Promoting learning and transfer between school and workplace

Abstract

The aim of this article is to discuss the theoretical and practical problems in effecting transfer between school and work, and to present a new conceptualisation of transfer called developmental transfer that shifts the emphasis from the individual transfer of knowledge to the collaborative efforts of organisations to create new knowledge and practices. We give an overview and evaluate the current notions of transfer and present the need and characteristics of the developmental transfer. In a case study, we also describe the concrete tools for promoting the developmental transfer in professional higher education. A new way of enhancing collaboration between the school and the workplace is based on successful boundary crossing and the formation of a shared object between activity systems.

Keywords:

• Transfer
• Developmental transfer
• Higher education
• Activity system
• Boundary crossing

Acknowledgements

Earlier versions of this article benefited from comments by the Transfer‐Research Group of student teachers from the School of Vocational Teacher Education at Helsinki Business Polytechnic. In particular, we wish to thank Professor Yrjö Engeström from the University of Helsinki, Professor James G. Greeno, Professor Roy Pea, Associate Professor Daniel Schwartz and Assistant Professor Náilah Nasir from the Stanford University and Research Fellow Cecilie Flo Jahreie from the University of Oslo. Anonymous referees of this journal have also given valuable comments and criticism. We express our warm thanks.

Notes

1. See Greeno (1997) and Gruber et al. (1995) for a more comprehensive presentation of different views of transfer and situated learning theories.

2. Here, the term ‘internship’ refers to a period of fieldwork or practical training in the occupational therapy education.

3. Gutiérrez et al. (1995) have used the concept of the ‘third space’ in a similar vein when describing the learning and development that take place when ideas and needs from different cultures meet, collide and form new meanings.