EXPLORING PROFESSIONAL LEARNING: A CASE STUDY OF DEVELOPING E-LEARNING FOR TEACHERS (DEFT) 1 Gary Motteram University of Manchester This paper explores professional learning within the context of an international e-learning materials design project: Developing E-Learning for Teachers (DEfT) which was part of the first phase of eChina-UK (http://www.echinaprogramme.org/ ). The professional learning is explored through the lens of Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), particularly focusing on the role that 3rd generation activity theory (Engeström, 2001) can play as an explanatory tool. The paper also discusses the concepts of expansive learning, boundary objects and boundary crossers/ brokers and how these are relevant to professional learning. It links these central issues in activity theory to ideas that have been debated for a considerable time in the field of adult and higher education: transfer and transformation and brings these concepts together into a taxonomy of learning for teachers engaged in professional development. INTRODUCTION The project discussed here formed part of a larger project, funded by HEFCE in the UK (http://www.hefce.ac.uk/partners/world/projects/echina.htm ) and supported by the Ministry of Education (MoE) in China, designed to enable UK and Chinese universities to explore the cultures and practice of e-learning. The smaller project that is the focus of this paper is Developing E-Learning for Teachers (DEfT – http://www.echinaprogramme.org/cases/deft.php). This was a collaboration between a group of universities working under the banner of the World Universities Network and included: Bristol, Manchester, Sheffield and Southampton; and the School of Continuing Education and Teacher Training (SCETT) in conjunction with a number of academic departments at Beijing Normal University (BNU). The DEfT project lasted almost three years and involved over two hundred people discussing, creating and piloting e-learning materials. This case study that acts as the pivot of this paper looks at the learning processes that the materials writers who were at the centre of the project went through and suggests that by linking together concepts from Engeström’s 3 rd generation activity theory, and core arguments in adult and higher education it is possible to propose a credible learning and development taxonomy for teachers and other professionals. Part of this taxonomy has been reported in previous writing (Motteram, 2006; Motteram & Teague, 2000) and is incorporated here to create an over-arching system that enables us to map and eventually provide evidence for progression both in and outside of the formal educational process. 1 Part of the bigger eChina-UK project ((http://www.echinaprogramme.org/ ) funded by HEFCE in the UK.