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.