Learning skills: where, when and how

Abstract

Where do skills have to be learned? Is it really possible to give a general answer to this question? Obviously not. It really depends on circumstances, on the skills demanded, on the traditions of learning, on
possibilities, resources, and so on. So I cannot promise to give a general answer in this position paper to questions like where skills should be learned or which way is more efficient. As is often the case in pedagogy, not all pupils or apprentices prefer the same kind of teaching and learning. However, what I can do in this paper is show different ways of learning skills and knowledge. This includes a section on the question of where things should be learned, another about the timing of learning, and a last one about how to learn. My main argument is that mixed forms and different solutions have evolved out of debates like this (Ainley / Rainbird 1999)