If You Learn A,

Will You Be Better

Able to Learn B?
Understanding Transfer of Learning

By Pedro De Bruyckere, Paul A. Kirschner, and to bundle the questions and expand upon our answers. This has
Casper Hulshof resulted in a new book with all new “myths,” More Urban Myths

I
about Learning and Education: Challenging Eduquacks,
n 2015, we published our book Urban Myths about Learning Extraordinary Claims, and Alternative Facts, from which this
and Education. 1 An excerpt of one section of that book, article is excerpted. Here, we discuss some of the most often
“Technology in Education: What Teachers Should Know,” asked questions related to one basic principle in particular:
was published in the Spring 2016 issue of American Educa- transfer of learning.
tor. An unexpected effect was that after the book’s publication, Transfer of learning is seen as the use of knowledge, skills, and/
all three of us received a number of requests per week for new or attitudes that you’ve learned in one situation in a different situ-
educational fact checks. At first, we blogged or tweeted our ation.2 This new situation can be either a similar situation (near
short answers to these queries, but at a certain point we decided transfer) or a dissimilar situation (far transfer). In recent years,
we’ve encountered numerous different forms that claim to be
examples of far transfer:
Pedro De Bruyckere is an education scientist at Artevelde University in
Belgium and a postdoctoral researcher at Leiden University in the Nether- • Learn how to program, so that you can more easily learn
lands. Paul A. Kirschner is an emeritus professor of educational psychology mathematics.
ILLUSTRATIONS BY PAUL ZWOLAK

at the Open University of the Netherlands, a visiting professor of education • Learn Latin, so that you can better learn other languages.
at the University of Oulu in Finland, and a guest professor at Thomas More
University of Applied Sciences in Belgium. Casper Hulshof teaches at the
• Learn music, so that you can better learn arithmetic.
Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences at Utrecht University in the • Learn chess, so that you can better learn to do just about
Netherlands. This article is excerpted from their book More Urban Myths everything!
about Learning and Education: Challenging Eduquacks, Extraordinary
Claims, and Alternative Facts (Routledge, 2020). Reprinted with permis- But are these claims justified? Are they really examples of far
sion of the publisher. transfer?

