Transfer audit

List three places outside the course where a principle should apply, then test one, so "transferable skills" stop being a slogan and become a check.

When to use this: At the end of a session
Learning impact: Strong change
Learning evidence: Credible with caveats
Where you are with the topic: Applying in new contexts
How often to use it: Worth repeating often

When to use it

You can explain a principle in course terms and never tried it outside the course.
An assessment will ask for transfer and your practice stayed near-clones.
You want three candidate contexts and one real test this week.

What to ask AI

Name the principle. Ask for three places outside the course where it should apply, then help you design one small test of one place.

After the test, ask what transferred and what stayed course-bound.

Refuse speechifying about transfer without a trial.

How it helps

Knowing a principle in the chapter's costume is not the same as using it in a new costume.

A transfer audit lists where it should apply, then tests one. The test is the method; the list alone is imagination.

AI is good at suggesting contexts. You must run one attempt and bring back what broke.

How to run it

State the principle in one or two sentences without textbook fluff.
List three outside contexts where it should matter.
Pick one and design a small test you can do this week.
Attempt it. Note what transferred and what needed course-specific scaffolding.
Feed that back into practice (far-transfer problems, varied contexts).

Example exchange

You

Principle from econ: opportunity cost, choosing one option means forgoing the next-best alternative. Can you help me find where else that should apply this week?

Name one real choice you'll face outside class in the next day or two.

You

Gym versus a study block tonight.

Before you choose, write the next-best alternative you forgo and one concrete cost. Do that once in writing, then tell me whether the choice changed.

You

I wrote it, forwent a show, kept the problem set. Felt obvious after writing.

Transfer started. Next: a case where the next-best alternative is harder to name, sleep versus doomscrolling. Same written test.

Copyable prompt

Principle: [one-sentence statement].
List three places OUTSIDE this course where it should apply. Help me design one
small test of one place I can run this week. After I report results, tell me what
transferred vs what stayed course-bound. Refuse a lecture without a test.

The Tell

If you can speechify about transfer and never tried one application outside the course, you audited imagination, not transfer.

Lists of contexts without a trial are homework decoration.

Principle evidence

Strength of the underlying learning idea, not a claim about AI products.

Moderate-to-strong conceptually: transfer is a central learning goal and a known difficulty. Auditing and testing application in new contexts aligns with transfer and far-transfer practice traditions.

AI delivery evidence

Whether an AI tutor delivers this method well is a separate question.

AI-suggested contexts can be generic or unrealistic. The trial you run is the evidence. Delivery of transfer coaching is speculative.