Transitions Between Different Learning Contexts. Themes, Issues and Problems

Educational work is intrinsically complex and tiring from a psychological point of view. Educators and teachers experience these difficulties in their daily work and it is evident, for them, the necessity to combine initial training (school and university) and experiential learning. Team meetings, vocational training courses, supervision and pedagogical counselling are currently the main contexts for an ongoing professional development. In such contexts “second level practice”, specifically aimed at “training the trainers”, are designed in order to support “first level” educational processes and teaching practices. This paper presents some reflections about the possibility to “transfer” new perspectives of thought and action from a “second level” context to a “first level” one. The issue will be addressed using different epistemological assumptions entailing divergent consequences on both theoretical and methodological levels.