Fractal systems model links higher education design to far transfer

A conceptual framework presented in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications proposes that far transfer in STEM learning may be strengthened when educational processes are aligned across multiple levels of higher education. The Fractal Systems Model (FSM) treats far transfer as a potentially designable property of learning systems rather than an ability confined to individual courses or learners. It draws on cognitive science, situated learning, equity studies, systems theory and Discipline-Based Education Research to examine how STEM education might support adaptive expertise for complex, ill-structured problems.

The proposal addresses a distinction between near and far transfer. Near transfer emphasizes applying knowledge within familiar boundaries, an approach the article describes as dominant in many higher education environments. Far transfer concerns applying understanding in diverse or unfamiliar contexts, where learners must integrate ideas and adapt their reasoning to challenges that do not offer a routine solution.

The model does not present far transfer as a solved problem: it argues that higher education systems can be examined for how consistently they create conditions in which learners can abstract, integrate and recontextualize knowledge. FSM organizes those three processes across the micro, meso and macro scales of higher education. Its central proposition is that recurring opportunities for abstraction, integration and recontextualization should occur at each scale and be aligned across them.

Such alignment, the essay argues, could support adaptive expertise more broadly and reduce dependence on isolated courses or selective enrichment experiences. By making far transfer a system-level design question, FSM seeks to examine how opportunities for advanced learning can be distributed throughout higher education instead of being reserved for specialized settings. The work is an equity-centered conceptual framework, not a reported classroom intervention: the supplied article advances an empirically testable account for researchers, practitioners and policymakers, but it does not establish that alignment produces measurable gains in transfer or adaptive expertise.

Its contribution is therefore a structured set of propositions about how learning processes might recur across educational scales, offering a basis for subsequent testing of the model in STEM learning environments.

Subject of Research: A conceptual systems model for far transfer and adaptive expertise in STEM higher education

Article Title: Embedding far transfer in higher education: A fractal systems model for adaptive expertise and equity in STEM learning

Article References: Havard, D. (2026). Embedding far transfer in higher education: A fractal systems model for adaptive expertise and equity in STEM learning. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-09127-2

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1057/s41599-026-09127-2

Keywords: far transfer, adaptive expertise, STEM learning, higher education, fractal systems model, equity in education, situated learning, systems thinking, curriculum design, Embedding, transfer, higher