Skill Standards - ConCOVE webinar introducing the Good Practice Guides for Skill Standards

 Skills Standards are an evolutionary next step in describing and assessing skills. The New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) has mandated that skills standards are to be used in all qualifications, replacing unit standards. Their guidelines for listing skills standards provide a definition of a skill standard and the criteria required to list them on to the directory of assessment and skill standards (DASS).

Last week, I participated in a webinar organised by ConCOve Tūhura to introduce the good practice guides for skill standards.  The webinar was hosted by Eve Price from ConCOVE and included Dr. Karen Vaughan (Hummingbird Effect) who developed the guides with Andrew Kear, Michelle Tiatia from Waihanga Ara Rau and myself, representing 'providers'. 

The recording of the webinar can be viewed here.

The good practice guides themselves is made up of six guides. The first, provides a background. The second, an overview of the system for skill standards - these two also detail the evidence-base for the move towards skills standards. The next three guides are for practitioners. One on assessment and consistency issues, one for industry stakeholders and one for programme development and delivery. The last guide goes through the project itself, the method for developing the guides. 

It is important to understand skills standards as they will be the way in which all qualifications will be enacted. It will be important to workshop and have conversations with our teachers, as each qualification moves from unit to skill standards. Assessments (especially in the AI world) will need to be thought through and the introduction of skills standards represent a good opportunity to open and continue the important  ongoing work on understanding the role of assessment of akills (along with the knowledge, attributes and contributions to occupational identity formation). 

Writing and the need for persistence

Last week's blog provided the link to the book 'Writing for publication', an excellent resource for those starting off on the academic writing journey with many suggestions also of relevance of experienced writers.

The book provided a insider's viewpoint of the writing and publishing process enshrined in academia. One item perhaps missing, was the need for aspiring and current authors to establish the mindsets necessary to presevere with the writing process.

Whatever the genre, the skills of writing can be learnt. What sets apart dabblers and people who make a living from writing, is the need to continually hone their skill and to keep at it. Academic writing is no different. It is perhaps even more important in academia, to develop good routines and habits, to continue with scholarly reading and writing. Most people writing for academic publication, so this on top of teaching and research. To fit in the volume of reading, research project work and writing, requires good time management and planning!

The need to work from home as a result of the covid-19 pandemic has caused my routine to be changed. Instead of cycling to work each morning, using the time to reflect on and plan, and then do some writing; I have used the time to prepare for the workday, now filled with development and facilitaion of professional development workshops for our lecturers, moving rapidly into distance teaching. However, after 6 weeks, NZ is about to move into a more relaxed phase, allowing for us to move back to work on campus in a few weeks time.

The pause in writing has provided a time to take stock and to think through possible direction for writing and projects into the future. It will still be important to get back into the routine to keep up the writing habit. Without keeping to a routine and to some objective, it will be easy to loose momentum and find it difficult to get started up again! So here is looking forward to a return to 'normal routines' and a refreshed writing routine.

Multiple Dimensions of Teaching and Learning for Occupational Practice - book overview

Here is an overview of the book  'Multiple Dimensions ofTeaching and Learning for Occupational Practice'  Edited by Professor Sai Loo and just published by Routledge 2019. The hardcoopy of the book arrived last week and I had a good read of it over the weekend.

Disclaimer: I have a chapter published in this book

Chapter 1

Researching occupational practice - SAI LOO

The first chapter, sets the scene by firstly detailing the rationale and origins of the book topic. The book seeks to provide perspectives from a range of tertiary education levels, sectors and discipline areas. Education which leads on to an occupation, or occupational teaching, is used as a term to include the various levels (post-school to higher education) and sectors (vocational, further, higher education, VET, TVET, TAFE etc.). Various chapters represent these levels and sectors through the book. Occupational teaching also includes continuous professional development. Brief overviews of each chapter are provided in this chapter.

Chapter 2

‘Ausbildungsberufe’ – a necessary and complex ingredient of the ‘Dual’ apprenticeship frameworks - LORENZ LASSNIGG

This chapter critiques the various socio, historical and political pressures brought to bear on the Austrian apprenticeship system. A quantitative approach is used to unravel the many stakeholders involved and how these have impinged on the evolution of the entire system. The Austrian system, with roots in the Germanic tradition, is argued to be unique in that there is a tight linkage between occupations and industry needs. In particular, the system used to ‘create new occupations’ is of interest due to the rapidly changing world of work.

Chapter 3

Occupational preparation for manual work: fitter/machinists and concrete operators- ERICA SMITH

Here, a comparative study is used to examine how two trades, have differing ways to prepare people for work. The study explores the ‘skilled’ vs ‘unskilled’ divide and how occupations become privileged through historical evolution (i.e. older occupations); support from trade unions; and a tradition of apprenticeship. This privileging allows for some occupations to have higher regard in the public eye and others to maintain their reputation as ‘dirty work’. Yet, all occupations have inherent skill complexity. Lots of food for thought in this article.

