Feelings are present is every teaching and learning situation whether we recognise the fact or not. Some critics would argue that skills are not transferable, being specific to the context and to the discipline. They state that cognitive skills, such as being able to analyse, synthesise, think critically and solve problems, are largely discipline specific. It seems that some skills are common to most disciplines. Working in teams, for example, requires similar sets of sub-skills such as setting goals, allocating responsibilities, managing conflict.
Some disciplines are more likely to focus on specific skills than others.
For example, skills in debate, critical analysis and argument are more likely to be emphasised in arts and humanities courses that in the physical sciences, where generally students have a very much larger amount of content to cover. Communication skills such as writing are often very discipline specific and determined by the particular discourse of the discipline. Writing an anthropology essay requires different organisation, data collection, style and presentation that a chemistry lab report. One of the reasons why generic courses in writing effectively often fail is that they are not discipline specific. A written communication course that would satisfy the needs of a biologist would be useless for a marketing student.