Principle 2: Skills are built in specific contexts.
When we change the context, we change the skill.
Note: Unconstrained Kids unpacks, translates, and integrates academic research and data about skill type and the principles of skill building to support the improvement of PK-12 reading, writing, and mathematics. This post is part of a series that describes 7 key principles of skill building I identified from Dynamic Skill Theory and the Science of Learning and Development. Like everything on this Substack, this post is a work-in-progress. I will make updates as needed. Citations are included at the end. Questions, comments, and suggestions are welcome.
First posted: June 4, 2025
Last updated: July 24, 2026
Key Takeaway
Skill is the capacity to think and act in an organized way in a specific context (Immordino-Yang and Fischer, 2010). Skill is welded to its context, and context means many things at once, like environment, emotion, and social support. We can intentionally engineer rich, high-support environments where skills have no choice but to grow. Cultivating generalized skills usually requires prolonged time and effort. Shortcuts to skill transfer, however, are possible through the intentional leverage of existing skills, adaptive challenges, and reflective practice.
There is no such thing as running.1
There is running up a hill. There is running down a hill. There is running in a pair of Brooks shoes. There is running in bare feet. There is running on the beach. There is running cross country in the woods. There is running by yourself and there is running with a group.
While each instance of running shares common skill elements, each environment demands an entirely distinct set of mental and physical abilities. Skill is the ability to think and act in an organized way in a specific context (Immordino-Yang and Fischer, 2010). Just as there is no abstract capability called “running,” there are no context-free academic skills.
“In ordinary English usage, skill implies both person and context simultaneously. People have a skill for riding a bicycle, a skill for listening to their friends, a skill for repairing Toyota engines, a skill for doing analysis of variance. A person cannot have a skill independent of context. Skill requires a collaboration between person and context. This conception means that skills vary not only between people but also across contexts for a given person” (Fischer et al, 1993).
“Context” means many things at once: the physical environment, emotional state, social support, domain or subject area, and the specific task involved (Fischer & Immordino-Yang, 2002). Since skills are welded to their contexts, and context can change in multiple ways from moment to moment, human performance is inherently variable. Context helps explain why a child who is able to solve a math problem one day or in a particular situation is unable to repeat this performance the next day or in a different or similar situation (Fischer & Bidell, 2006).
Context and the challenge of skill transfer
The transfer of knowledge and learning from one setting or domain to another is a well-established challenge in education (Barnett & Ceci, 2002). Near transfer involves the application of skills or knowledge learned in one context (task, activity, domain) to a similar context. Far transfer involves the use of knowledge or skills very different from the original context, task, or activity (Fischer & Bidell, 2006).
Researchers repeatedly fail to find evidence of far transfer of skills from playing chess (Sala & Gobet, 2017; Blanch, 2022), video games (Sala et al., 2018), brain games (Simons et al., 2016), music training (Sala & Gobet, 2020), or cognitive training (e.g. working memory) (Gobet & Sala, 2023). Researchers find that children who are adept in complex mental math calculation in street markets in Kolkata and Delhi are not able to successfully apply the same math concepts in classroom settings. Moreover, children who are able to successfully complete these same calculations in classroom settings struggle to apply these concepts to real-world situations like the street markets (Banerjee et al., 2025).
Skills developed in one context have to be completely reconstructed in a new context (Fischer & Farrar, 1987; Fischer & Bidell, 2006).2 Skill and context are tightly welded. While certain elements are similar (think about running on the beach versus running in the woods), skills have to be constructed for each specific context. Proficiency in multiple contexts leads to generalized skill mastery. Since context is comprised of multiple factors (environment, emotional state, etc.), this can be a winding, messy process that usually takes a long time (see Principle 7).
Accordingly, some researchers argue we should focus on building skills in the specific context in which the skills are to be used. If you want children to get better at math, teach them math skills not chess.3 This is a sensible argument. Yet, we also want children to develop broad, durable skills that can help them be successful in multiple contexts in school and life.
Fortunately, research suggests three possible shortcuts to accelerate the development of generalized skills:
Leverage Familiar Frameworks. Help children develop new skills in new contexts by building upon their existing knowledge and skills. In other words, create a “shortcut” in the ordinary time-intensive process of skill building. One example is how the Fraction Ball math program helps children learn factions and decimals using interactive play on a basketball court.4
Use Adaptive Tasks. Help children expand their skill repertoire in two ways. One, by avoiding repetition and intentionally introducing novelty, complexity, and diversity in the tasks involved in a single context.5 Two, by practicing and reinforcing the same skill in different contexts. This forces the core targeted skill to adapt and develop. (See Principle 6.)
Embed Reflective Practice. Have children pause and think about their experiences. Reflecting on what they learn, what worked and didn’t, can help them learn about the purpose and utility of skills. This can help them learn how to use these abilities in new situations and accelerate the growth of the targeted skill (Zelazo and Carlson, 2020).
The dependency of skills on context is not just a feature–it’s a potential leverage point. We can intentionally engineer rich, high-support environments where these abilities have no choice but to grow. Cultivating generalized skills usually requires prolonged time and effort. Shortcuts to transfer, however, are possible through the intentional leverage of existing skills, adaptive challenges, and reflective practice.
