Teaching for Transfer

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.