March 2009, Vol. 40, Issue 2
Research Commentary: Transfer, Abstraction, and Context
Matthew Jones
The author responds to the recent work of Kaminski, Sloutsky, and Heckler (2008) and advances two major concerns about their research and its applicability to learning mathematics: a confounding variable that arises from the mathematical differences between the generic examples and concrete examples poses a threat to the construct validity of the experiments, and the overgeneralization of the success of the treatment, given that the measure of success is a prompted near-transfer task.
This article is available to members of NCTM who subscribe to
Journal for Research in Mathematics Education. Don't miss out—join now or upgrade your membership. You may also purchase this article now for online access.
Log In/Create Account
Purchase Article