30 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2020

Near versus Far Transfer General Character Traits and Creativity
Imagine that you’ve learned to drive. You quickly become Creativity is not a skill, and it cannot be taught or learned. Creativ-
accustomed to your own car: how the gears work, where to find ity is a quality or characteristic that a person possesses. In other
all the right buttons on the dashboard, etc. If you need to drive words, it’s a trait and not a state. Researcher Charles Reigeluth
a rented car on vacation, some of these things may be different, explains it as follows: “Traits are student characteristics that are
but your past experience in your own car will soon help you to relatively constant over time, … whereas states are student char-
get the hang of things. It will even help you if you ever need to acteristics that tend to vary during individual learning experi-
learn how to drive a bus. This is what we mean by near transfer.3 ences, such as level of content-specific knowledge.”7 Viewed in
Many things from one situation are fairly similar to many things these terms, it’s not simply that creativity can’t be learned; it’s also
in the new situation, although there may be minor differences very difficult to influence. All that teachers can do is to provide a
here and there. learning climate that offers psychological safety—a climate in
Far transfer was an idea first examined in 1923 by Edward which learners feel sufficiently secure—so that they have the cour-
Thorndike.4 It was Thorndike, for example, who discussed whether age and the confidence to do things and say things that, at first
learning Latin could have a positive effect on logical thinking. glance, perhaps seem odd or not completely right. In other words,
Even in those days, it was apparent that this was not the case. teachers can provide an environment that encourages students
According to him, it merely seemed that way because so many of to take risks, safe in the knowledge that their mistakes will be toler-
the stronger students and thinkers were automatically encour- ated with understanding. We call this psychological safety.
aged to study Latin. In other words, it was more a question of a
correlation than a causal relationship. Consequently, the result
was the product of something else, namely smarter students or
students from a higher social-economic background.
There is, however, another problem with the delineation of near Transfer of learning is seen as
and far transfer. Perhaps you’ve come across the following situa-
tions in your own classroom. During a geography lesson, students
the use of knowledge, skills,
learn how to read a map, but then have difficulty in reading a his- and/or attitudes that you’ve
torical map during a history lesson—which, at first glance, you
might think should be an example of relatively near transfer. In a learned in one situation in a
comparable way, mathematics is also used during physics lessons,
but here the transfer is much easier to accomplish.
different situation.
To explain such situations, Thorndike formulated his theory of
identical elements, which posits that near and far transfer can best
be regarded as a continuum. Or to paraphrase his basic conclu-
sion: transfer is easier in relation to the extent that there are more Memory is also a trait, so it, too, cannot be learned. This does
similar or identical elements between what has already been not mean that it cannot be trained or improved, but such training
learned and what needs to be learned in the future. Accordingly, needs to be highly focused and demands a huge investment in
he argued that near transfer is, by definition, much easier than far time. Consequently, this is not something that can be achieved
transfer.5 If we were to take the precepts of this “old” theory at face “en passant” simply by learning to play chess.
value, the outlook for the advocates of far transfer might be fairly If we look at this in the context of the Armenian claims about
pessimistic. But is this really the case? Let’s take a closer look at a chess and creativity, a chess teacher who provides a psychologi-
number of examples. cally safe climate may indeed be able to teach one or more
children how to play chess creatively, but the basic starting
Is Chess the Key to Success at School and in Life? point is that the child must possess both the necessary chess
In 2011, chess became a compulsory subject in Armenian schools. knowledge (moves, tactics, strategies) and
Armenian authorities were convinced that chess is the key to suc- the necessary chess skills (by using that
cess at school and in life. By making chess mandatory, they hoped
to teach children how to think creatively and strategically. As a
result, they will become more intelligent and be better able to More Urban Myths about Learning and
solve problems. What’s more, this does not just mean chess prob- Education: Challenging Eduquacks,
lems, but all problems in all other school subjects, as well as in Extraordinary Claims, and Alternative
Facts by Pedro De Bruyckere, Paul A.
later life. If true, this is extremely far transfer. There are indeed
Kirschner, and Casper Hulshof is pub-
research studies that demonstrate a link between chess mastery
lished by Routledge, which is offering a
and improved cognitive skills and work performance.6 20 percent discount off the purchase of
In essence, what the Armenian Ministry of Education was say- the book. To order, visit www.routledge.
ing is that learning how to play chess not only is the key to devel- com/9780815354581, and use discount
oping general skills (in particular, problem solving), but also has code A043 (cannot be used in conjunc-
a crucial impact on general character traits, such as emotional tion with any other offer or discount).
stability, intellect, memory, alertness, and, above all, creativity.

AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2020 31

knowledge repeatedly in practice games and competitions). right? You might be excused for initially thinking that this is an
This has been known since 1946, when Adriaan de Groot wrote area where very little research has been carried out, so that it’s
his famous doctoral thesis, Het denken van den schaker (Thought difficult to reach firm conclusions. And you would be right—up
and Choice in Chess).8 to a point. After all, it’s only recently that a teaching module for
In our previous book, we discussed the work of Sir Ken Robin- programming was introduced in the United Kingdom, and com-
son and formulated a number of reservations about his rather puters like the BBC micro:bit, the Arduino, and the Raspberry Pi
narrow definition of creativity (in his book Creative Schools: The are all relatively new in education. That being said, in reality, these
Grassroots Revolution That’s Transforming Education), but even developments are merely the latest wave in the process of “pro-
this narrow definition is applicable in this present context. gramming in education,” which actually stretches back over a
According to Robinson, creativity is “the process of having original number of decades and has repeatedly investigated the basic idea
ideas that have value.” The key word here is “value.” that Jobs reformulated. Consider, for example, Logo, the program-
Without knowledge and skills, it’s impossible—except by sheer
luck—to create something of value. In fact, if you don’t have the
requisite knowledge, you are not even in a position to assess the
value of what you have done. If you don’t know how to play chess,
just see how far you get if you are ever asked to develop a creative
and valuable solution to a chess problem!
Without knowledge and
The Effect of Learning to Play Chess on Other Skills
skills, it’s impossible—
The ability (or otherwise) to change personality traits is still a except by sheer luck—
matter of much discussion, but does chess perhaps have a posi-
tive influence on other disciplines and areas of study? This is a
to create something
subject that has been intensively researched over the years. of value.
Some of the resultant studies do indeed suggest a positive effect,9
whereas others have reached very different conclusions. To help
clarify this situation (if we can), it’s useful to look at the reviews
of the various studies, also bearing in mind the quality of the
research methodology used. ming language developed for education as long ago as 1967 by
One review on the subject of chess and education came with Seymour Papert, with its characteristic “turtles.” These turtle
a painful conclusion: “Research in psychology and education robots were first invented in the late 1940s by, among others, Wil-
suggests that cognitive skills acquired in one domain are not easily liam Grey Walter,15 but only became widely known in educational
transferred to another domain. Do the empirical results of chess circles thanks to Papert, who used them as a means to promote
research undermine this contention? Unfortunately, the answer Logo as a programming language for schools, with the specific
is: no.”10 In other words, chess is not an exception to Thorndike’s aim of stimulating problem-solving capabilities.16
theory of identical elements. A more recent review also found very The oldest research into such matters was conducted by Rich-
little real evidence for transfer, although the researchers’ final ard Mayer and dates from 1975. His work suggested that learning
assessment was somewhat milder.11 They concluded that the test how to program could have a positive effect on problem-solving
results show that learning to play chess can sometimes have a thinking, although in reality his study focused more on the best
positive effect on student learning, but this is confined to arith- way to effectively teach programming.17
metic/mathematics in primary and secondary education. In contrast, a series of subsequent studies generally concluded
Moreover, this positive effect is only for the short term; there that there is no such positive effect. A 1990 study based on a ran-
is nothing to suggest more long-term, permanent benefits. And domized controlled trial found no link between programming and
there is more bad news. They further concluded that there is a the ability to solve problems.18 This was also the conclusion of a
correlation between the quality of the research design and the comparable study by Mayer.19 Other research suggested that pro-
level of the effect identified: the better the design, the smaller the gramming might have a limited beneficial effect on divergent
effect. In fact, the most rigorous studies found almost no positive thinking, but this cannot be taken as evidence that it has a major
effect whatsoever.12 beneficial effect on problem-solving capabilities.20
Finally, mention should also be made of a large-scale meta- That being said, a review study carried out in 1985 that specifi-
analysis conducted in 2016 that investigated the possible link cally looked at Logo and its effect on other domains added an
between intelligence and chess.13 The conclusion could not be important nuance. Just teaching students how to program with
clearer: intelligent players play better chess. This causality follows Logo had little or no effect. However, if teachers used Logo for
the same direction that Thorndike established with regard to Latin. specific tasks with a specific purpose, such as mathematics or
problem-solving thinking, a “moderate” effect could be achieved.
Does Learning How to Program a Computer But the input of the teacher was crucial to generate this effect; the
Encourage Problem-Solving Thinking? programming itself played only a marginal role.21
Steve Jobs once said: “Everybody in this country should learn how Similar conclusions were reached in a 1990 research project.
to program a computer, should learn a computer language, The researchers found evidence of a clear benefit for problem-
because it teaches you how to think.”14 But was the Apple boss solving thinking as a result of learning how to program. Once

