Transition Pedagogy as a New Concept in Professional Education

Professional educational programs presuppose competences to master and integrate various forms of knowledge. Students in professional educational programs are introduced to various learning arenas across both one's own profession, across disciplines, as well as across practice settings, and different professions. This means that students are met with many transitions throughout their education. This paper discusses what we can learn from these transitions, in a pedagogical, didactical perspective, by exploring the potential of transition pedagogy as a concept in professional education.

In this paper we use the term transitional pedagogy. This refers to pedagogical and didactical considerations particularly related to transitions across learning arenas. Though challenging, transitions can be seen as a unique potential for learning.
Our theoretical framework is inspired by Wolfgang Klafki (2002), implying that transitions can be seen as a dialectical and interactive process. We also take inspiration from Afaf Ibrahim Meleis (2010) and her transitions theory. According to Meleis, transitions can be understood as shifts from one relatively stable state to another, triggered by change. Within transitions lies a potential for growth and empowerment and this is the subject for this paper.

The point of departure of this paper are two Danish qualitative research projects that explored nursing and medical students’ transitions between classroom and practical learning arenas during their education. The empirical material for this paper comes from ethnographic observation, field notes and interviews with students and clinical and theoretical educators. Informed consent has been obtained in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration. Data was analysed using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun et al., 2018). In this paper the findings from the two research projects are used to discuss the potential of transition pedagogy as a concept in professional education.

Findings from the two research projects indicate that the interaction between the theoretical and practical learning arenas during education are challenged by the arenas’ lack of communication or interrelatedness. This leads to students and educators experiencing a lack of connectedness and meaningfulness. The link between these different arenas cannot just be reduced to a matter of transferring theory to practice, or the opposite. The findings suggest that there might be a potential in exploring the transitional space between the different learning arenas with a pedagogical, didactical approach which this paper unfolds.

Relevance to Nordic educational research
This paper discusses how transition pedagogy can be used as a concept in professional education. This topic is relevant to higher education in the Nordic countries because transitions between different learning arenas are common to many educational programs across the Nordic countries.

References
Braun, V., Clarke, V., Hayfield, N., & Terry, G. (2018). Thematic Analysis. I P. Liamputtong (Red.), Handbook of Research Methods in Health Social Sciences (s. 1–18). Springer Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2779-6_103-1
Klafki, W. (2002). Dannelsesteori og Didaktik – nye studier. Forlaget Klim. Dansk 2. udgave, 1. oplag.
Meleis, A.I. (2010). Transitions Theory. Middle-Range and Situation-Specific Theories in Nursing Research and Practice. New York. Springer Publishing Company.