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Session 2. Designing for Transfer
Objective. Design a transfer ladder for a core idea, using varied examples, comparison of deep structure and at least one unseen task.
Every teacher has met the pupil who solves the textbook problem perfectly and then freezes when the same idea appears in a different setting. The pupil did learn something, but it stayed tied to the example. This lesson looks at how to design so that learning travels: how to choose examples, how to prepare pupils to recognise when an idea applies and how to build a fair task that is new in appearance only. Transfer is a design decision, not a talent.
Key ideas
What transfer is
- Transfer is using what was learned in a situation that looks different from the one in which it was learned: new numbers, a new context, a new subject.
- Near transfer (a similar task with new numbers) is common. Far transfer (a different context or subject) does not happen on its own, and many pupils cannot do it even when they know the idea.
- So if you want transfer, you must design for it from the start; you cannot add it only in the last lesson or the test.
Surface and deep structure
- Every problem has a surface (rice, cotton, a map, a car) and a deep structure (the idea that solves it, such as a constant ratio). Pupils often attend to the surface only.
- Teach the same idea in several different surfaces, then ask 'What is the same in these problems?' Comparing cases helps pupils see the deep structure.
- Also use look-alikes: problems that look the same but need a different idea. They teach pupils to decide, not to match words.
Knowledge first, then the new situation
- Transfer needs a secure base. Pupils who have not mastered the idea cannot apply it; that is why Session 1 (retrieval, spacing) comes first.
- Teach the cue as well: 'When do I use this idea?' Pupils need to recognise when prior knowledge applies, not only how it works.
- Ask 'Where have we seen this before?' in new topics and in other subjects. Plan these links with colleagues (see course 8.8 Curriculum Design).
The transfer ladder
- Build four rungs for a core idea: (1) same task, new numbers; (2) same idea, new context; (3) a look-alike where the idea does not apply; (4) an unseen task in another subject or a real situation.
- Teach and practise rungs 1 and 2 in lessons; use rungs 3 and 4 during the later part of the unit, then in the test, so that no pupil meets them for the first time under test conditions only.
- Be fair: a transfer task should be new in surface only, not in the knowledge needed. Check the unseen task against what was taught.
The transfer ladder
Why knowledge stays stuck to the example
Memory stores ideas together with the setting in which they were learned. If pupils meet proportion only with recipes, the cue for using it is 'a recipe'. When cotton yield appears, the cue is missing. Researchers who study transfer stress that pupils must also learn to recognise when prior knowledge applies, not only how it works. One short experiment from the Learning Scientists, linked below, found that retrieval practice helped pupils use knowledge in a new question more than restudying did, yet recognising when to use it remained the hard part.
So the teacher's job has two halves: teach the idea well, and teach the cue. A simple routine is to ask, after any example, 'How would I know to use this idea?' and write the pupils' answers as a list of signals on the board.
Building a fair transfer task
A transfer task is fair when it changes the surface but needs only knowledge pupils have been taught. Write the task, then list the ideas needed to solve it and tick where each was taught. A missing tick means the task tests something else. Also make sure pupils have met at least one different surface and one look-alike in lessons, so that the test is not the first time they have to decide.
Introduce transfer tasks early and often, in low-stakes form, such as a five-minute 'new situation' question in a starter. If the first unseen problem arrives in the final test, results will mostly reflect surprise. Treat wrong answers as information: sort them into 'matched the surface', 'wrong idea' and 'slip' to decide what to re-teach.
Examples from the classroom
Fair test, new substance
Scene. Aziz teaches Grade 6 science in Tashkent. Pupils learned to plan a fair test by changing one thing while growing beans in cups with different amounts of water. Later he asks: 'Dilnoza says sugar dissolves faster in hot water. How would you test it fairly?' Before the test he had asked, 'What stayed the same in the bean test?' so pupils had the cue 'change one thing'.
Insight. Naming the deep idea before the new context gives pupils a cue to carry across.
Reading a climate graph in a second city
Scene. Malika teaches Grade 9 geography in Bukhara. Pupils learned to read a climate graph for Tashkent. In the next lesson she gives them the graph for a northern city and asks, 'Which crop could be grown and why?' Then she asks them to list what they did the same with both graphs. They write: find the warm months, compare rainfall, link to crop needs.
Insight. Comparing two cases helps pupils see what is constant across them.
A letter, a notice, a message
Scene. Dilnoza teaches Grade 5 Uzbek language in Samarkand. After pupils write a formal letter to the school head, she asks them to write a notice to parents about a Navruz event. The reader and purpose change, and the parts of formal writing (greeting, purpose, details, closing) stay. She prepares by asking, 'Which parts of the letter would we still need?'
Insight. A new text type is a fair transfer task when the underlying structure was taught and named.
Common pitfalls
- Calling a task 'transfer' when it only changes the numbers.
- Setting an unseen problem that needs knowledge the class has not been taught, then blaming the pupils.
- Using real-life contexts that are rich but confusing, so pupils spend their effort decoding the setting.
- Teaching transfer only in the final week instead of building it through the unit.
Climb the Transfer Ladder
- Second activity first, whole group (10 min): sort the six SAMPLE problems in the Kit into 'same deep idea' and 'look-alike'. Say in one sentence what the deep idea is.
- Trios (5 min): read the SAMPLE Grade 7 unit 'Ratio and proportion' and its textbook practice. Which rungs of the ladder does the textbook already give? Which are missing?
- Trios (20 min): write one task for each rung for the same idea. For rung 4 use another subject (geography, science, technology) or a real situation from the school or the mahalla.
- Pairs (10 min): swap ladders with another trio. Check each rung: Is it new in surface only? Could a pupil who learned the idea solve it? Mark one rung to improve.
- Alone (10 min): choose one core idea in your own subject and draft its four rungs. Write your school-based task.
Your facilitator will guide you through this activity in the session.
Questions to discuss
- Which look-alike problem would catch your pupils out? What would they do?
- How did you make sure rung 4 is fair and not a trick?
- Where in your year plan could rungs 3 and 4 appear before the test?
Reflect
- Think of a pupil who knows the rule but fails the new problem. What was missing?
- Which core idea in your subject appears in other subjects too?
- When did you last set an unseen task, and how did the class react?
Try it tomorrow
- After your next worked example, ask 'How would I know to use this idea?' and write the pupils' signals on the board.
- Write a look-alike problem for a topic you teach this week and use it in a starter.
- Take one test question and check that every idea it needs was taught before; fix the question or the teaching.
Further reading and links
Teach the idea in several surfaces, compare them, include a look-alike, and give pupils an unseen task before the test.