{"id":533,"date":"2026-04-06T19:41:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T19:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/?p=533"},"modified":"2026-04-10T19:37:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T19:37:30","slug":"what-do-we-know-about-transfer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/2026\/04\/06\/what-do-we-know-about-transfer\/","title":{"rendered":"What Do We Know about Transfer?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">No matter our discipline, as teachers of writing, we share a common goal: equipping students with skills we hope will <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">transfer<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to other contexts. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Yet, a persistent concern has been troubling researchers for several decades (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/wacacademy.wordpress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/understanding-transfer.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Wardle 2007<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/associationdatabase.co\/archives\/31n1-2\/31n1-2dively-nelms.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dively and Nelms 2007<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">): that we tend to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">assume<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, rather than know, that <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">transfer<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is actually occurring.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">While this problem is often discussed as a matter of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/wacclearinghouse.org\/books\/perspectives\/wec\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">program<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> or <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/wacclearinghouse.org\/journal\/vol25\/vol25.pdf#page=79\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">curricula<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> design, research has also yielded plenty of insights that can inform what we do in our classrooms. Here are a few things to keep in mind:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>It\u2019s hard for students to generalize skills across classes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: if we look at things from the students\u2019 perspective, transfer expects quite a lot of them. Students must first intuit which skills to \u201cgeneralize\u201d across classes, and then, how to transform skills to fit a new context. This is one reason why, as researchers have noted, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/associationdatabase.co\/archives\/31n1-2\/31n1-2dively-nelms.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">students are more prone to \u201ccompartmentalize\u201d writing skills<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (per class, per assignment, per instructor), rather than seeing their college writing development as connected and cumulative.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>We can design assignments with \u201cpurposeful recursion\u201d:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> researchers suggest we make sure students <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">experience<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u201cpurposeful recursion\u201d (<\/span><a style=\"font-weight: 400\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/20457015\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Miles 2008<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">), <\/span>a useful concept borrowed from Educational Psychology<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. To make it more likely that <\/span><i style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">transfer<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> occurs for a certain skill, it should be repeated across assignments, in successively more complex challenges<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>Our language <i>really <\/i>matters:<\/strong> <span style=\"font-weight: 400\">we already know\u2013it\u2019s the terms we use to talk about writing that students remember after our classes (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/openurl.ebsco.com\/EPDB%3Agcd%3A5%3A15642293\/detailv2?sid=ebsco%3Aplink%3Ascholar&amp;id=ebsco%3Agcd%3A47797180&amp;crl=c&amp;link_origin=scholar.google.com\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jarratt et al 2009<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">). Researchers also ask us to ponder: what metaphors and terms do we use to describe transfer in different majors, after first year writing? (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/openurl.ebsco.com\/EPDB%3Agcd%3A9%3A15642521\/detailv2?sid=ebsco%3Aplink%3Ascholar&amp;id=ebsco%3Agcd%3A127194668&amp;crl=c&amp;link_origin=scholar.google.com\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Baird and Dilger 2017<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">) How do we emphasize\u2014across the curriculum\u2013that writing skills develop through a long, gradual process?<\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>Writing as <em>participation<\/em>, not just skills:<\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> from a more theoretical perspective, some argue we should think of learning to write as akin to learning to participate in a new community. Transfer occurs not just because students retain a certain set of skills, but also because they get better at discerning (over and over again!) what&#8217;s required of them in different contexts (<a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;id=FcInCgAAQBAJ&amp;oi=fnd&amp;pg=PA203&amp;dq=anson+2015+crossing+thresholds&amp;ots=IBsRA6aw4Q&amp;sig=rTdrAg08Iv1VwkRVYhreurC6iYQ#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\">Anson 2015<\/a>).\u00a0 How can assignments (especially at the upper division level) emphasize the goal of deeper <em>participation<\/em>, rather than just the &#8220;correct&#8221; execution of skills?