning transfer including conceptual development, domain-specific knowledge, learning strategies, communities of learners, and disposition. The work of these contributors epitomizes theory-practice integration and enables the reader to review the reciprocal relation between the two that is so essential to good theorizing and effective teaching.

Contents: Preface. A. Marini, R. Genereux, The Challenge of Teaching for Transfer. C. Bereiter, A Dispositional View of Transfer. J.C. Campione, A.M. Shapiro, A.L. Brown, Forms of Transfer in a Community of Learners: Flexible Learning and Understanding. M.K. Singley, Promoting Transfer Through Model Tracing. D.F. Dansereau, Derived Structural Schemas and the Transfer of Knowledge. S. Griffin, R. Case, A. Capodilupo, Teaching for Understanding: The Importance of the Central Conceptual Structures in the Elementary Mathematics Curriculum. A. McKeough, Teaching Narrative Knowledge for Transfer in the Early School Years. M. Pressley, A Transactional Strategies Instruction Christmas Carol. J.L. Lupart, Exceptional Learners and Teaching for Transfer.

McKeough, Anne; Lupart, Judy Lee; Marini, Anthony