32 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2020

 clear how long this effect lasts.27 The Jaschke study attempted to
avoid the limitations and shortcomings of many previous studies.
Consequently, there is hope that its conclusions will prove more
reliable. And this hope is necessary because, in contrast, a previ-
ous meta-analysis found no evidence of far transfer as a result of
learning how to play music.28 Yes, it concluded that musicians are
indeed often more intelligent than others (we love you, yeah, yeah,
yeah), but this is more a correlation than anything else. As far as
a possible causal link is concerned, in most studies this is nega-
tively reflected in the quality of the study itself. The better the
research, the smaller the link.
But is it actually a good thing to search for far transfer in rela-
tion to music? This is the question that the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) asked in its
again, however, there was an important “but”: their research own review of the influence of art education in general and
focused on students in further education who all wanted to learn music education in particular.29 By asking what value music has
programming. Moreover, there was no control group.22 Much the for improving performance in other disciplines, there is a risk
same applies to another study that found a positive effect but also that this effectively devalues music’s worth as a discipline in its
concluded that simply teaching students how to program is not own right. This is a fair point: much far transfer thinking is based
enough to generate this effect.23 The only effective way that the on the utility principle that makes one discipline subordinate to
learning of programming can stimulate problem-solving capabili- another. In wider cultural and educational terms, chess is less
ties is for the teacher to give a clear focus on using those skills in important than music. But perhaps chess also has the potential
a problem-solving context. And once again, there was no control to make students better at something else. And perhaps it can
group to compare, for example, the results of attempts to deal with do this more effectively than music. What then would be the
the same problem-solving content without the benefits of pro- future of music as an academic subject?
gramming skills. And it doesn’t just have to be chess. Imagine that something
It would be possible to carry on like this for quite some time, else comes along—the use of classroom rituals, for example—
but we have probably already quoted enough research to make that is proven to have a more significant impact on improved
our point: perhaps the problem is not the teaching of program- executive functions than music.30 If music is regarded purely as
ming; the problem is the idea that it’s possible to teach students a means to an end rather than as an end in itself, this might even
how to think in a problem-solving manner. Or, as researchers lead to its removal from the curriculum! It’s surprising that this
concluded in 2010: issue should be raised by an economic organization like the
OECD, but it’s important that someone raises it. In art education,
In over a half century, no systematic body of evidence dem-
the desire for possible far transfer must remain subordinate to
onstrating the effectiveness of any general problem-solving
the wider cultural value of artistic disciplines—and not the other
strategies has emerged. ... There is no body of research based
way around.
on randomized, controlled experiments indicating that such
teaching leads to better problem solving.24 Does Learning Latin Help You to
Learn Other Languages Better?
Does Music Help You Perform
Better in School in General? Apart from a huge fortune in the bank, what do Harry Potter
author J. K. Rowling and Facebook guru Mark Zuckerberg have
Since all three of us are music lovers, we need to be wary of pos-
in common? They both learned Latin in school.31 Various uni-
sible confirmation bias when it comes to this particular subject:
versities still use Latin names to add a certain cachet to the study
it’s sometimes all too easy to search for evidence that confirms
of classics and classical languages. It is as though they seem to
what you would like to be true! That being said, a very recent
say that knowledge of Latin is the secret to success!
longitudinal study (i.e., a study that follows the same people for
While in many countries (foreign) language education has
a number of years, here also using a randomized design with a
given way to education based on the so-called STEM subjects
control group) gives some grounds for optimism.25
(science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), in the
More specifically, Artur Jaschke and his colleagues examined
Netherlands and Belgium, Latin is still an important part of the
the effects of learning how to play music on executive functions,
curriculum.32 For centuries, Latin was the language of knowledge
the higher cognitive processes that are necessary to plan and
and erudition, and, consequently, also the language of the elite,
direct activities. Over the duration of the study, the scores periodi-
as it was also an important key to the door that led to university.
cally given to the intervention group for impulse suppression
It was only when education became more readily accessible at
(inhibition), planning, and verbal intelligence all improved sig-
the start of the 20th century, and when Latin gradually disap-
nificantly. It’s also possible that the improvements in these three
peared as the language of science and learning, that arguments
qualities helped account for a similar improvement in general
for its teaching began to change. Latin was now seen as being
school results. The idea that music can have a positive effect on
important for the general education of students, which was
executive functions is nothing new,26 although it’s still far from
effectively the same as saying that Latin was a good way to teach

AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2020 33

students how to think. As a subsidiary argument, it was also sug- might well be the case, but it’s open to discussion as to whether
gested that learning Latin made it easier to learn other lan- that argument alone is sufficient to merit including Latin in the
guages, such as French, Spanish, and/or Italian.33 curriculum. In fact, all the “old” arguments in favor of Latin—
But is this true? Does learning Latin teach you anything more that it has specific characteristics that make it easier to learn
than just Latin? During the past century, research has focused other languages and also improves a student’s general ability to
primarily on this second argument: Latin as a linguistic facilita- think—no longer seem relevant or credible in this modern day
tor. A review study34 found evidence supporting a weaker form and age.

