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How do we know?
Generalization and transference looks different in every classroom and every student. While our district offers a spiral curriculum, we believe the students will be presented with information each year, gaining a deeper and deeper understanding as they progress. While generalization is a difficult concept to teach, it progressively gets better as the student ages. Young students tend to think in a very concrete process, where generalizations take an understanding of inference. I believe transference is the more difficult of the two, because it looks different in every student. There are students with whom can transfer their knowledge across content areas and from grade to grade very easily. They possess the knowledge required for the foundation and build on that knowledge from year to year. However, not all students retain information the same way. It is so important for teachers to build upon previous knowledge and encourage the students to transfer that information and make connections in other aspects of their education. Generalization and transference must be continually addressed in the classroom by building upon prior knowledge and making connections to old/new material.

How do we know?
We know that transference/generalization have occurred through assessments and observations. Can students use basic math skills to later balance equations in chemistry? Can students use basic reading skills to later identify the authors tone and purpose of a particular reading? Can students use basic writing skills to move from a 5 paragraph essay to a 3 page paper? In order for these tasks to be accomplished with success, the student must be able to build on skills that they would have been previously presented with. As for it being evident across curriculums, science classes require math skills, social studies classes require writing skills and all classes require reading skills.

How do we know?
I agree. I too see students throughout the day that have trouble with processing. We try hard to utilize skills taught in the classroom to other items or environments. So often this requires countless tries and various methods. A struggle for students is when they know they should "have it" or be "getting it" but aren't . So often we discuss learning styles and aquisition with them, and they share the frustration they they think they should know how, or they wish they remembered.

Some students seem to generalize so easily, yet others rarely. It is so important from the time that we learn our first nursery rhyme and transfer the rhyme pattern to reading to later when we need to solve a problem financially that we should be able to generalize. Practice and explicit teaching of generalization is necessary for success with these struggling students with processing issues.

How do we know?
Generalization and transfer of learning occur naturally in typical children from a very young age. They are aware that not all dogs look the same and that a Poodle is a dog as well as a German Shepard; however, children with developmental delays and disabilities do not always learn this naturally and they need to be taught these concepts. Another issue with generalization and transfer of learning that we see with our students with Autism and Intellectual Disabilities, is their inability to perform the same or similar tasks across different materials and instructors. For example, a student may produce certain words and sounds for me (speech therapist) but they won't perform the same skills for the teacher or an aide in the classroom. Also, they may be able to complete a 10-piece activity (bird puzzle) but they can't transfer those skills to a new puzzle (train puzzle). To teach these skills to the students, we have them perform a variety of skills and activities in different areas of the classroom and school and across different instructors.

As a speech therapist, for a student with an articulation disorder, generalization and transfer of learning are the ultimate goal. We can teach them how to correctly produce the sound in isolation, words, phrase, and sentences; but, when it comes to the paragraph and conversation level, it becomes the student's responsibility to self-correct and pay attention to their targeted sounds until it becomes natural to produce the sounds correctly.

Evaluating Comparative Thinking
In a differentiated classroom, it is interesting to see the way that students will transfer in and out of various goals. The last goal of developing the habit of the mind is always the goal. If each student in the class can establish the earlier goals they will begin to develop this area. I find that in establishing various levels in just about every lesson we start to see students who may never get to the next level on their own emulating their peers. Most of my class in science utilizes goal #1 through hands on activities and organizers as well as visual aids, but Goal #2 is important to my ELA classes. As we ask students to analyze more and more nonfiction text, they need to train themselves to ask higher order thinking questions that allow for understanding.

