Transfer is the ability to apply knowledge and skills across different contexts.  Transfer is generally broken into two major categories:

  • Low-Road Transfer, in which the learner applies their knowledge or skills directly across similar contexts–e.g. using vocabulary and grammar they learned in Spanish 101 a term later in Spanish 102.
  • High-Road Transfer, in which the learner adapts or generalizes their knowledge and skills in order to apply them to a different context then the one in which they first learned them–e.g. a student uses the numerical literacy skills they learned in a Economics class to present and explain their data in a Physics lab report.

Studies have shown that students generally understand intuitively when and how to perform low-road transfer. So, or example, if they learn a lab procedure in a 200-level Chemistry class, they’re generally able to replicate that same procedure in advanced Chemistry classes.

However, students often struggle to understand when and how to perform high road transfer. In other words, they often don’t realize how they can apply the skills they learned in one course to another, different course, unless they are explicitly taught to do so.

So, for example, if a student learns how to research and document sources in a Classics class, they might not know how to transfer those skills to researching and writing a literature review in Chemistry. This doesn’t mean that the student needs to re-learn basic research and documentation skills from scratch; it just means that the student will need guidance and thought to figure out how to adapt their existing skills to a new discipline and context.

In these situations, metacognitive writing can help students assess their current knowledge, methodologies, and assumptions, so they can adapt and transfer their skills effectively.

Assignments That Promote Transfer

Knowledge Surveys: at the beginning of a term or when introducing a major project, send out a quick survey to your students. Ask them what skills they think they’ll need to be successful in thew or ahead and if and when they’ve used those skills previously. This will get students thinking critically about what they already know (and don’t know), and it will help you see the strengths and learning gaps in your class.

Learning Assessments: At the end of the term or upon completion of a major project, ask students to summarize what they learned from the experience. Ideally you should push students to move beyond the surface level of the course material and into the deeper skills and conversations the course addressed. What skills did they gain or sharpen? What new methods or ideas did they encounter that might be valuable in the future? Then, have students explicitly consider how their learning in the course might be helpful to them in future courses, or even in their lives beyond college. Students often resist this kind of speculative thinking, but by making it an integral part of your course, you can encourage them to think about their learning as a continuous process of making connections, rather than a series of isolated classes.