I
of this argument, namely that learning Latin helped American
children first and foremost learn their own language better. n this article, we investigated four popular examples of claims
Unfortunately, many of the studies in this field lack reliability as for far transfer, but in each case the results were disappoint-
a result of serious methodological shortcomings or due to a ing. This is not to say that there is no evidence whatsoever for
failure to properly check out all relevant related factors, such as far transfer, but it’s very clear that the level of reliable evi-
the socioeconomic background of the students (see also Thorn- dence decreases in relation to the quality of the research: the
dike’s conclusions on this matter). One small study that is both better the research, the scanter the evidence.
relevant and reliable monitored a group of German children One insight—in fact, a slight irritation—that came to light
learning Spanish. Some of the children also received lessons in during our investigation and writing is that Thorndike’s theory—
Latin, others in French. The results showed that the children devised more than 100 years ago—still seems applicable.
benefited more from first learning French, rather than Latin, Throughout the past century, repeated efforts have been made
before Spanish. In fact, the students who learned Latin made to contradict his claim that the greater the number of identical
more grammatical errors in Spanish than those who had learned elements, the greater the likelihood of far transfer. To date, no
French.35 Once again, Thorndike’s identical elements theory one has really succeeded, us included. Even so, it remains clear
would seem to hold. that far transfer is not the magic remedy for cross-discipline
As far as the second question is concerned—can learning learning that many in education once hoped it would be. ☐
Latin help you to think better?—very little meaningful research
has been conducted, largely because it’s so difficult to define Endnotes
1. See P. De Bruyckere, P. A. Kirschner, and C. D. Hulshof, Urban Myths about Learning and
what we mean by “thinking” to everyone’s satisfaction. Be that Education (San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 2015).
as it may, one study36 concluded that there was no relationship 2. D. N. Perkins and G. Salomon, “Transfer of Learning,” in International Encyclopedia of
between the skills needed to learn Latin and the skills needed Education, 2nd ed., ed. T. Husen and T. N. Postlethwaite (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1992),
6452–6457. Mention is made of transfer or training, whereby the skills trained for in one domain
to learn other languages or mathematics. But that is more or have a positive effect in another domain.
less as far as the research goes at this stage. In other words, 3. Perkins and Salomon, “Transfer of Learning.” Near transfer and far transfer have meant
different things at different times. For example, J. M. Royer described the terms as follows: “I will
there is nothing to suggest a link between “learning Latin” and use the term near transfer to refer to instances in which one classroom learned skill, or bit of
“better thinking.” knowledge, transfers to another classroom skill or bit of knowledge. I will use the term far
transfer to refer to situations in which material learned in the classroom transfers to events or
If it’s unlikely that Latin makes it possible to learn other lan- problems encountered outside of the classroom.” See J. M. Royer, “Theories of the Transfer of
Learning,” Educational Psychologist 14, no. 1 (1979): 53–69.
guages more easily, and if Thorndike’s theory suggests that far
4. E. L. Thorndike, “The Influence of First Year Latin upon the Ability to Read English,” School
transfer is equally improbable, we can then reasonably ask the Sociology 17 (1923): 165–168. 

same question that we asked of music: Should Latin still be 5. R. S. Woodworth and E. L. Thorndike, “The Influence of Improvement in One Mental Function
upon the Efficiency of Other Functions,” Psychological Review 8, no. 3 (1901): 247.
taught because of any intrinsic value of its own? Up to a point,
6. See, among others, I. J. Deary et al., “Intelligence and Educational Achievement,” Intelligence
the answer is yes. There are indications that learning Latin can 35 (2007): 548–555; and J. E. Hunter and R. F. Hunter, “Validity and Utility of Alternative
lead to greater self-confidence and a deeper appreciation for Predictors of Job Performance,” Psychological Bulletin 96 (1984): 72–98.
7. C. M. Reigegluth, ed., Instructional-Design Theories and Models: An Overview of Their Current
other cultures,37 although this can just as easily be said for many Status (Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum Associates, 1983).
other foreign languages, such as Chinese. 8. A. D. de Groot, Het denken van den schaker (Amsterdam: Noord-Hoolandsche Uitgevers
The British classicist Mary Beard offers a more specific reason Maatschappij, 1946).
9. There are two Armenian reports mentioning positive effects: R. Aghuzumtsyan and S.
for learning Latin: it gives young people access to the literary Poghosyan, “The Impact of Chess Lessons on Formation and Development of the Students,”
tradition that forms the basis of Western culture.38 Again, this International Conference Chess in Schools (Yerevan: Zartprint, 2014), 87–97; and R. Mirzakhan-
yana et al., “Analysis of the Efficiency of Teaching Chess in Schools,” Sociology 7, no. 1 (2017):
36–42. The first study shows correlations; the second illustrates how context plays a role.
10. F. Gobet and G. Campitelli, “Educational Benefits of Chess Instruction: A Critical Review,” in
Chess and Education: Selected Essays from the Koltanowski Conference, ed. T. Redman (Dallas:
Chess Program at the University of Texas at Dallas, 2006), 139.
11. G. Sala, J. P. Foley, and F. Gobet, “The Effects of Chess Instruction on Pupils’ Cognitive and
Academic Skills: State of the Art and Theoretical Challenges,” Frontiers in Psychology 8 (2017):
238.
12. G. Sala and F. Gobet, “Does Far Transfer Exist? Negative Evidence from Chess, Music, and
Working Memory Training,” Current Directions in Psychological Science 26 (2017): 515–520.
13. A. P. Burgoyne et al., “The Relationship between Cognitive Ability and Chess Skill: A
Comprehensive Meta-Analysis,” Intelligence 59 (2016): 72–83.
14. “Steve Jobs Says Everyone Should Learn to Program,” YouTube video, posted by Scott Moss,
July 5, 2012.
15. M. J. Mataric, The Robotic Primer (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007).
16. S. Papert, Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas (New York: Basic Books,
1980).
17. R. E. Mayer, “Different Problem-Solving Competencies Established in Learning Computer
(Continued on page 40)

