TRANSFER OF LEARNING

Transfer of Learning

Transfer of Learning

Introduction

Transfer of learning, also called transfer of training, is a process which involves the following steps: (1) trainees learn and retain the skills taught during training; (2) learned skills are transferred, which means using learned skills to perform one's job; and (3) transferred skills are maintained as a part of job performance over time. Achieving transfer of learning is difficult. It is estimated that 90 percent of training efforts do not successfully transfer to the job.

Methodology

The overriding strategy adopted by groups, no matter where on the programme the exercise was used, can be described as “negative-defensive”. That is, teams opted to adopt a strategy which gave them the highest possible positive score or the lowest possible negative score. This means playing blue. If the other team plays blue, then both groups end up with -3 for that round. If the other team plays red, then the team playing blue gets +6 and the team playing red gets -6. The choice then, in the view of the teams, is between a strategy (playing blue) which maximizes any positive score and minimizes a negative, or a strategy (playing red) which offers a minimum positive score if the other team do likewise, or a punitive negative score if they do not.

On the other hand, it does not take long to realize that without co-operation between both teams, there is no realistic possibility of either ending up with a positive score. Why then does the strategy of defection continue throughout the exercise, in spite of any agreements to co-operate that might have been reached at the negotiation points? Why do teams persist with a lose-lose strategy, when they have previously discussed and reflected on the value of mutual co-operation? Moreover, why does it persist when it is clearly consistent with the team's self-interest to co-operate?

Findings

Our findings over many enactments of the exercise echo those of Axelrod[1, parts I and II] in terms of the features of the strategies employed in the exercise. One feature has emerged, however, which we take to be of importance in promoting individual learning transfer.

This was that the results of the exercise were always similar, no matter where in the programme the exercise was used. This is surprising, because, from a trainer's or tutor's point of view, the timing of the exercise should have made a difference. It would not have surprised us to find the “logic of defection”[2] underpinning the decision making early in a programme or workshop. However, after participants have been exposed to a variety of alternative strategies, in which the value of strategies for mutual gain have been emphasized, and after carrying out role-play exercises in which they examine and reflect on negotiating behaviour, we would have expected a greater variety of strategies to emerge in the red-blue exercise.

This was never the case. Although a small minority of groups managed to achieve positive scores, this was usually after a “negative-defensive” start to the ...