Description:

In the European knowledge society, professionals are required to keep up with dramatic change and engage in continuous learning and relearning. This paper explores these transformations and seeks theoretical accounts of the creativity and knowledge- seeking involved.

Methodology or methods/research instruments or sources used:

First, we review theorists of the innovative dimension of professional learning and practice. Karen Knorr Cetina's theory distinguishes itself from more situated models of learning by focusing on knowledge and the role of mediated forms of knowing in motivating students to learn, i.e. factors independent of context. Second, we present data from a study among four professional groups which casts light on the knowledge-seeking processes characteristic of these groups.

Conclusions or expected outcomes or findings:

Knorr Cetina's way of theoretizing knowledge breaks with the overly cognitive view of traditional learning theory and paves the way for understanding the role knowledge may play in professional learning that goes beyond that of instrumental use and skills development. Our data suggest vast differences in what fascinates and stimulates the desire and will to learn. Impulses that for some generate a wanting structure have the reverse effect on others. These differences reflect variations in the ideals and visions held by professionals but also in the historically changing images characteristic of the professions. (199 words).