A central aim of school instruction is to facilitate the transfer of generalization of acquired knowledge beyond the initial learning context to new circumstances. Recent efforts to develop curricula in which mathematics is embedded in meaningful contexts has given the transfer of leaning across contexts new relevancy. However, transfer research has floundered in recent years due primarily to findings that transfer is difficult to engineer in the laboratory. Furthermore two controversies in the literature indicate theoretical problems with the construct of transfer. Unfortunately, many researchers have abandoned inquiry in this area, well short of reaching and understanding of transfer sufficient to provide much-needed guidance in designing and organizing learning environments.