34 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2020

 More Than a Warm Welcome ELLs on the Cusp Interleaving in Math
(Continued from page 8) (Continued from page 22) (Continued from page 28)
23. Robinson, “Evaluating Criteria.” 8. D. Rohrer et al., “A Randomized Controlled Trial of
enabled them to overcome so much in Interleaved Mathematics Practice,” Journal of Educational
24. U.S. Department of Education, English Learner Tool Kit.
search of a better future for their families. Psychology, advance online publication, http://dx.doi.
25. Cimpian, Thompson, and Makowski, “Evaluating English org/10.1037/edu0000367.
When asked about her hopes for her chil- Learner Reclassification.”
9. D. Rohrer, “Interleaving Helps Students Distinguish
dren, Adelah Saleh shares two, the first of 26. Estrada and Wang, “Making English Learning among Similar Concepts,” Educational Psychology
Reclassification.” Review 24 (2012): 355–367.
which is fairly modest. She’d like to see them
27. ACLU of Southern California, DJ v. State of California, 10. S. C. Pan, “The Interleaving Effect: Mixing It Up
take more field trips in school—perhaps to 2019, www.aclusocal.org/en/cases/dj-v-state-california. Boosts Learning,” Scientific American, August 4, 2015.
a science museum or to the state capital, 28. Estrada and Wang, “Making English Learning 11. D. Rohrer, R. F. Dedrick, and K. Burgess, “The Benefit
Reclassification.” of Interleaved Mathematics Practice Is Not Limited to
Lansing. But she also has something Superficially Similar Kinds of Problems,” Psychonomic
29. By law, no student scoring below the state threshold
greater in mind. “I want them to be suc- should even be considered for reclassification. But in reality, Bulletin & Review 21 (2014): 1323–1330.
some students are reclassified without the required test 12. Open Up Resources, “Lesson 2: Introducing
cessful in life, to finish their education, scores. See Robinson, “Evaluating Criteria”; and Johnson, Proportional Relationships with Tables,” https://access.
and to spread peace,” she says in Arabic, “The Effects of English Learner Classification.” openupresources.org/curricula/our6-8math/en/ccss/
30. Estrada and Wang, “Making English Learning grade-7/unit-2/lesson-2/index.html.
as Hamade, the family liaison, translates
Reclassification.” 13. H. Hausman and N. Kornell, “Mixing Topics while
into English. “We came from a country 31. Pope, “The Marginal Effect”; and Reyes and Hwang, Studying Does Not Enhance Learning,” Journal of
with no peace. This is what we miss, and “Middle School Language Classification.” Applied Research in Memory and Cognition 3 (2014):
153–160.
this is what we wanted.” ☐ 32. D. August, “Educating English Language Learners,”
American Educator 42, no. 3 (Fall 2018): 4–9, 38. 14. D. Rohrer, “Interleaving Helps Students Distinguish.”