How do we know?
As a learning support teacher at both the middle school and high school level, and working with ELLs, I often work with students who do NOT transfer information easily or routinely from grade level to the next or from one content area to another. Students who are able to make connections, or tap into prior knowledge are able to build upon that information and use it to learn more, or something deeper. Currently, I also work with many students with Autism. It is a curious trait that so many of them are such "literal" thinkers and learners that they generally learn at face value, and do not cross over much information at all. As I've tried to understand my own process of learning, as well as my students, I know that the lightbulb may go on sometime in the future, or after the lesson, so it's always important to give them time to process. Additionally, I am more aware each lesson that anchoring, or attempting to create that connection at the very beginning of each lesson helps their learning process; "prime the pump."
There are many instances when students DO transfer information, without being told that they are doing so, or how to do it. We use Math skills in Science, and Environmental Science understanding in World Cultures. Good teachers do point out the connections, and the practical application of information.
I would love to see more opportunities for teachers to have time to discuss and develop cross-curricular lessons, or units, or just to be aware of the grade level curriculum . It seems we work in a bubble, in our own spaces with less and less training, staff development and communication.

How do we know?
The main goal for speech and language support services is for students to generalize the skills taught in the speech room to all other environment (e.g., academics in the classroom, playground, home, etc.). Whether the student has articulation goals or language goals, the therapist will develop and reinforce those skills to increase the student’s communication skills. There is no specific timeline in wish this generalization occurs. Some students learn and generalize speech and language skills faster than others. Speech therapists can monitor generalization by working closely with the IEP team members (e.g., classroom teacher, parents, Occupational Therapist, etc.). The speech therapist will educate the team members on what they should see the student do (e.g., use slow speech to address fluency concerns) and what cues/prompts to give to remind the student to utilize the strategies taught in speech support. This process promotes generalization of skills across all content areas.
To determine if generalization has occurred, Speech therapists can use a variety of assessment to measure it. Speech Therapists regularly progress monitor each student’s progress towards his or her goal. This process gives the therapist an idea of how the student is progressing, how the goals may need to be altered, and overall generalization of the skills. Standardized assessments also indicate the degree to which a student has generalized skills taught in speech and language support. These assessments are the most reliable way to assess generalization because students are given novel scenarios in which they must apply their skills independently. Students with a speech and language impairment identification must be re-evaluated with formal assessments every three years.

How do we know?
Generalization and transference occurs continually throughout a student's school day and life in general. This goes back to teachers being a teacher of every subject. As a Reading teacher I often give my students the chance to see that the skills they learn in my classroom can be applied in other subject areas as well. Working with one other teacher in the position that I am in allows us to work together and do projects that are worked on in both classes but require students to focus on content specific portions of these projects. For example, she was teaching about William Levvitt in her Social Studies class the students made posters with information about him and the city in Pennsylvania that he built. Then in my class they were created Biographies about him using important details they researched on their own. Use of skills such as main idea and detail, making inferences, proper grammar usage, and a students ability to formulate written responses are all things students demonstrate in all classes throughout the day. Its is important that students are able to take the skills learned in one class and use them across the content areas Though I do believe that the degree of transference does depend on the individual student.

How do we know?
Generalization and transference occurs from birth on and throughout a student's education. This does not come easy to all students. In particular, it does not come easily for students with severe cognitive disabilities and autism. It is expected particularly in math for skills to build upon each other and for students to generalize and transfer these skills across content areas- science, technology, home economics... It is important for teachers to provide opportunities for students to transfer and generalize their skills so that students can apply concepts in the real world. It is important that I teach my students how to tell time but it is even more important that once they learn the necessary skills they generalize and transfer them. They need to learn how to be on time for events, follow a schedule, know how much time they have to complete things... They also need to be able to tell time across different materials-- analog and digit clocks. We know that these skills are being generalized and transferred when there is evidence of successful acquisition/discrimination across content areas, teachers, materials, and different ways of presenting the information.

How do we know?

With regards to students who receive speech and language support services, the main goal is for the students to be able to apply the skills they have learned in speech and language to all areas, including academic courses and life in general. One of the hardest things to teach children who have a speech and/or language disability is generalization and transference; however it is the most important. Ways that we as speech therapists can assure that skills are being transferred is to show teachers and parents the techniques and strategies we are working on and have them implement them as much as possible. We can also perform classroom observations to see what else we can do to ensure generalization. Formal and informal speech and language assessment measures are used to ensure mastery of skills across various partners and settings.