Why Students Usually Fail at Learning Transfer
The Science Behind the Struggle
How can the same student ace a math exam, but freeze on a word problem?
Picture this: Your student can solve area calculations all day long in math class ... but insert that same concept in a story about planting grass seed, and suddenly they're stumped.
Sound familiar? This isn't a failure of understanding — it's one of education's most persistent puzzles ... and the solution might surprise you.
We've all witnessed the frustrating phenomenon where students demonstrate mastery in one context, only to appear completely lost when the same skills are needed elsewhere.
Traditional thinking suggests these students simply haven't learned the material well enough. But research reveals something far more interesting: students often possess the knowledge they need — they just don't recognize when to use it.
The culprit? Our brains' tendency to get trapped by surface-level features while missing the deeper structural similarities that actually matter for learning transfer.
In this installment of "From Theory to Practice", I dive deep into Rabinowitz and Gerstel Friedman's fascinating study on surface versus deep structure recognition.
This isn't just theoretical—it's research that offers practical solutions for one of education's biggest challenges: helping students transfer their learning across different contexts.
Rabinowitz, M., & Gerstel-Friedman, J. (2017) | Orienting to see what's important: Learn to ignore the irrelevant. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1-23.
Here's what you'll learn:
-- How expert thinkers automatically see past surface details to identify core problem structures, while novices get stuck on irrelevant features
-- The simple "triad technique" researchers used to train students to recognize deep structural patterns in just 10-15 practice rounds
-- Why students who seem to "lack" certain skills actually possess the knowledge but struggle with application recognition
-- Explicit strategies for explicitly training transfer skills rather than hoping students naturally develop them
Give it a watch, and let me know what you think.
And, as always, if you have any peers or colleagues who may be interested in this topic, I encourage you to forward this video to them.
---
Check us out at: www.lmeglobal.net
Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath (PhD, MEd) is a neuroscientist, educator, and author of the new best-selling book 'Stop Talking, Start Influencing: 12 Insights from Brain Science to Make Your Message Stick'. He has conducted research and lectured at Harvard University, Harvard Medical School, the University of Melbourne, and over 200 schools internationally. He currently serves as Director of LME Global: a team dedicated to bringing the latest brain and behavioral research to teachers, students, and parents alike.
This week's article: Rabinowitz, M., & Gerstel-Friedman, J. (2017). Orienting to see what's important: Learn to ignore the irrelevant. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1-23. https://www.academia.edu/download/551...
#teaching #teacher #teachers #education #educators #psychology #feedback #research #classroom #science