Transfer is usually cast as an educational, rather than learning, problem. Yet, seeking to adapt what individuals know from one circumstance to another is a process more helpfully associated with learning, than a hybrid one called transfer. Adaptability comprises individuals construing what they experience, then aligning and reconciling with what…

Interviews with skilled mine workers in Queensland, Australia, suggest that informal learning in the workplace enables authentic activities, access to experts, and sociocultural environment conductive to the development of expertise. Skilled work means technical competence in a context of sociocultural values. (SK)