Transfer of learning (SACE Stage 2 Physical Education)

What this dot point is asking

You must explain the types of transfer of learning and how practice design influences whether transfer helps or harms performance.

Types of transfer

• Positive transfer: learning one skill makes learning or performing another easier because they share movement patterns or principles. Throwing a ball overarm transfers to a tennis serve and a cricket bowl.
• Negative transfer: a previously learned skill interferes with a new one because they look similar but require different responses. A squash player's wristy swing can disrupt their tennis stroke, which needs a firm wrist.
• Zero transfer: one skill has no effect on another because they share nothing relevant. Swimming technique does not affect a golf putt.
• Bilateral transfer: a skill learned on one side of the body transfers to the other, for example learning to dribble with the dominant foot helps the weaker foot.

Why transfer occurs

Transfer depends on how similar the skills and their contexts are. Skills that share the same fundamental movement pattern, timing or perceptual demands tend to produce positive transfer. Skills that look alike but demand a different response produce negative transfer because the performer initially applies the wrong, automatic pattern.

Maximising positive transfer

Coaches deliberately design practice so earlier learning helps later performance.

• Teach fundamental movement skills first: overarm throwing, catching and striking transfer to many sports.
• Use realistic, game-like practice: practising skills in the context they will be used (random and whole practice) improves transfer to the game, satisfying specificity.
• Build progressions: break a complex skill into parts that each transfer to the whole, then combine them.
• Highlight the shared principles: pointing out what two skills have in common helps the learner apply prior learning.

Avoiding negative transfer

Negative transfer is most likely when two skills are similar in appearance but different in execution, and when a learner is fatigued or rushed. Coaches reduce it by clearly distinguishing the two skills, allowing the first to become well established before introducing the second, and avoiding teaching conflicting skills in the same session.

Transfer also underpins the logic of skill progressions and the Self-improvement Portfolio. When a coach breaks a complex skill into parts, each part is chosen so that mastering it transfers positively to the whole, and lead-up games are designed so the perceptual and decision-making demands match those of the full game. The deliberate question a coach asks is whether a given drill shares enough relevant elements with the target performance to transfer, or whether it risks grooving a pattern that will later interfere. Judging a practice activity by the transfer it is likely to produce, rather than by how busy or enjoyable it looks, is the analytical skill this dot point develops.