Chapter 4

Perspectives of beginning trades tutors on teaching and learning- SELENA CHAN

My chapter draws from the first project I undertook for Ako Aotearoa. This article, focuses on the concept of drawing from the knowledge and skill sets of trades practitioners, to support their ‘boundary crossing’ to become vocational educators. The article argues for a ‘strengths’ based approach instead of the prevalent ‘top-down’ and ‘we know best’ model whereby trades people, have to adopt the ways of teaching and learning which come through the school and higher education sectors. In particular, the chapter advocates for using apprenticeship approaches to assist new trades teachers and to introduce theories of learning (cognitive apprenticeship etc.) and types of learning literature, which align to trades people life and work experiences.

Chapter 5

A typology of occupational teachers’ capacities across the three academic levels - SAI LOO

Here, the editor presents a chapter on connecting the pedagogical practices across VET, higher and professional education. The epistemological focuses and perspectives are used, along with the framework of Berstein’s notions of knowledge to find commonalities and differences across the sectors. The knowledge schemas of teachers is expanded to include the range of knowledge, experiences, skills and abilities which inform teaching.

Chapter 6

Education and training in human movement programmes: stakeholder perspectives- SALLEE CALDWELL AND MELINDA HALL

In this chapter, the context of human movement and development is used to study how stakeholders perceive the preparation of students for work. A good example of engaging stakeholders and using the data to inform curriculum development and student learning.

Chapter 7

Educating work-ready youth workers: designing a university program for Australian and international contexts- JENNIFER BROOKER

Here, the preparation of youth workers within a university programmes is studied. Of interest is how the university, re-configured the programme to be more similar to VET type programmes, with a better balance between theory and practice.

Chapter 8

Learning to become an entrepreneur in unfavourable conditions: the case of new-entrants in the context of the Greek debt-crisis- KONSTANTINOS KARANASIOS AND THOMAS LANS

This is an interesting study, on how young people were assisted to move into agriculture whilst the country was wrestling with the challenges of an economy in meltdown. Of interest was the use of critical incidents technique to gather data. The 3-P model – presage, process and product – was also rationalised as a means to identify workplace factors which influence learning.

Chapter 9

Professionalism and affective learning for new prison officers: learning values, attitudes and behaviours in training at the Scottish Prison Service- KATRINA MORRISON

Reports on a longitudinal study of recruits into the Scottish prison service to understand how a new Officer Foundation programme has progressed. The programme has an emphasis on values, attitudes and behaviours as compared to previous iterations which had training focuses.

Chapter 10

The journey from healthcare assistant to assistant practitioner: working and learning- CLAIRE THURGATE

The journey of healthcare assistants to become assistant practitioners is described and illuminated in this chapter. Of relevance is the ways in which these learners were supported to become more self-directed. A conceptual framework is presented to describe and support healthcare assistants to become assistance practitioners.

Chapter 11

Understanding and appraising medical students’ learning through clinical experiences: participatory practices at work- STEPHEN BILLETT AND LINDA SWEET

This chapter reports on medical students’ learning during their clinical experience through ‘relational interdependence’. The authors argue that the process is reliant on the two-dimensional relationship between the affordances provided by the organisation and the way in which learners choose to engage with these.

Chapter 12

Learning decision making in Emergency Medicine- DUNCAN THOMAS CARMICHAEL

The decision making processes of emergency physicians is used to provide insights into how skills and experiences are honed through workplace learning.

Chapter 13

Reflections on the occupational practice- SAI LOO

The concluding chapter provides an overview of the findings, conclusions and implication for occupational education across the various systems, levels and disciplines presented in the 11 chapters.

Overall, a good collection of chapters, attesting to the contextualised and specialised journeys of people becoming through learning, work and reflection, to take on occupational identity. 

'Simple' vs 'complex' skills - need to be aware and able to categorise

A continuation on the question posed in the blog on importance of practice.

Neuropsychology paper reviewing learning of complex skills indicates the need to approach learning of complex and simple skills differently. Learning simple skills profits from an ‘increase in load’ whereas the learning of complex skills requires ‘reduction in load’.

Wulf, G., & Shea, C. H. (2002). Principles derived fromthe study of simple skills do not generalize to complex skill learning. Psychonomic Bulletin Review, 9(2), 185-211.

Almost 200 references! Most from lab based studies and around sports science.

Therefore, always important to sort out the ‘wheat from the chaff’ and ensure neuroscience and psychology findings are well substantiated before applying to practice.

Identification and classification of the range of skills relevant to each trade / occupation a starting point. Competency based standards provide a baseline to start from but need to remember many ‘tacit’ and difficult to explain aspects of practice may not have standards. A case of, if unable to describe, then also difficult to assess. So ‘ignore’ or subsume as unstated requirement, into another competency standard.