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No matter our discipline, as teachers of writing, we share a common goal: equipping students with skills we hope will transfer to other contexts. Yet, a persistent concern has been troubling researchers for several decades (Wardle 2007 and Dively and <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/2026\/04\/06\/what-do-we-know-about-transfer\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":985,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[33],"class_list":["post-533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faculty-readings","tag-transfer"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What Do We Know about Transfer? - CADW Resource Hub<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/2026\/04\/06\/what-do-we-know-about-transfer\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Do We Know about Transfer? - CADW Resource Hub\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"No matter our discipline, as teachers of writing, we share a common goal: equipping students with skills we hope will transfer to other contexts. Yet, a persistent concern has been troubling researchers for several decades (Wardle 2007 and Dively and Continue reading &rarr;\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/2026\/04\/06\/what-do-we-know-about-transfer\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CADW Resource Hub\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-06T19:41:25+00:00\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-10T19:37:30+00:00\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mlittle\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"mlittle\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/2026\/04\/06\/what-do-we-know-about-transfer\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/2026\/04\/06\/what-do-we-know-about-transfer\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"mlittle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/#\/schema\/person\/68460d707dc21de50e80f1e084318167\"},\"headline\":\"What Do We Know about Transfer?\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-06T19:41:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-10T19:37:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/2026\/04\/06\/what-do-we-know-about-transfer\/\"},\"wordCount\":380,\"keywords\":[\"Transfer\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Faculty Readings\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/2026\/04\/06\/what-do-we-know-about-transfer\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/2026\/04\/06\/what-do-we-know-about-transfer\/\",\"name\":\"What Do We Know about Transfer? - CADW Resource Hub\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-06T19:41:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-10T19:37:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/#\/schema\/person\/68460d707dc21de50e80f1e084318167\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/2026\/04\/06\/what-do-we-know-about-transfer\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/2026\/04\/06\/what-do-we-know-about-transfer\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/2026\/04\/06\/what-do-we-know-about-transfer\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What Do We Know about Transfer?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/\",\"name\":\"CADW Resource Hub\",\"description\":\"Tools for Writing Program Affiliated Faculty\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/#\/schema\/person\/68460d707dc21de50e80f1e084318167\",\"name\":\"mlittle\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d49ecd4bf1fe581cabecf45916ba7f22?s=96&#038;r=g&#038;d=mm\",\"url\":\"\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d49ecd4bf1fe581cabecf45916ba7f22?s=96&#038;r=g&#038;d=mm\",\"contentUrl\":\"\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d49ecd4bf1fe581cabecf45916ba7f22?s=96&#038;r=g&#038;d=mm\",\"caption\":\"mlittle\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/author\/megan-little_little\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What Do We Know about Transfer? - CADW Resource Hub","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/2026\/04\/06\/what-do-we-know-about-transfer\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What Do We Know about Transfer? - CADW Resource Hub","og_description":"No matter our discipline, as teachers of writing, we share a common goal: equipping students with skills we hope will transfer to other contexts. Yet, a persistent concern has been troubling researchers for several decades (Wardle 2007 and Dively and Continue reading &rarr;","og_url":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/2026\/04\/06\/what-do-we-know-about-transfer\/","og_site_name":"CADW Resource Hub","article_published_time":"2026-04-06T19:41:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-04-10T19:37:30+00:00","author":"mlittle","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"mlittle","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/2026\/04\/06\/what-do-we-know-about-transfer\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/2026\/04\/06\/what-do-we-know-about-transfer\/"},"author":{"name":"mlittle","@id":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/#\/schema\/person\/68460d707dc21de50e80f1e084318167"},"headline":"What Do We Know about Transfer?","datePublished":"2026-04-06T19:41:25+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-10T19:37:30+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/2026\/04\/06\/what-do-we-know-about-transfer\/"},"wordCount":380,"keywords":["Transfer"],"articleSection":["Faculty Readings"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/2026\/04\/06\/what-do-we-know-about-transfer\/","url":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/2026\/04\/06\/what-do-we-know-about-transfer\/","name":"What Do We Know about Transfer? - CADW Resource Hub","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/#website"},"datePublished":"2026-04-06T19:41:25+00:00","dateModified":"2026-04-10T19:37:30+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/#\/schema\/person\/68460d707dc21de50e80f1e084318167"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/2026\/04\/06\/what-do-we-know-about-transfer\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/2026\/04\/06\/what-do-we-know-about-transfer\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/2026\/04\/06\/what-do-we-know-about-transfer\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What Do We Know about Transfer?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/","name":"CADW Resource Hub","description":"Tools for Writing Program Affiliated Faculty","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/#\/schema\/person\/68460d707dc21de50e80f1e084318167","name":"mlittle","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d49ecd4bf1fe581cabecf45916ba7f22?s=96&#038;r=g&#038;d=mm","url":"\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d49ecd4bf1fe581cabecf45916ba7f22?s=96&#038;r=g&#038;d=mm","contentUrl":"\/\/www.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d49ecd4bf1fe581cabecf45916ba7f22?s=96&#038;r=g&#038;d=mm","caption":"mlittle"},"url":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/author\/megan-little_little\/"}]}},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/985"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=533"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":546,"href":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533\/revisions\/546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/wp-cadw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}