Learning transfer—the capacity to apply knowledge and skills learned in one context to new and different situations—represents a crucial, albeit extraordinarily challenging, aspect of human learning. Transfer is widely considered the ultimate goal of education, but while students may demonstrate understanding on an exam, when asked to use that same knowledge in a novel situation, they often fall short.
For those of us preparing our nation’s teachers, this reality should give us pause. If our students—future educators—struggle to transfer their own learning, we risk reinforcing the same challenge in their classrooms. Teacher preparation programs have an opportunity to take learning transfer seriously, not only for the benefit of our graduates but also for the many students that they will serve.
Employers, including K-12 schools, often highlight what happens when transfer is absent. New graduates, they note, sometimes arrive without clear, applicable skills and may need detailed instructions for even basic problem solving. While this critique can feel reductive, it reflects the difficulty many students face when asked to apply knowledge outside the environment in which they first encountered it.
Research reinforces this concern. Studies show that students forget much of what they memorize within days of an exam. Without a deeper grasp of underlying principles, knowledge remains tethered to specific contexts rather than becoming a flexible tool. In today’s economy where adaptability is critical, this gap limits both graduates and the institutions that serve them.
Transfer is challenging because it demands more than recall. Students must develop conceptual understanding and an awareness of when to apply it. Learning is more likely to transfer when learners practice in varied contexts, experience consistent scaffolding, encounter entwined content and reflect on how they learn. Even so, most evidence points to near transfer—using skills in contexts that closely resemble the original environment. The more difficult far transfer, which involves applying knowledge in dissimilar contexts and at later times, remains rare across all levels and domains of education.
A small experiment I helped lead at another institution underscored this reality. One group of students was given explicit, carefully aligned examples of course content, while another group received the standard, generic examples. Later, both groups were asked to apply their learning in real-world tasks. Math students had to position a ladder at a safe angle, chemistry students mixed simple cleaning solutions and composition students worked with elementary children to create stories.
Of 150 students, fewer than 5% completed the tasks successfully. Even those who had been given aligned examples performed no better than their peers. The study echoed broader research findings: Knowledge often fails to transfer, even when the classroom scenario looks remarkably similar to the real-world task.
At Western Governors University, we have made transfer a guiding priority in our School of Education. As the largest nonprofit, competency-based degree conferrer for educators in the country, our school recognizes a dual responsibility to help our own students experience transfer in meaningful ways and to prepare them to cultivate transfer in their future classrooms. Our education courses are grounded in the science of learning and informed by neuroscience. While we have not solved the challenge completely, we are committed to treating it as central, not incidental to teaching.
This is where schools of education can collectively lead. It is not enough to prepare graduates who can demonstrate subject knowledge alone. We must also prepare graduates who can use that knowledge flexibly to design lessons, address classroom challenges and adapt to shifting educational landscapes. If transfer is present in preparation programs, we increase the likelihood that it will also be present in K-12 classrooms.
Here are three takeaways as we consider this challenge together. First, design courses explicitly with transfer in mind. That means moving beyond content delivery toward approaches that emphasize conceptual understanding, scaffolding, interleaving and metacognition. Second, recognize that critical thinking does not emerge automatically in college. It must be taught, modeled and practiced in authentic contexts. And third, treat transfer as a key measure of success. If our graduates can use what they learn beyond the classroom, we know we are fulfilling our promise as educators.
Transfer should not be seen as a bonus outcome but the outcome in itself. Aspiring teachers deserve more than the ability to recall facts. They deserve the ability to use what they know to innovate, solve problems and contribute meaningfully in their communities. As education leaders, we have an opportunity to place transfer at the center of our shared mission.
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