After skills identified and classified as ‘simple’ or ‘complex’, undertake to evaluate if undue pressure is placed during the learning of complex skills. One scenario I have some insight into is the preparation of junior chefs for the rigours of ‘a la carte’ cooking, especially in ‘fine dining’ restaurants. aka called line cooking in American parlance. TV reality programmes provide examples of how excessive pressure placed on ‘contestants’ lead to ‘filmable’ moments. Cooking ‘on the line’ (i.e. during a la carte service to satisfy the ‘pass’) requires the bringing together of a wide range of fine motor skills and application of many tacit refinements and understanding of kitchen ‘science’. See here for another viewpoint. Tasks and skills include (how much (or little) to season, how long to cook/steam/bake, what consistency required of a sauce, what plating arrangement works etc.). All undertaken while undergoing a barrage of orders from the head chef requiring the prioritization of a range of tasks, remembering which order has to go when, which is in preparation and any special requirements for orders.  

In many restaurants, learning how to work on the line is achieved through ‘learning by doing’. So, junior cooks work the line with the least complex requirements. Often starting with ‘cold kitchen’ where the food is precooked and the skill requirement is in the assembly of various items into salads or simple entrees. If a junior chef performs at the required level in the ‘cold kitchen’, promotion shifts the complexities up a notch. The junior chef may ‘second’ a more experience line cook, doing the base plating so the senior cook is able to place cooked items onto the prepared plate. Both ‘cold kitchen’ and base plating prepare the junior cook for the exacting specifications for ‘plating’ dishes to rigorous standards of neatness, symmetry etc. Importantly, they learn the dispositions required for implementing dishes to exacting standards. Craftsmanship approaches including attention to detail, judgement skills required to notice and correct deviations, persistence and on-going intrinsic motivation to ‘be the best.

Cooks have high ‘burn out’ rates with many young chefs leaving the industry after a decade or so of high pressure work. see this article for a case study - how chefs cope by becoming 'addicted' to the adrenaline of high pace work. No doubt there is some ‘buzz’ generated from the high pace work as cooks enter the ‘zone’ and are in ‘flow’. However for some, the long, unsocial hours and relatively poor pay, leads to eventual disengagement. Anecdotal evidence from young people aspiring to be chefs also indicate many left the industry because they were pushed into cooking roles too soon. Their preparation may have been incomplete during their initial training. Eventually, the pressures to perform continually and consistently at high levels caused some to decide the occupation as being too difficult.

Therefore, important to identify what is 'simple' and what is 'complex' in any occupation and also be aware of the other factors impinging on job performance. As with cheffing, it is not just knowing how to cook, but to be able to cook in a certain way within a specialised work culture. Expectations of 'craftsmanship' may be something to aspire to in all trades, but sometimes, craftsmanship - as with some of the examples in cooking, may become a generator of high stress and eventual burn out.

Remaking apprenticeships - report by Lucas & Spencer (2015)

A new report from Lucas and Spencer - funded by City and Guilds Alliance for Vocational Education with an overview video available on the reports official website.

Although long – a very pertinent and cogent update on apprenticeship. Where it has been, where it now is and how to improve into the future.

The report brings together work accomplished in the previous few years and incorporates work reported in other publications including the 'vocational pedagogy' report summarised last year. 

A shorter summary is available but the longer report is worth the time to read through as it details, succinctly, all the various aspects impinging on apprenticeship.

The report provides a 'one stop shop' with regards to updating the historical evolution of apprenticeships into the current times (albeit with a UK perspective); discusses the various theories and practices and pedagogy of apprenticeship and offers recommendations on how to proceed.

Of importance is the distilling of the many outcomes of apprenticeship into SIX - routine expertise, resourcefulness, craftsmanship, functional literacies, business like attitudes and wider skills for growth. The recommendations are generalisable across to many apprenticeship systems but are most pertinent to the UK context.

15 pages of references bringing together the pertinent literature on apprenticeship learning.

The boat that guy built - TV series with examples of trades / craft work

A couple of months ago, I happened on the first episode of the programme, ' The boat that Guy built' on Choice TV. It was on a very warm January Sunday (or Saturday) evening  while also recovering from a very hot day’s tramping. Otherwise, it’s usually the time I walk the dog or water the garden. I have only had access to Choice TV since putting in a Freeview box (end of November) to access digital TV channels (entire South Island goes digital end of this week). Channel surfing over the Christmas break found some interesting programmes on Choice TV, so this has been the channel to check out whenever I do sit in front of the TV with ipad on to read books or check out favourite websites and blogs.

The 2011 series was produced by BBC TV and all 6 episodes can be downloaded through the BBC site. The series revolves around the restoration of a ‘long’ canal boat in the UK by a personable presenter, Guy Martin and his friend (a carpenter), Mark Davies (aka Mave). Through the series, various notable inventions and industries from the Britain’s industrial age are introduced. The general plot is for Guy to make various necessities to get his boat going. This requires Guy to consult and learn from various craft and trades experts. Observations are made of a range of craft / trade skills usually not accessible to lay people. 

