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Version 1.1 – Updated August 2021

Transfer strategies

Overview

  • Influence: Transfer strategies
  • Domain: Student Learning Strategies
  • Sub-Domain: Meta-cognitive/self-regulated learning
  • Potential to Accelerate Student Achievement: Potential to considerably accelerate
  • Influence Definition: For learning to be effective, students must be able to make a spontaneous, unprompted, and appropriate transfer of a learning or problem-solving strategy from one context to another. This can be near transfer to new problems similar to the instruction, or far transfer to new situations and domains.

Evidence

  • Number of meta-analyses: 5
  • Number of studies: 211
  • Number of students: 7,315
  • Number of effects: 234
  • Effect size: 0.86

Meta-Analyses

Meta-Analyses
Journal Title Author First Author's Country Article Name Year Published Variable Number of Studies Number of Students Number of Effects Effect Size
Report Rayner, Bernard, & Osana Quebec A Meta-Analysis of Transfer of Learning in Mathematics with a Focus on Teaching Interventions 2013 Transfer in math 53 0 116 0.80
Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning Marzano, Gaddy, & Dean What Works in Classroom Instruction 2000 Experimental inquiry 6 0 6 1.14
Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning Marzano, Gaddy, & Dean What Works in Classroom Instruction 2000 Identifying similarities and differences 51 0 51 1.32
School Science and Mathematics Apthorp & Dean USA Using similarities and differences: A meta-analysis of its effects and emergent patterns 2012 Similarities & Differences transfer 12 1,650 12 0.65
Journal of Management Blume, Ford, Baldwin, & Huang USA Transfer of training: A meta-analytic review 2010 Transfer on learning 89 5,665 49 0.39
TOTAL/AVERAGE 211 7,315 234 0.86

Confidence

The Confidence is the average of these four measures, each divided into five approximately equal groups and assigned a value from 1 to 5 based on the following criteria:

  • Number of Meta-analyses
    • 1 = 1
    • 2 = 2–3
    • 3 = 4–6
    • 4 = 7–9
    • 5 = 10+
  • Number of Studies
    • 1 = 1–10
    • 2 = 11–50
    • 3 = 51–200
    • 4 = 201–400
    • 5 = 400+
  • Number of Students
    • 1 = 1–2,500
    • 2 = 2,501–10,000
    • 3 = 10,000–20,000
    • 4 = 20,000–100,000
    • 5 = 100,001+
  • Number of Effects
    • 1 = 1–100
    • 2 = 101–300
    • 3 = 301–600
    • 4 = 601–1,200
    • 5 = 1,200+
Confidences
Number of Meta-Analyses Number of Studies Number of Students Number of Effects Overall Confidence
Confidence Factor 3 4 2 2 3
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