Situating Skills: Emergent Dynamic Reconfigurations of Activities in the Transition from a Learning Environment to Another

Abstract

The paper aims to provide a broad construct for understanding skills, what they are, and the ways in which they are situated, i.e., dependent on the conditions for their exercise. Adding to Hinchliffe's approach, we made skills’ transferability not only a key aspect of their conceptualization but also a way of exploring their deeply embodied nature and their intricate relation with complex situations. While there is a growing body of research regarding concrete aspects of embodied cognition in learning environments, little attention is given to skilful performances while transferring them into different (mediatized and non-mediatized) learning environments. Our theoretical and empirical investigation offers a preliminary picture of how skills are reconfigured and redeployed in transitioning from one learning environment to another. Regarding the structure of skill, we enlarged Hinchliffe’s approach, integrating the perspective of conversational analysis. The structure of skills can be made explicit if we follow their build-up from simple abilities and their integration into larger structures. According to our view, being skilful means that one can cope with scripted and unscripted interactions and move easily between them.

Keywords: phenomenology of education, skills, embodied cognition, learning environment, COVID-19 pandemic, conversational analysis, operational resource