In episode one, Guy makes a tea cup (actually a wedgewoodmug) and a kettle (a pot) to make tea, a requirement for any type of work activity. Guy learns how to shape a mug on a pottery wheel and mould figures to put on to the side of his mug. He also helps to make a blast furnace to smelt iron ore to cast the pot. In each of these activities, he is ‘taught’ by experts and there are good examples of how experts ‘show’ novices their ease with the tools and materials of their craft.

Since then, I have managed to miss every episode L. Sunday evenings are just too good to ‘waste’ sitting in front of the TV. However, all not lost as all the episodes archived on the BBC site. My only challenge was to find the time to view some of them.  The opportunity arose yesterday, the first really wet weekend in about 4 months!  I watched (intermittently while minding some baking and cooking) episodes 3 (a good night’s sleep) and 4 (beans on toast).  Both suitably interesting, with episode three visiting a mattress manufacturer. One of the workers shows how to put on the layers of a mattress which required not only dexterity but attuning to the range of materials used.

Took me most of the time 'viewing' episode 3 to work out the best place in the kitchen to set up the ipad. So that I could view the programme while also chopping, stirring and keeping watch on pots on the stove and baking in the oven. Sound was also an issue so will need to see if I can get my son to work out how to hook the ipad up to a mini speaker system. Otherwise, might need to stick to catching up on podcasts (on ipod touch and earphones) when in the kitchen.

There is a follow up series in 2012 of sorts called ‘how Britain worked’. It might run on Choice TV in the future so will keep an eye out for it.The series is a good change from the run of 'reality TV' dished out on NZ public TV. The range consisting mainly of people aspiring to become chefs or people trying to lose weight or talent shows. Showing a range of real occupations,even though we only get a very small glimpse,provides the general public with a sense of the craftmanship inherent in various trades and the time and effort required to learn trade skills.

Learning through observation

Just completed a ‘first pass’ through the interview data from my latest project: Learning a trade: becoming a trade person through apprenticeship. This involved a ‘frequency analysis’ through the transcripts, to identify how apprentices responded to the question, how did you go about learning your trade?  A list of ‘ways of learning’ was taken from the ‘vocational pedagogy’ report by Lucas, B., Spencer, E. & Claxton, G. (2012). Apprentices’ responses were then coded to the various ‘ways of learning’. Firstly, to find out how apprentices perceived they learnt and also to find out if specific trades had any ‘ways of learning’ that were more specific to their trade.

The finding, that every apprentice mentioned that they learnt by observation, is not unexpected. However, almost none of our tutor / teacher training hones in on teaching students how to learn by observation. Another theme that has arisen through the interviews is that apprentices generally did not display much meta-cognition about how they went about learning trade skills. They just ‘get on and do it’ and all learn the skills required to become productive and competent trades people.

My take is that the assumption is made that we are all able to learn by observation as this is something we have been doing since we were born. We learn many life motor skills by observing our parent, siblings, peers and later, teachers. I will need to get back into Rogoff’s work on ‘apprenticeshipin thinking’ to unpack the work in this area – of how children (especially in non-Western cultures) learn family culture / skills.

Meanwhile, will revisit the work on sports and skill acquisitionon ‘learning through observation’ and do a more thorough literature search on the topic. Will need to then synthesis some of the sports psychology work on ‘learning by watching / observation’ with the literature on expertise / deliberate practice to build up some sense of where to go next.

Bounce - book overview

Syed, M. (2010). Bounce.the myth of talent and the power of practice. London, UK. Fourth Estate.

This book has an excellence in sporting achievement focus, stemming from Matthew Syed's background as a competitive table tennis player. It is along similar lines to Gladwell’s book Outliers - summarised in earlier blog, covering some similar ground but providing an update through the use of more recent work on psychology and neurology. The sports focus keeps the book tight and there is much information of relevance to trade skills development.

There are 10 chapters in 3 parts with parts 1 and 2 of most relevance.

Part one covers the ‘talent myth’ and similar to Outliers, spells out how the path to sports excellence relies on a mix of being at the right place and the right time; having connections with the right people; and possessing the discipline and diligence to engage with deliberate practice over a long period of time.

Part two brings in the ‘paradoxes of the mind’ with the role of motivation and the placebo effect. Chapter six on ‘the curse of choking and how to avoid it’ provides an interesting read of the danger of collapsing under the strains and pressures of external expectations and provides tips for the individual on how to surmount this hurdle.

All in, part one provides a good overview of the learning involved in getting to become an expert. There are summaries of current literature and good examples of application of these studies to sports training and development are provided. The book is also written in an easy to read style, explaining concepts in sports psychology with clarity. 

