CF 26: Prior Knowledge and Its Role in Transfer - Notes toward A Theory of Prior Knowledge and Its Role in College Composers’ Transfer of Knowledge and Practice

Oct 15, 2026

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The article examines how college writers draw on prior knowledge when taking up new writing tasks, using findings from two transfer studies within a Teaching for Transfer composition curriculum for first-year students. It develops a theory explaining how prior knowledge can either reduce or enhance the effectiveness of student writing. The discussion situates transfer as a dynamic activity and details three ways students use prior knowledge, including responses to setbacks or critical incidents.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages21

Reading Time53 min

AccessFree to download

Notes toward A Theory of Prior Knowledge and Its Role in College Composers’ Transfer of Knowledge and Practice

Models of Transfer

Prior Knowledge, Transfer, and Student Writing

CF 26: Prior Knowledge and Its Role in Transfer by Liane Robertson, Kara Taczak, and Kathleen Blake Yancey Page 1 of 21 Composition Forum 26, Fall 2012 [http://compositionforum.com/issue/26/](http://compositionforum.com/issue/26/) Notes toward A Theory of Prior Knowledge and Its Role in College Composers’ Transfer of Knowledge and Practice [[http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&username=compforum](http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&username=compforum)] Liane Robertson, Kara Taczak, and Kathleen Blake Yancey Abstract: In this article we consider the ways in which college writers make use of prior knowledge as they take up new writing tasks. Drawing on two studies of transfer, both connected to a Teaching for Transfer composition curriculum for first-year students, we articulate a theory of prior knowledge and document how the use of prior knowledge can detract from or contribute to efficacy in student writing. During the last decade, especially, scholars in composition studies have investigated how students“transfer” what they learn in college composition into other academic writing sites. Researchers have focused, for example, on exploring with students how they take up new writing tasks (e.g., McCarthy, Wardle); on theorizing transfer with specific applicability to writing tasks across a college career (e.g., Beaufort); and on developing new curricula to foster such transfer of knowledge and practice (e.g., Dew, Robertson, Taczak). Likewise, scholars have sought to learn what prior knowledge from high school first-year students might draw on, and how, as they begin college composition (e.g. Reiff and Bawarshi). To date, however, no study has actively documented or theorized precisely how students make use of such prior knowledge as they find themselves in new rhetorical situations, that is, on how students draw on and employ what they already know and can do, and whether such knowledge and practice is efficacious in the new situation or not. In this article, we take up this task, within a specific view of transfer as a dynamic activity through which students, like all composers, actively make use of prior knowledge as they respond to new writing tasks. More specifically, we theorize that students actively make use of prior knowledge and practice in three ways: by drawing on both knowledge and practice and employing it in ways almost identical to the ways they have used it in the past; by reworking such knowledge and practice as they address new tasks; and by creating new knowledge and practices for themselves when students encounter what we call a setback or critical incident, which is a failed effort to address a new task that prompts new ways of thinking about how to write and about what writing is. In this article, then, we begin by locating our definition of transfer in the general literature of cognition; we then consider how students’ use of prior knowledge has been represented in the writing studies literature. Given this context and drawing on two studies, we then articulate our theory of students’ use of prior knowledge, in the process focusing on student accounts to illustrate how they make use of such knowledge as they take up new writing tasks. {1} [\#note1] We then close by raising questions that can inform research on this topic in the future. {2} [\#note2] Models of Transfer Early transfer research in the fields of psychology and education (Thorndike, Prather, Detterman) focused on specific situations in which instances of transfer occurred. Conducted in research [http://compositionforum.com/issue/26/prior-knowledge-transfer.php](http://compositionforum.com/issue/26/prior-knowledge-transfer.php) CF 26: Prior Knowledge and Its Role in Transfer by Liane Robertson, Kara Taczak, and Kathleen Blake Yancey Page 2 of 21 environments and measuring subjects’ ability to replicate specific behavior from one context to another, results of this research suggested that transfer was merely

FAQs

What is the core focus of the article?

The article explores how college writers use prior knowledge when facing new writing tasks, and how that use affects the effectiveness of their writing.

What does the article mean by transfer in this context?

Transfer is treated as a dynamic activity in which students actively use prior knowledge to respond to new writing tasks, whether the outcome is efficacious or not.

How do students use prior knowledge according to the proposed theory?

The article theorizes three pathways: using prior knowledge in nearly identical ways, reworking it for new tasks, and creating new knowledge and practices after a setback or critical incident.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by jayni