The transfer of knowledge and skill to different contexts: an empirical perspective

This publication reports on two studies, an initial study and a follow-up study, which look into the question of the transfer of knowledge and skill to different contexts. The extent to which students are able to retain knowledge or skill learned in one context and reproduce this knowledge or skill in a different context is explored in Study 1 with 121 Year 10 students in a country secondary school and in Study 2 with 72 Year 10 students from a metropolitan secondary school. Students in both studies were required to learn how to construct a pie chart from given information in mathematics class, and their ability was assessed. One month later the students were re-assessed for their ability to construct a pie chart from given information in another subject (the transfer task). The findings of the studies are analysed and tend to suggest that mathematics achievement on its own is no guarantee of transferring mathematics skills to different contexts, producing questions about emphasis on a modularised curriculum and implications for the administration of credit transfer and recognition of prior learning. Show less