Development of professional expertise – book summary

Title of the book is ‘Development of professional expertise: Toward measurement of expert performance and design of optimal learning environments’ (2009) - Cambridge University Press, and it has 21 chapters organised into 4 sections. With a summary/discussion chapter at the end of each section. The book is edited by K. Anders Ericsson, who has completed a body of work on expert performance and deliberate practice using research methods centred around protocol analysis and verbal reports on thinking.

The Kindle version costs US$18.70 which is a real bargain compared to the hardback version at $109! Have ordered the hardcopy for the library. As yet, there is no preview available in google books. Book review / summary also simplified as I could read on Ipad, take notes on PC and save on blogger. The summary was completed across a series of months, from initial reading while travelling in July. The bookmarking and highlighting function on the Kindle app comes into good use to mark initial points of interest and themes. At work, it was a matter of following up on the bookmarks and notes to complete the summaries of each chapter. 

The book has a focus on studying measurable situated expertise and the unravelling of factors that promote the acquisition, maintenance and on-going development of expertise. The myth that expertise is a result of accumulated experience is debunked. Instead, the need for conscientious deliberate practice is required for both novices and recognized experts to attain, maintain and continually hone skills is required.

      1) A brief history of the study of expertise is provided in chapter one. The chapter also provides background to the rationale, origins (a conference on expertise) and structure / approaches of the book.  The book as a whole, has a focus on measurable performance of expertise in a range of real world work (many within a military training / leadership context) and learning activities with the aim of understanding better, how individuals and teams acquire and develop superior performance. Brief summaries of each of the chapters is also provided.

Section 1 – historical overview covering challenges in the past and contemporary efforts.

2)   20^th century revolution in military training (R. E. Chapman).

This interesting chapter, describes the evolution of training within the United States military. In particular, the move in the 1970s towards using forms of experiential /active learning supported with feedback structures, to improve outcomes of military training. Of interest is the description of the navy’s ‘top gun’ programme for combat pilots, which improved the odds of survival of fighter pilots. The norm of two planes shot down to one enemy plane shot down, improved in the navy’s favour to 12.5 planes for each enemy plan shot down, after the ‘top gun’ programme became the training approach. Top gun training involved pilots training in a simulated environment against ‘enemy planes’ that flew like and used enemy strategies.  A ‘after-action review was then used to evaluate each pilot’s performance, confronting pilots with their errors and forcing them to reflect on their performance.

The ‘top gun’ training programme was then adapted to infantry training and has been adapted over the years. Findings from the many cohorts trained through this programme include that there is a levelling off of the learning curve after initial rapid improvement.  Learning curves can be cumulative. Part task initial learning is followed by simplified whole-task training. Then realistic whole task training is undertaken before actual mission training is undertaken.  Skills also atrophy if they are not being used within 2 – 3 months of training programme.

 3) Developing professional expertise with a cognitive apprenticeship (S. P. Lajoie)

Has a good overview of the cognitive apprenticeship model as it applies to avionics troubleshooting and medical diagnosis. Describes the use of Sherlock – a task- or job specific computer assisted training programme / intelligent tutoring system to help avionics technicians work through troubleshooting airplane component faults. Following on, the concepts used have been developed further to assist medical students and doctors to learn or revise medical diagnostics.

4) Leaderships development and assessment: describing and rethinking the state of the art (M.D., Mumford, T.L. Friedrich, J.J. Caughron and A.L. Antes)

Presents a model of leader cognition as an alternative to mainly business / corporate approaches to understanding leadership.  In particular, that leadership skills are difficult to pin down, highly contextualised and leadership training does not guarantee performance at time of stress / greatest need (as when things ‘turn to custard’ on the battlefield).

      5)  Revolutions, leaders and diagnosticians: reflections on themes in chapters 2-4 (E.B. Hunt)

Not just a summary but a readable critique of the preceding three chapters.  Some historical overview also provided to help situate each chapter into time/place so that findings are taken with caution.

Section 2 – continues with past and contemporary efforts to design instruction, train and maintain professional performance has 4 chapters.

      6) Research on past and current training in professional domains: the emerging need for a paradigm shift (J.J.G. VanMerrienboer and E.W. Boot). The chapter summarises the challenges presented in present day training of professionals and discusses the role of instructional systems design (ISD) in conjunction with technology enhanced learning environments (TELEs) and presents implications for future practice.  The context is training in the military. Provides a good overview of ISD including social constructivist and whole-task design models and how these no longer cope with the challenges of present day military training demands. Also overviews of TELEs including computer-based training, intelligent tutoring systems, dynamic visual presentations and animations, hypertext and hypermedia, and computer simulations and virtual reality. Argues for the need to abandon atomistic ISD and optimise TELEs towards whole-task approaches.

 7) Designing training for professionals based on subject matter experts and cognitive task analysis (J.M. Schraagen). This chapter provides a good overview of the actual task analysis process as applied in instructional design (ID).  Provides discussion on both the advantages and disadvantages of task analysis approaches. Offers the cognitive task analysis approach, using subject matter experts as a foundation and provides a thorough explanation via case study of how to bring about a change and convert from original ID programme to cognitive task analysis. The example uses training in structured troubleshooting in the training of weapons engineers in the Royal Netherlands Navy.

