Learning in and for Work, and the Joint Construction of Mediational Artefacts: An Activity Theoretical View

During the past two decades, learning in and for work has been conceptualized in terms of ‘organizational learning’ (Argyris & Schon, 1978), ‘knowledge management’ (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995) and participation in ‘communities of practice’ (Lave & Wenger, 1991). All of these conceptions suggest that learning is a collective phenomenon, implying that cultural knowledge is somehow locally preserved, shared and transmitted to newcomers. Different explanations have been proposed for how learning results are actually preserved and further transmitted. In this chapter, we discuss three of the main theoretical explanations: the deposit of mental schemes in the mind, embodied skills, and the objectification of knowledge into artefacts.

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