Surface, Deep and Transfer
Hattie and Zierer distinguish surface (what), deep (why) and transfer questions. Each serves a different stage. Reaching transfer before surface is secure sets students up to fail.
Find this under Ask better questions
The strategy, as published
Exactly as it appears on the card
Part of The Quality of Questions in 04 Questioning & Discussion, where it sits alongside its neighbouring strategies, the infographic and the thinking for the whole area.
Why you might use it
The problem it may help with
Not every good question suits every moment. Hattie and Zierer distinguish surface questions that establish what, deep questions that probe why, and transfer questions that ask where else this applies. Each serves a different stage of learning.
The failure mode is reaching for transfer too early. Asking students to apply a concept elsewhere before the surface knowledge is secure sets them up to fail, and the failure can look like inability when it is really sequencing.
What it might look like
One version of it, in a classroom
Early in a unit on electricity: what are the components of this circuit? Once that is secure: why does the bulb dim when a second one is added? Later still: where else does the idea of sharing a limited supply appear? Same topic, three stages, three kinds of question.
Try it
A way to begin
Before writing the key questions for your next lesson, ask one question of yourself first: what stage is this class at with this content?
What to notice
Reading what happens
- How students handle why questions. Struggle there often signals that the surface layer is not yet secure.
- Whether discussion changes when the question matches the stage rather than the scheme of work's ambitions.
Things to think about
Before and while you use it
- Stage is about this class and this content now, not about ability. The same lesson can hold students at different stages, and only you can see where each one is.
- Surface questions are not lesser questions. The previous card makes the same point about recall; the two frameworks agree.
The wider thinking
Where the evidence sits
The surface, deep and transfer model comes from Hattie and Zierer's synthesis of how learning moves through phases, each with its own kind of question. The card’s attribution stands as published: Hattie & Zierer.
The fuller picture, sources included, is in further reading and evidence for Questioning & Discussion.
Keep exploring
Where next?
Back to this strategy in 04 Questioning & Discussion, across to what you're trying to improve, or into all 144 at once.
Want to take this further?
Support is available
Pedagogy First gives you a starting point. If you want support exploring how approaches like this can work across your school, trust or professional learning programme, that work is available.