      8) How to help professional maintain and improve their knowledge and skills: triangulating best practises in medicine (D.A. Davis). This chapter is based on a study of medical practitioners need to maintain currency in practice. In the past, the main models have been the update, competence and performance models. The Currency of Credit currently used is critiqued. A new model based on professional self-assessment, competency assessment and performance assessment is proposed.

 9) Advances in specifying what is to be learned: reflections on themes in chapters 6-8 (R.E. Mayer) – A couple of good tables in this chapter (9.1 and 9.2) summarise approaches to specifying what is to be learnt and kinds of knowledge. Need to assist specification of compartmentalised behaviours, compartmentalised knowledge, integrated knowledge, individualised knowledge to determine what the learner needs to know and then determine what the learner already knows and how to teach (what the learner does not yet know).

Section 3 has 5 chapters covering assessment and training of skilled and expert performers in the military

      10) Toward a second training revolution: promise and pitfalls of digital experiential training (R.E. Chatham). A long but useful chapter.  The chapter is a continuation from Chapter 2, adding in the TELE type approaches now used by the US of A military to cope with the challenges of training personnel for modern warfare. As Chatham writes, “everything short of war is similuation” . The chapter provides many examples of using TEL including simulations and games. The advantages and disadvantages of simulations and games are discussed and examples provided. Development of simulations and games is not cheap, so it is important to ensure the $$ lead to learning outcomes, in this case, life and death outcomes for military personnel. Future work on ‘distributed experiential training’ is proposed to end the chapter.

11) Evaluating pilot performance (B.T. Schreiber,W. Bennett, Jr., C.M. Colegrove, A.M. Portrey, D.A. Greschke and H.H. Bell). Here, there is an interesting historical overview of flight simulators. Learning to fly, under combat conditions, provides a good example of the holistic task analysis approach now used to ensure training is situated, experiential and authentic. Of note is that even though flight simulators are able to gather a range of assessment information from learner pilots, there is still a need for an experienced instructor pilot to complete the final instructional evaluation and make the final decision on competence / capability.

 12) Contrasting submarine specialty training: sonar and fire control (S.S. Kirshenbaum, S.L. McInnis, K.P. Correll). Two specialities requiring different forms of skill are studied to determine the efficacy of changes to the training approaches. The descriptions of the specialist skills in each occupation provides examples of detailed task analysis. The chapter details the application of the Kirkpatrick levels of assessment framework, using four levels to assess students’ skill acquisition – reaction, learning, behaviour, results.

      13) Training complex cognitive skills: a theme based approach to the development of battlefield skills (S.B. Shadrick and J.W. Lussier). An interesting chapter on the importance of ensuring soldiers are taught to think is as important as teaching them how to fight.  There is good overview and discussion on the various approaches to teaching people how to be more adaptable, flexible and versatile – the need to attain adaptive performance and adaptive thinking. Example is used of how the Soviets used to train chess players, not only to learn the mechanics of chess but to be able learn the thinking  strategies to ‘think like a grandmaster’. Interesting table 13.1 on the themes of battlefield thinking adaptable to other contexts. Also good summary of principles of deliberate practice in table 13.2. Uses the think like a commander (TLAC) TEL simulation as an example.

      14) Structuring the conditions of training to achieve elite training programs and related themes – chapters 10-13 (R.A. Bjork). This chapter unpacks the many concepts and ideas in the chapters in section 3 and reports on commonalities of the approaches. Summaries of each chapter also included.

Section 4 focuses on development of expertise and expert conference with 7 chapters.

15)  The influence of learning research on design and use of assessment (E.L. Baker).  As the title implies, this chapter covers the implications of learning design on assessment . The chapter begins with recognising that assessments will never be able to capture the inherent complexity of learning. There is also a brief overview of the history of testing including various models of learning  that inform the process of testing – table 15.4. A model based assessment of learning to encompass content understanding, problem solving, metacognition, communication and teamwork / collaboration is proposed through learning design techniques like knowledge maps and ontologies. All in a good overview of assessment.

 16) Acquiring conceptual expertise through modelling: the case of elementary physics (K.Vanlehn and B. Van De Sande). Uses physics as the context for understanding how concepts are learnt and how novices might attain misconceptions. The model assumes that conceptual expertise includes mastery of descriptive based knowledge, applying the knowledge to known conditions and confluences (equations learnt through superficial understanding followed by constructing a semantic version of the equation and eventually understanding through producing a qualitative version.

