TRANSFER OF

LEARNING
 CONSIDER THE THREE
STUDENTS BELOW
Student 1 :
Yanti is bilingual. She speaks both
Bahasa Melayu and English fluently.
She begins a Tamil language course
and immediately recognises many
similarities between Tamil and English.
“Aha,” she thinks, “what I know about
English will help me learn Tamil.”
 CONSIDER THE THREE
STUDENTS BELOW
Student 2 :
In her middle school history class,
Stella discovers that she does better
on quizzes when she takes more
notes. She decides to take more notes
in her geography class as well, and
once again the strategy pays off.
CONSIDER THE THREE STUDENTS
BELOW
Student 3 :
Rizal’s standard five class has been
working with decimals for several weeks.
His teacher asks,. “Which number is larger,
4.4 or 4.14?”
Rizal recalls something he knows about
whole numbers. Numbers with three digits
are larger than numbers with only two
digits.
“The larger number is 4.14,” he mistakenly
concludes.
CONSIDER THE THREE STUDENTS
BELOW
Which of the three students’ past
experiences/learning helped them in
learning something new?
- positive impact

Which of the three students’ past

experiences/learning hindered the
learning of something new?
- negative impact
Case No. 1:

When studying for an exam, some students

start learning a month before the exams;
others study over a longer period of time;

Which is more effective?

Why?
Case No. 2:

Why is it that many educated people (even top

scholars) find problems in filling up forms (e.g.
Income Tax form), writing a letter to a
newspaper or government office etc. ?

Functional Illiterates -
People whose skills in reading and writing are 
insufficient for ordinary practical needs
Practice Effects: Practice or rehearsal (whether
maintenance or elaborative) improves retention.

2 kinds: i. distributed
ii. massed

Distributed practice (also known as spaced repetition or

spaced practice) is a learning strategy, where practice is
broken up into a number of short sessions - over a longer
period of time.
Humans and animals learn items in a list more effectively
when they are studied in several sessions spread out over
a long period of time, rather than studied repeatedly in a
short period of time, a phenomenon called the 
spacing effect.
The opposite, massed practice, consists of
fewer, longer training sessions. It is generally a
less effective method of learning. For example,
when studying for an exam dispersing your
studying more frequently over a larger period of
time will result in more effective learning than
intense study the night before.

Distributed practice has been found to be more

effective
 TRANSFER OF LEARNING

a. Definition:
The learning process that occurs in
one situation and is used in another
situation is known as transfer of
learning.
 TRANSFER OF LEARNING

b. Characteristics of Transfer of Learning

 Transfer of learning is also known as
generalisation or application of a concept
that has been learnt in another situation.
 The skill is using a knowledge or
competency that has been learnt from one
area to another situation.
 TRANSFER OF LEARNING

c. Types of Transfer of Learning

 Positive transfer of learning

- Proactive facilitation
 - Retroactive facilitation

 Negative transfer of learning

 TRANSFER OF LEARNING
c. Types of Transfer of Learning
 Positive transfer of learning

Definition:
Learning in situation A that helps the
learning process in situation B
 Example 1:

In the application of cognitive skills,

important contents that have been learnt in
science are reused in the writing of an essay
entitled ‘Effects of Acid Rain in Malaysia’
 TRANSFER OF LEARNING
c. Types of Transfer of Learning
 Positive transfer of learning

Example 2:
Application of motor skills that have been
learnt in a writing class that are used to
produce a drawing
e.g.
Yuganesh finds it easy to learn how to add
two digits with two digits after she has
learned to add two digits with one digit .
Why?

4 24
+5 + 35
9 59

Proactive Facilitation

15
e.g.

x+6=8
x=8–6

Retroactive Facilitation

Facilitation or improvement in the learning or

performance of a task caused by positive
transfer from training on a different task
occurring later in time.

16
 TRANSFER OF LEARNING
c. Types of Transfer of Learning
 Negative transfer of learning

Definition:
Learning in situation A that hinders the
learning in situation B
 Example 1:

An individual who is used to writing with his

right hand, will find it difficult to write with his
left hand when he faces a hand injury.
e.g.

Aifa is very good at playing netball; however, when

she tries to learn basketball, she is completely
hopeless. Why?

Negative Transfer of Learning (Interference Effects)

Proactive inhibition - learning of new information is
jeopardized because of previously learned
information.

Proactive inhibition
18
e.g.

In learning the alphabet, some students fail to

recognize the letter “b” after they have learned the
letter “d”. Why?

Negative Transfer of Learning (Interference Effects)

Retroactive inhibition- previously learned
information is lost because of new information

Retroactive inhibition

19
 TRANSFER OF LEARNING
Conditions for Transfer of Learning
a) Motive
1. An individual must have a real reason or
purpose to carry out transfer of learning

2. Motive can also be defined as a purpose

to carry out transfer of learning. A pupil must
have the motivation to carry out a job or a
task.
 TRANSFER OF LEARNING

 Thismeans that a teacher must give pupils

assignments or tasks that can arouse their
interest to complete these tasks.
 TRANSFER OF LEARNING
Conditions for Transfer of Learning
b) Skills
1. Pupils must have the relevant skills to
carry out a task

2. To carry out a job well, pupils need to

apply certain skills in the teaching and
learning process.
e.g. Pupils need hand and finger
coordination skills in scoring goal in netball
 TRANSFER OF LEARNING
Conditions for Transfer of Learning
c) Understanding
1. The understanding process must take
place. Learning in the first situation must be
reinforced. If not, negative transfer of
learning will occur.
2. If learning in the first situation is not
understood by pupils, it would be very
difficult for them to make transfer of learning
to another situation.
 TRANSFER OF LEARNING
Conditions for Transfer of Learning
d) Similarity
1. Pupils need to learn to see the similarities
between two different learning situations.
2. Only by fulfilling this condition, effective
transfer of learning will take place.
3. Pupils should be taught to see the
similarities between two learning situations.
e.g. Same topics studied in two subjects
‘Pollution’ in The World of Science and
 TRANSFER OF LEARNING
Conditions for Transfer of Learning
d) Similarity...
4. Teachers can also apply the principles of
proximity while teaching and learning...
materials that are taught in sequence or that
are closely related.
 TUTORIAL 3

Search for videos on ‘Transfer of

Learning’ and watch them. Then relate
what you have acquired from your
viewings to their implications in teaching
and learning.