ABSTRACT
Transfer is a key concept in education and learning theory because most formal education aspires to transfer. Successful learning means that students can compute 2 + 2 in a classroom and then transfer that learning to adding coins to buy candy at the store. Varying problem types, problem-solving methods, and learning contexts means having students solve problems of different types in different ways in different environments. The greater this mix, the greater the potential of transfer to new contexts. Near transfer occurs easily and naturally, and this kind of apples-to-apples transfer is the type of skill transfer generally achieved in training contexts. Far transfer, by contrast, occurs when prior learning can be applied to very different contexts and performances, such as transferring the application of logic in computer programming to the application of logic in evaluating a political speech.