17) Teaching for expertise: problem-based methods in medicine and other professional domains (H.P.A. Boshuizen). An important chapter bringing the application of some of the ideas through the book, towards ideas of how to better teach so that students are able to learn.  Advocates for the need of horizontal and vertical integration of knowledge required to attain occupational skills and how problem based learning (PBL) may be one approach. Uses examples to explain the advantages of PBL

18)  Enhancing the development of professional performance: implications from the study of deliberate practice (K.A. Ericsson). This chapter provides a thorough overview of the studies from which the deliberate practice (DP) model was derived. There is a good summary of the rationale for the development of DP.  Application of DP to professional training and practice is also covered. Superior performance requires the learning and integration of a range of skills, knowledge and attributes. DP involves the selection of actions, the monitoring of learning as the activity is practiced and control of how the ongoing learning is progressing. All of these lead to incremental improvements in performance.

19) It takes expertise to make expertise: some thoughts about why and how – reflections on the themes chapter 15-18. (J.D.Bransford and D.L. Schwartz). The four chapters on expertise are summarised, critiqued and discussed including the both the learning and the teaching of expert performance.

20) The value of expertise and expert performance: a review of evidence from the military (J.D. Fletcher). In this chapter, the various themes throughout the book are contextualised overtly to the military learning and training context. Themes include self-assessment and self-directed learning; deliberate practice to develop expertise; agility in expertise and professional performance; assessment of professional growth towards attaining expertise; the centrality of cognition in expertise; and the importance of designing learning environments to promote expertise.  Will have a go in another blog to see how similar concept can be applied to vocational education setting.

 21)  Expertise in the management of people: a new frontier for research on expert performance (S.E.F. Chapman). This chapter explores the use of case-based instruction.  Also proposes research agenda for the future.

     Overall, a book that bring together the theoretical frameworks of expertise and reports on application of various studies to range of occupations. The situated and contextual nature of learning is affirmed as is the need for novices to have guided, structured learning experiences to attain expertise in occupations requiring the deployment of a complex range of skills. Well worth the time to work through all the chapters as each brings applicable recommendations towards the improvement of vocational education curriculum development (through ID processes), structuring learning activities to maximise learning and alignment of authentic assessment activities to what is expected in real-world practice.

Book on expertise

Ericsson, K.A., Charness, N., Feltovich, P.J., &  Hoffman, R. R. (Eds.) (2006). The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.

This book has 6 sections with 3 subsections in section 5 and a total of 42 chapters. I have summarised the sections with the most relevance but almost every chapter contains useful information. The book's main asset is the readability of each chapter along with the applied nature of most of the information.

Section 1 - introduction and perspective
Chapter 1 - an introduction to the book: its development organisation and content - K. A.Ericsson
Defines expertise and expert performance - page 3 and provides the historical evolution of studies in expertise - page 4

2 - Two approaches to the study of expert characteristics - M.T.H. Chi
Absolute and Relative approaches and summarises ways in which experts excel - pg 23 and ways in which experts fall short - pg 24.

3 - Expertise, talent and social encouragement - E. Hunt
 Proposes that different types of expertise, make different types of cognitive demands - pg 31

Section 2 - overview of approaches to the study of expertise - brief historical accounts of theories and methods

4. studies of expertise from psychological perspectives -P.J. Feltovich, M.J. Prietula &  K. A. Ericsson
Lists the generalisable characteristics of expertise - pg 46 --
limited in scope and elite performance does not transfer
knowledge and content matter are important to expertise
expertise involves larger and more integrated cognitive units
involves functional, abstracted representations of presented information
involves automated basic strokes
selective access of relevant information
involves reflection
is an adaptation

5. Educators and expertise: A brief history of theories and methods - R.J.Amirault & R.K. Branson
6. Expert systems : a perspective from computer science - B.G. Buchanan, R. Davis &  E.A. Feigenbaum
7. Professionalisation, scientific expertise and elitism: a sociological perspective -J.Evetts, H.A. Mieg & U.Felt
Above 3 chapters provide historical overviews on development and propose theorectical frameworks for study of expertise.

Section 3 - methods for studying the structure of expertise
8. observation of work practices in natural settings - W.J. Clancey
overview of how various methods have evolved - scientific observation in natural settings: visual anthropology. Details se of ethnomethodology's analytical perspective - 'learning to see'
**details units of analysis - pg 136 and methods of observation of natural settings -

9. Methods for studying the structure of expertise: Psychometric approaches - P.L. Ackerman & M.E.Beier
10. Laboratory methods for assessing experts' and novices' knowledge - M.T.H. Chi
Both above more aligned to quantitative methodologies.

11. Task analysis - J.M. Shraagen
Useful background and description of various approaches, for instance Miller - task description and task analysis, Flanagan - critical incident technique and hierarchical task analysis.
Provides 2 case studies - pg 193 - improving troubleshooting - pg 196 - shore-based pilotage - to illustrate how task analysis proceeds.

