Reconsidering the dimensions of expertise: from linear stages towards dual processing

Abstract

This paper explores the developing concept of expertise, taking the Dreyfus and Dreyfus staged model as its starting point. It analyses criticism of the Dreyfus model and considers more recent attempts to resolve the tensions implicit within it. The authors go on to suggest ways some of the later modifications can be improved. The traditional notion of intuition is revisited and thereafter a new and novel way of visualising expertise is presented as a dualprocessing relationship between chains of practice and the underlying networks of understanding. These chain and net knowledge structures have been revealed through the analysis of concept maps produced by numerous cohorts of students and teachers. It is argued that a visualisation of the dynamic relationship between the dimensions of expertise provides an emerging theoretical framework for a more general reappraisal of teaching in higher education. This reconsideration of expertise may be the catalyst for dialogue about educational practice within disciplines (between lecturers and between lecturers and students), and between lecturers and educational developers. This dialogue will strengthen disciplinary communities of practice and place the agenda for pedagogic change within the context of the academic disciplines.

Assessment of Integrated Learning: Suggested Application of Concept Mapping to Prior Learning Assessment Practices

“…Whereas effectiveness of concept map application has been primarily studied within traditional student populations, a number of studies have emerged to demonstrate concept mapping as an effective tool for uncovering tacit knowledge that is common to individuals who have achieved expert-level knowledge (Kinchin & Cabot, 2010;Kinchin, Cabot, & Hay, 2008). Furthermore, concept mapping tools can be applied to assessing and/or archiving not only abstract expert knowledge but also professional competencies (Hay et al, 2010).…”

“…Note that whereas a concept map can be categorized exclusively as one of the previously mentioned structures, concept maps can also contain elements of some or all structures, as seen in Figure 2. These combinations also lend information on students' levels and types of learning (Kinchin & Cabot, 2010).…”

‘Structural transformation’ as a threshold concept in university teaching

“…Work on threshold concepts has been combined with the concept mapping tool in an attempt to visualise the structure of a threshold concept (Kinchin, 2010;Kinchin & Cabot, 2010). In an attempt to identify threshold concepts in the development of university teachers, Blackie, Case, and Jawitz (2010) have considered the notion of 'student-centredness', stating that: Student-centred teaching … requires that the academic really understands and appreciates the need to pay attention to the students and their learning … and to be concerned about the actual process of learning happening in the students.…”

A conceptual review of interprofessional expertise in child safeguarding

“…Schön, 1991). More recent studies suggest that expertise requires well-organized structures of both formal and tacit knowledge, and that experts combine these two forms of knowledge in a dual process that creates tailored connections in order to solve complex problems (Kinchin & Cabot, 2010). Although expertise is often associated with rapid assessment and response, experts may spend more time than novices determining an appropriate representation of and response to the problem at hand, in part because they have more sophisticated repertoires of dual knowledge processing (Bradley et al, 2006).…”

“…• Progression over time from novice to expert (Benner, 1984;Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1986) • Development of formal/propositional knowledge and non-formal/tacit knowledge (Kinchin & Cabot, 2010;Eraut, 2000) • Application to problems characterised by complexity and uncertainty, and which are not amenable to technical solutions (Fook, Ryan & Hawkins, 2000;Rittel & Webber, 1973) Table 1 considers these dualities in further detail, in order to reveal some of the key assumptions underlying the concept of expertise.…”