Transfer occurs when learning one thing helps you learn or do something else. It\u2019s arguably the most important issue in educational psychology. After all, we spend years in the classroom. One would hope the things we learn make us more productive on the job, conscientious as citizens or intelligent in our daily lives.<\/p>\n
Yet it turns out the titular question is really difficult to answer. This is because the answer depends on three different questions, each of which is itself incredibly complicated:<\/p>\n
About two years ago, I started a research project to learn everything I could about transfer. It quickly became clear that understanding transfer depended on answering the other three questions, so my research broadened drastically.<\/p>\n
Despite two years of research and a lot of writing about transfer (including a chapter of my book<\/a>), I still don\u2019t have a definitive answer for how much transfer we can expect. But I\u2019d like to share at least how I\u2019ve come to think about the issue.<\/p>\nQuestion One: How Do We Perform Skills?<\/h2>\n
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