12. Eliciting and representing the knowledge of experts - R.R.Hoffman & G. Lintern
Presents methods for representing expert knowledge through cognitive task analysis CTA. including methods for critical decision model; work domain analysis; and concept mapping

13. Protocol analysis and expert thought: Concurrent verbalisations of thinking during experts' performance on representative tasks - K.A. Ericsson
Presents the pros and cons of this method.

14. Simulation for performance and training - P. Ward, A.M. Williams & P.A. Hancock
An overview.

Section 4 - methods for studying the acquisition and maintenance of expertise
15. Laboratory studies of training, skill acquisition and retention of performance - R. W. Proctor & K-P. L. Vu
16. Retrospective interviews in the study of expertise and expert performance - L.A. Sosniak
17. Time budgets, diaries, and analyses of concurrent practice activities - J.M. Deakin, J. Cote & A. S. Harvey
18. Histriometric methods -D.K. Simonton
All 4 chapters provide clear descriptions and some examples.

Section 5 - domains of expertise
5A - professional
19. Expertise in medicine and surgery - G.Norman, K. Eva, L. Brooks & S. Hamstra

20. Expertise and transportation -F.T. Durso & A.R. Dattel

21. Expertise in software design - S. Sonnetag, C. Niessen & J. Volmer

22. Professional writing expertise - R. T. Kellogg

23. Professional judgments and 'naturalistic decision making' - K.G. Ross, J.L. Shafer & G. Klein
NDM - requires - perceptual skill; mental modes; sense of typicality and associations; routines; declarative knowledge; mental simulation; assessing the situation; finding leverage points; managing uncertainty; and understanding one's own strengths and limitations (metacognition) - pg 405

24. Decision-making expertise - J.F. Yates & M.D. Tschirhart

25. The making of a dream team: when expert teams do best - E. Salas, M.A. Rosen, C. S. Burke, G.F. Goodwin & S. M. Fiore

5B - arts, sports and motor skills
26. music - A.C. Lehmann & H. Gruber

27. Expert performance in sport: A cognitive perspective - N.J. Hodges, J.L. Starkes & C. Mcmahon

28. Artistic performance:Acting, ballet and contemporary dance - H. Noice & T. Noice

29. Perceptual-motor expertise - D.A. Rosenbaum, J.S. Augustyn, R.G. Cohen & S.A. Jax

5C - games and other types of expertise
30. Expertise in chess - F. Gobet &  N. Charness

31. exceptional memory - J.M.Wilding &  E.R. Valentine

32. mathematical expertise - B. Butterworth

33. expertise in history - J.F. Voss & J. Wiley

section 6 - generalizable mechanisms mediating expertise and general issues
34. a merging theory of expertise and intelligence - J.Horn &  H. Masunaga

35. Tacit knowledge, practical intelligence and expertise - A. T. Cianciolo, C. Matthews, R.J. Sternberg & R.K. Wagner
Definitions of tacit knowledge - pg 615 and practical intelligence pg 616

36. Expertise and situation awareness - M.R. Endsley

37. Brain changes in the development of expertise: Neuroanatomical and neurophysiological evidence about skill-based adaptations - N.M. Hill & W. Schneider
themes in learning literature on brain processing and brain structure - pg 658
learning is localised and very specialised
learning and processing occur in the same cortical locations
learning can produce both increases and decreases in the areas of activity
in some tasks there is a shifting between brain regions
relevant info/objects and other stimuli are uniquely processed by experts (e.g. birds by bird watchers)
learning can produce detectable morphological changes
motor areas can rapidly change as a result of skilled movement practivce and improved performance - pg 671
notable for plastic change with extensive experience and practice

38. The influence of experience and deliberate practice on the development of superior expert performance - K.A. Ericsson
** details the work on delibrate practice

39. Development and adaptation of expertise: Role of self-regulatory processes and beliefs - B.J. Zimmerman

40. aging and expertise - R.T. Krampe & N. Charness

41. Social and sociological factors in the development of expertise - H.A. Mieg

42. Modes of expertise in creative thinking: evidence from case studies - R.W. Weisberg

All in, much or relevance to pick up in this book. It does have a good range of chapters covering the current state of learning on expertise.

Tacit Knowledge

An article on the New Scientist via my iGoogle page caught my attention this morning. This is probably because the term came up as a point of discussion in one of my adult learning principles classes. Several of the students were not familiar with the term and we then did a brief side step during the course of the lesson to explore the implications of tacit knowledge on their roles as teachers. In summary, the article provides a good overview, brief history of how Polanyi coined the term tacit knowledge and the three kinds of tacit knowledge. These are somatic (innate), relational (social/logistical) and collective (contextual/socio-cultural).
Above of use also to my current research in trying to unpack how trade skills (much of which seem to have become tacit in experts/tutors) can be better modelled / taught to novices.


The article above also leads to a website of the University of Cardiff research group, led by Harry Collins, working on expertise. Lots of information on this site to trawl through with up to date information on various aspects of expertise. Links to publications and books produced so it will take me some time to trawl through all the interesting bits.