Attaining Expertise

Attaining Expertise

LeAnn Carthel

PSYCH 640

December 7, 2015

Christopher Wessinger

Attaining Expertise

Expertise is defined as a special skill of knowledge that an individual acquires from experience or continuous study. It is knowledge and understanding of a subject to the fullest. To be an expert, one must know a subject inside and out. Components that make up expertise is the four C's; creativity, contingency, contextualism, and competence. The four C's make up a pyramid (Benner, 1984). The bottom of the pyramid is competence, the ground base or floor position. Although some doctors may be experts in their field of practice, they may only be competent of other areas of the medical field.  The next level of the pyramid is contextualism. It is the ability to know what to do and when to do it. Experts will know the appropriate method for any situation. The next pyramid level is contingency. This is the ability to cope when things do not go as planned. Creativity is the very top of the pyramid, and uses the other levels of the pyramid to continue solving new problems.

In all professions, there are average performers, terrible performers, and then some are even exceptional. Some think people are born with what it takes to be extremely skilled in their area of interest. Evidence shows that an individual's knowledge and skills depends on experience and not education. Carl Beuke (2011) explains that more success can be accomplished by focusing on what can be improved and not worrying about what one is lacking or if they are good enough.

Definition in terms of Cognitive Development & Knowledge Structure

In the development of expertise, practice does not always make perfect (Schneider, 1985), it also depends on the behavioral and psychological characteristics, for instance; in air traffic control programs there is a significant amount of training and practice, yet 50 to 75% do not make it through the program. In terms of knowledge structure, by the time all information has been gained, it is organized in such a way that makes for easy recall; size, shape, importance, particular case studies, facts, and theories. The reasoning process has been observed in the problem solving within such professions as product assemblers, quality control, and even waitresses. Expert reasoning is a special skill and the experts are very adept to familiar tasks (Hoffman, et al., 1983). Therefore any disruption in the tasks can cause a great decline in performance.

Development of expertise consists of progression and literal understanding of problems. The gathering of knowledge and experience are essential in the development of expertise. An apprentice takes the steps needed to gain the knowledge and skills starting from the bottom and works hard to get to the next level. Journeyman are individuals have gained enough knowledge that they can perform required duties, when given direction but without supervision. There are some that remain in journeyman stage due to not striving, unwilling to put forth the effort, or has reached the absolute maximum learning. When continuous learning by study and experience takes place the individual is considered an expert, one that can work through any scenario to find solutions, and are looked up to by other peers. The final stage of development is the master. The master is not only an expert in a particular field, they also have the ability to teach.