WHAT IS TRANSFER OF TRAINING (GENERALIZATION)?
Transfer of training, or generalization, refers to the degree to which a learned behavior will be repeated correctly in a new situation, or a learned skill or principle will be applied in a new situation. Transfer is sometimes referred to as generalization or carry-over. In many respects, transfer is the most critical concept in teaching. However effective instruction might otherwise be, if a learned behavior or skill does not transfer to relevant functional application contexts and/or is not maintained over time, then the instruction has failed. Types of Transfer Transfer can be understood as falling somewhere on four continuous dimensions: • Near versus far transfer: Near transfer occurs when the training context and trained behavior are almost identical to the application context and application behavior. For example a student learns an arithmetic rule with problems on a worksheet and then applies the same rule in the same way on the same day to similar problems in a math workbook.
