Generally refers to the influence of learning in one situation on learning in another situation. It is concerned with how learning in a certain school subject affects subsequent learning in the same or another subject or how school learning influences achievements outside of school. There are at least three basic forms of transfer. Lateral transfer occurs when learners are able to solve different but similar problems of equal complexity as soon as they have learned to solve one of them. Lateral transfer involves a learning achievement at the same level as the initial learning but in another context. The concept of sequential transfer corresponds with the observation that most content learned in school is organized into broad disciplines and is taught sequentially. Sequential transfer happens in one and the same context, i.e. both are organized horizontally. Vertical transfer, on the other hand, requires that learning at a lower level must be transferred to a higher level of cognitive skills. Thus, vertical transfer is the ability to solve similar and at the same time more complex or elaborated problems with the help of previously acquired knowledge.
(Source: Seel 2012).