Transfer of Learning Programming: Multiple Research Perspectives, ed. R. E. Mayer

(Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1988), 111–135.
31. For an extensive name list, see B. Britanniae, “Famous
People Who Studied Latin,” Transparent Language (blog),
November 20, 2013, https://blogs.transparent.com/latin/
(Continued from page 34) 24. J. Sweller, R. Clark, and P. Kirschner, “Teaching General
famous-people-who-studied-latin.
Problem-Solving Skills Is Not a Substitute for, or a Viable
Programming with and without Meaningful Models,” Journal Addition to, Teaching Mathematics,” Notices of the American 32. E. Bracke and C. Bradshaw, “The Impact of Learning Latin
of Educational Psychology 67, no. 6 (1975): 725–734. Mathematical Society 57 (2010): 1303–1304. on School Pupils: A Review of Existing Data,” Language
25. A. C. Jaschke, H. Honing, and E. J. Scherder, “Longitudinal Learning Journal (2017): 1–11.
18. C. A. VanLengen and C. D. Maddux, “Does Instruction in
Analysis of Music Education on Executive Functions in Primary 33. We suspect that even if there is a connection, it only
Sign up at www.Aft.org/signup
Computer Programming Improve Problem Solving Ability,”
Journal of Information Systems Education 2, no. 2 (1990): School Children,” Frontiers in Neuroscience 12 (2018): 103. applies for languages derived from Latin (French, Spanish,
11–16. 26. S. A. Schmitt et al., “Strengthening School Readiness for Portuguese, Italian), and less for languages like Finnish,

to receive Aft’sProblem-Solving
the “Different
19. Mayer, monthly e-news
Competencies.” Head Start Children: Evaluation of a Self-Regulation
Intervention,” Early Childhood Research Quarterly 30 (2015):
Swahili, or Chinese. In other words: near transfer!
34. R. Masciantonio, “Tangible Benefits of the Study of Latin:
20. D. H. Clements and D. F. Gullo, “Effects of Computer 20–31. A Review of Research,” Foreign Language Annals 10 (1977):
for professional development
Programming on Young Children’s Cognition,” Journal of
Educational Psychology 76 (1984): 1051–1058. 27. R. Jacob and J. Parkinson, “The Potential for School-Based 375–382.
Interventions That Target Executive Function to Improve 35. L. Haag and E. Stern, “In Search of the Benefits of
21. D. Clements, “Research on Logo in Education: Is the Turtle Academic Achievement: A Review,” Review of Educational Learning Latin,” Journal of Educational Psychology 95 (2003):
resources, news, and digital
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22. J. J. Tu and J. R. Johnson, “Can Computer Programming
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too, are sticking with Impact of Arts Education (Paris: OECD Publishing, 2013). 37. Bracke and Bradshaw, “The Impact of Learning Latin.”
23. J. Littlefield et al., “Learning LOGO: Method of Teaching,
Transfer of General Skills, and Attitudes toward School and 30. For how we say things, for example, through rituals, see V. 38. M. Beard, “Does Latin ‘Train the Brain’?,” Times Literary
Rybanska et al., “Rituals Improve Children’s Ability to Delay Supplement, July 10, 2006.
your union.
Computers,” in Teaching and Learning Computer
Gratification,” Child Development 89 (2018): 349–359.

Community Schools Making sure that community school

teachers and other adults can sustain this
Write to us!
(Continued from page 38)

J
work requires a deep commitment to the
ennifer, Yancy, and Jason have devel- type of democratic work structures that
oped strong and distinctive identities Jason and his colleagues have established.
We welcome comments on as community school teachers. They As the stories of these powerful teachers
American Educator articles. see their work extending beyond the attest, embracing community schooling
Send letters to ae@aft.org classroom, in partnership with others, in goes far beyond wraparound services. At
order to advance deeper learning as well as its heart, this is a movement to redefine
or American Educator, to further the cause of social justice within teaching and learning. ☐
555 New Jersey Ave. N.W., their communities. Learning in their
schools is designed to engage students and Endnotes
Washington, DC 20001. 1. A. Maier et al., Community Schools as an Effective
ignite their passions. From Jennifer’s focus School Improvement Strategy: A Review of the Evidence
on project-based learning to Yancy’s bilin- (Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute, 2017).

gual teaching about identity and power, 2. J. Daniel, K. H. Quartz, and J. Oakes, “Teaching in
Community Schools: Creating Conditions for Deeper
students in community schools have rich Learning,” Review of Research in Education 43, no. 1
(2019): 453–480.
opportunities to connect their learning to
the world and to their lives.

40 AMERICAN EDUCATOR | SPRING 2020