Expertise

Question 1

Why should we study how experts think and what they do?

Answer 1

Shows results of successful learning

• Can use knowledge to solve new problems
• Can teach expert skills and though processes

Goal of achieving expertise (novice -> expert)

They have insight into domains that others may not

They are often our teachers (but not always the best ones!)

Question 2

What is an expert? (Common Assumption)

Answer 2

“An expert is someone who knows all the answers”

Question 3

Experts (as compared to Novices)

Answer 3

Experts:

Have more declarative and procedural knowledge on a subject [quantitative difference]

Notice and use meaningful patterns

Organize their knowledge differently [qualitative difference]

• Organize information by concepts, not appearances
• More likely to use hierarchical structure
• More likely to have abstract generalizations

Question 4

Features of Expert Knowledge

Answer 4

Fluent Retrieval & Meaningful Patterns

• Chess Master example
• Information Processing
• Meaningful patterns of knowledge

Content/Access & Organization of Knowledge

• The Physics Expert example
• Information Processing

Question 5

Connecting Transfer and Expertise

Answer 5

We often think concretely, but for transfer we need to think abstractly

Abstract thinking separates Experts from Novices

• Ex. Algebra word problems: Experts classify problems by their abstract structure, but novices classify problems by surface structure (just like the Physics Expert in previous slides) (Silver, 1981)
• Ex. Computer commands: Experts classify words by computer functions, novice classify by conventional word meanings (Kay & Black)

Question 6

Content Knowledge= Good teacher? EXPERT BLIND SPOT

Answer 6

Content Knowledge: “What”

Pedagogical Knowledge: “How”

Pedagogical Content Knowledge

Situated Cognition

Question 7

Teaching

Answer 7

Content Knowledge

• “What” to teach
• Subject knowledge necessary to be an expert in that discipline

Pedagogical Content Knowledge

• “How” to teach a specific subject
• NOT Content knowledge + teaching knowledge
• Teaching strategies differ across disciplines

Question 8

Pedagogical Content Knowledge Example: Teaching Hamlet

Answer 8

• Introduce Hamlet focusing on a word by word reading of play and discussion of modernism
• Assignments with in-depth analysis of soliloquies, memorization of long passages and a final paper on the importance of language in Hamlet

OR

• Begin unit without ever mentioning the name of the play
• To grasp the outline and ideas of the story, the teacher had them imagine their parents had recently divorced and that their mother had taken up with a new man
• This new many replaced your father at work and may have helped oust him from that job
• Now, the teacher had students consider what circumstances might drive them so made that they would contemplate murdering another human being

Question 9

Pedagogical Content Knowledge

Answer 9

Form of practical and contextualized knowledge of

• How to structure and represent academic content for direct teaching to students
• The common conceptions, misconceptions, and difficulties that students encounter when learning particular content
• The specific teaching strategies that can be used to address students’ learning needs in particular classroom circumstances

Question 10

The Expert Teacher (acc. to Stein)

Answer 10

“In general, teachers with more explicit and better organized knowledge tend to provide instruction that features conceptual connections, appropriate and varied representations, and active and meaningful student discourse”

Question 11

The Novice Teacher (Stein)

Answer 11

• Novice -> Expert is a developmental process
• “On the other hand, teachers, with limited knowledge have been found to portray the subject as a collection of static facts; to provide impoverished or inappropriate examples, analogies, and/or representations; and to emphasize seatwork assignments and/or routinized student input as opposed to meaningful dialogue”

Question 12

Experts and Teaching

Answer 12

Expertise in a particular domain does not guarantee that expert will be good at helping other people learn

• Issues with expert blind spot
• May lack pedagogical content knowledge

Question 13

Key Principles of Expertise

Answer 13

• Fluent Retrieval (Chess)
• Meaningful Patterns (Chess)
• Context and access to knowledge (Physics)
• Organization of knowledge (Physics)
• Expertise and Pedagogical Content knowledge (Teachers)
• Adaptive Expertise and Flexible approaches (Historians)

Question 14

Why should we care?

Answer 14

If we know how experts think and work, it can inform instruction and teaching

How knowledge is organized
- Start with broader, conceptual understanding

Conditionalized Knowledge
- When, where, how to apply knowledge

Content vs. Teaching Expertise
- Just because you know it, doesn’t mean you can teach it