But wait, there’s more
Works Cited
Banerjee, A. V., Bhattacharjee, S., Chattopadhyay, R., Duflo, E., Ganimian, A. J., Rajah, K., & Spelke, E. S. (2025). Children’s arithmetic skills do not transfer between applied and academic mathematics. Nature, 639(8055), 673–681.
Barnett, S. M., & Ceci, S. J. (2002). When and where do we apply what we learn?: A taxonomy for far transfer. Psychological Bulletin, 128(4), 612.
Blanch, A. (2022). Chess instruction improves cognitive abilities and academic performance: Real effects or wishful thinking? Educational Psychology Review, 34(3), 1371–1398.
Bustamante, A., Begolli, K., Alvarez-Vargas, D., Bailey, D., & Richland, L. E. (2022). Fraction ball: Playful and physically active fraction and decimal learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 114(6), 1307–1320.
Cantor, P., Osher, D., Berg, J., Steyer, L., & Rose, T. (2019). Malleability, plasticity, and individuality: How children learn and develop in context. Applied Developmental Science, 23(4), 307–337.
Fischer, K. W., & Bidell, T. R. (2006). Dynamic development of action and thought. In R. M. Lerner & W. Damon (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Theoretical models of human development (6th ed., pp. 313–399). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Fischer, K. W., Bullock, D. H., Rotenberg, E. J., & Raya, P. (1993). The dynamics of competence: How context contributes directly to skill. In R. Wozniak & K. Fischer (Eds.), Development in context: Acting and thinking in specific environments. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Fischer, K. W., & Farrar, M. J. (1987). Generalizations about generalization: How a theory of skill development explains both generality and specificity. International Journal of Psychology, 22, 643–677.
Fischer, K. W., & Immordino-Yang, M. H. (2002). Cognitive development and education: From dynamic general structure to specific learning and teaching. In E. Lagemann (Ed.), Traditions of scholarship in education. Spencer Foundation.
Gobet, F., & Sala, G. (2023). Cognitive training: A field in search of a phenomenon. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 18(1), 125–141.
Immordino-Yang, M. H., & Fischer, K. W. (2010). Neuroscience bases of learning. In V. G. Aukrust (Ed.), International encyclopedia of education (3rd Edition, pp. 310–316). Elsevier.
Sala, G., & Gobet, F. (2017). Does chess instruction improve mathematical problem-solving ability? Two experimental studies with an active control group. Learning Behavior, 45(4), 414–421.
Sala, G., & Gobet, F. (2020). Cognitive and academic benefits of music training with children: A multilevel meta-analysis. Memory & Cognition, 48(8), 1429–1441.
Sala, G., Tatlidil, K. S., & Gobet, F. (2018). Video game training does not enhance cognitive ability: a comprehensive meta-analytic investigation. Psychological Bulletin, 144(2), 111–139.
Simons, D. J., Boot, W. R., Charness, N., Gathercole, S. E., Chabris, C. F., Hambrick, D. Z., & Stine-Morrow, E. A. L. (2016). Do “brain-training” programs work? Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 17(3), 103–186.
Zelazo, P. D., & Carlson, S. M. (2020). The neurodevelopment of executive function skills: Implications for academic achievement gaps. Psychology & Neuroscience, 13(3), 273–298.
This example of skill and running comes from Michael Mascolo.
Fischer and Farrar (1987) provide a detailed description of skill development across different contexts. Specifically, they describe:
Skill development across highly similar tasks (task domain)
Skill development across dissimilar tasks (skill domain)
Direct skill transfer between highly similar tasks
Limited skill overlap between dissimilar tasks
Co-development of related skills across different task domains
Cartwright and Palian contend that the “transfer of domain-general cognitive training to non-trained tasks (i.e. transfer of [executive function] training to reading tasks) is most effective when training shares elements with target tasks, reducing the demands on students to generalize training routines to outcomes of interest.” In other words, if we want to strengthen a child’s ability to mentally switch between different aspects of reading, we should build her cognitive flexibility in the context of reading tasks. See Sala & Gobet, 2020b and Cartwright and Palian, 2024.
For more on Fraction Ball, see Bustamante et al., 2022. (For articles on this intervention, see this one published by AERDF and this one published by Brookings.)
Researchers question whether the reason interventions often fail to show transfer of developed skills to other domains is because the skills failed to develop in the first place. Success in the task can be attributed less to improved skill and more to use of an effective strategy for the task being trained. They contend that the skills can be developed by increasing the level of challenge and complexity. See Moreau & Conway, 2014; Diamond & Ling, 2016; and Crone et al., 2018. Zelazo and Carlson similarly argue that executive function skills “can be cultivated through scaffolded practice. As with other neurocognitive skills, the repeated engagement and use of [executive function] skills in problem solving at increasing levels of challenge strengthens those skills and increases the efficiency of the corresponding neural circuitry.” See Zelazo and Carlson, 2020.