Definition
Transfer of learning is the application of knowledge, skills, or strategies acquired through experience or instruction in one context (the learning context) to a new, different context (the transfer context) — with "near transfer" describing application to very similar situations and "far transfer" describing application across substantially different domains.
In Focus, Goleman raises transfer of learning in the context of social and emotional learning (SEL) programmes: the question is not just whether children can demonstrate empathy in a classroom exercise but whether that skill transfers to how they behave on the playground, at home, and eventually in workplaces. Transfer is the test of whether learning is shallow (situational, cue-dependent) or deep (abstracted, flexible, genuinely internalised).
Why it matters
How it works
Near vs. far transfer
Near transfer involves applying a skill to a situation very similar to the training context — a chess player applying a memorised opening to a slightly varied game position, or a maths student applying a recently taught formula to a modified problem. This is relatively easy and is what most standardised testing measures.
Far transfer involves applying an abstracted principle to a substantially different domain — applying statistical reasoning to evaluate a health claim, using negotiation skills learned in labour relations to family conflict, or using empathy skills from a counselling course in a sales interaction. Far transfer is the educationally important form because it is what makes learning genuinely generative rather than merely situationally adaptive.
The role of abstraction
Perkins and Salomon's "bridging" model proposes that far transfer requires explicit effort to abstract from the specific learning experience to a domain-general principle, and then to identify the structural similarities between the new situation and the principle. This bridging process does not happen automatically; it must be taught or facilitated. Instruction that asks students to explain why a method works, to apply it to a contrasting case, or to identify analogous situations actively supports the abstraction needed for far transfer.
SEL and emotional transfer
Goleman's specific concern in Focus is whether social and emotional learning transfers beyond the classroom. The evidence is encouraging: longitudinal studies of evidence-based SEL programmes (PATHS, Roots of Empathy, Second Step) show that skill gains in social awareness and self-regulation persist over years and appear across settings — not just in the original classroom context where they were taught. This is far transfer.
The mechanism appears to be that SEL teaches children meta-level skills — how to notice an emotional state, how to pause before acting, how to read social cues — that are inherently portable because they involve self-monitoring rather than domain-specific procedures. An attention-management skill is closer to a general cognitive tool than a domain-specific fact.
The brain sciences of transfer
At the neural level, transfer is associated with the prefrontal cortex's ability to abstract and apply rules independent of the surface features of the original learning context. Working memory capacity enables this: the ability to hold both the principle and the new situation in mind simultaneously while identifying the match. Sleep, spaced repetition, and interleaved practice (mixing examples from different sub-categories) all support the consolidation of transferable representations.