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An Analysis of How Students Transfer Knowledge to a New Problem:

Students analyzed a case study, which depicts two seventh graders trying to understand information in a science textbook ("Analysis of Two Middle School Students' Cognitive Strategies, Memory and Learning," by Pintrich and Young, 1993). The case material includes actual research data, including interview transcripts with the two children and excerpts of their performance on free recall and transfer tasks. Students answered five questions about the seventh graders' reading strategies, metacognitive abilities, and performance on the recall and transfer tasks. They also addressed the question of what they would do as teachers to enhance the children's learning (see the case study and the assignment handout.) Students had no separate preparation for this assignment; they completed the assignment outside of class, and based their analysis on what they had learned in the previous weeks. This assignment is another test of students' ability to transfer knowledge—to integrate and apply their knowledge of learning theory to a new problem.