Transfer — applying learning from one context to another — is the goal of education but is frustratingly difficult to produce.

Near transfer (similar context) is relatively easy. Far transfer (very different context) is rare and hard to predict. Most educational interventions produce near transfer at best.

The conditions for transfer: deep understanding of underlying principles (not surface features), varied practice contexts (prevents overfitting to one situation), explicit attention to structural similarity across domains.

This is why "learning to learn" is valuable — it's the skill of noticing structural similarity. Without it, each new domain feels entirely new.

Related: [[desirable-difficulties]], [[zone-of-proximal-development]]