Transferring Transfer to Technology

Transferring Transfer to Technology

A challenge to psychologists is to apply their expertise to improving education (Sternberg & Lyon, 2002). This article describes the author's efforts to use his research on transfer as a basis for designing three software modules to help students adapt a simple solution to solve more complex problems. A structure-mapping framework (Gentner, 1983) provides a theoretical basis for both analyzing the research and designing the instruction. Embedded questions evaluate the source of specific difficulties in adapting solutions and provide feedback that helps students construct and solve equations for word problems. The calculated answer can then be evaluated in a simulation of the problem (Kaput, 1992).