Chapter #2— Novice to Expert

Cynthia Desrochers, CO and Ed Nuhfer, Channel Islands

Expert learners spend engaged time developing a deep and organized conceptual knowledge base in an area or discipline.

A faculty developer's recollection:

"As the math professor wrote a long formula on the board, she apparently made an error, and another student raised his hand and commented, 'Don’t you need to add an χ to the equation so it’s balanced?' That’s when I knew that I was a novice. I couldn’t have identified a missing χ if my life had depended upon it. The other student and I were both on the novice to expert continuum, but, at that time, he was just closer to expert than I was."

All experts start as novices, but experts have traits that distinguish them from novices. Can you pinpoint expert traits within the list below? Compared to a novice, experts have:

1. greater intelligence?

2. better memories?

3. greater factual knowledge?

4. deeper understanding?

5. organized knowledge?

You can find the correct answers in the exercises, where you'll see that the traits of expertise are acquired, not innate. Experts are made not born, but let's be very clear about who makes the expert. As we learned in Chapter 1, expert performance comes from building a massive neural network that holds the learning obtained from experience and study. That network resides in the expert's head, not elsewhere. In the journey from novice to expert, the only learning that matters occurs in the student's brain. The work of the instructor is to design effective learning experiences, but the responsibility for learning resides with the student, and it cannot be transferred. No instructor can make a student learn.

To take responsibility, the learner must first commit to spending many hours developing a foundation of factual knowledge. Facts are bits of information that established experts in a field believe are essential. An example of a fact is that "the brain contains over a billion neurons."

Each of us has the ability to build the required knowledge base, but becoming an expert is a challenging exercise of will power. The brain, as a survival mechanism, does not naturally focus on single tasks. It will seek to give its attentions to a multitude of things for short time periods, which is its effective natural survival mode of operation. This mode is inappropriate for extended focus required for expertise, so the owner must intend that his or her brain remain focused—first for short periods that gradually increase up to beyond an hour before breaks are taken.

The effect of sincere intent of long-term commitment on the outcomes of practice are huge, as can be seen in Figure 2-1. The strong focus that results from commitment produces several times the learning in the same amount of study time as does weak-willed commitment.

Figure 2-1. Three groups of children practiced a musical instrument for the same amount of time each week, but Series 3 students outperform Series 1 students by nearly 400%. The difference? Series 3 students intend to practice for decades to life; Series 1 and 2 students intend to only commit to play an instrument for a much shorter time. (modified from Coyle, 2009, The Talent Code, p. 104; based on McPherson, G., 2001, Council for Research in Music Education. & 2005, Psychology of Music.)

Second, expertise depends upon understanding the why about facts in our knowledge base. An example of a "why statement" about learning is that "An idea results when a network of brain cells communicate with one another. I can explain an idea only when neural connections are sufficient to allow me to articulate the idea through language." When we can employ our knowledge base to understand why things work, we start to develop the deep understanding characteristic of experts.

Third, experts have well-organized knowledge in the context of conceptual frameworks. Conceptual reasoning allows us to classify and organize knowledge that we can access as a whole rather than step-by-step in parts. For example, after we understand how the brain learns, after we learn why it consumes neurochemicals that need to be replenished, and after we learn how the brain operates differently from its natural survival mode when we commit to deep focus, we can put all of that into one operational concept. One concept realized might be required balance as a life approach to learning. Simply stated, the concept is "My brain cannot engage deep learning all day. My learning will be better if I take breaks to do some exercise and recreation and allow neurochemicals to replenish while my brain operates in its natural mode." Thereafter, we start to live with required balance. We need not think of all the details any longer.

Developed expertise gives solid ability to solve meaningful life problems that novices cannot solve. Expertise is a genuine quality that proves itself through performance. Theatrics cannot conceal absence of expertise.

Actions We Can Take to Move from Novice to Expert

1. Spend time on task through informed learning methods (Figure 2-1). The rule of thumb is about 10,000 hours of focused practice to produce an expert. See other chapters in this manual to learn how to spend that time well.

2. Become conscious of how you learn and think. Reflective learning always beats unreflective struggles to learn.

3. Ask your professors about the most significant concepts so that you can focus on these few. Experts prioritize their actions and concentrate on the most relevant first.

Physics students at CSU San Marcos become experts by talking and learning together.


Student Self-assessment Activities

From Chapter Text: Can you pinpoint expert traits within the list? Compared to a novice, experts have:

1. greater intelligence?

2. better memories?

3. greater factual knowledge?

4. deeper understanding?

5. organized knowledge?

Answer. Items 3, 4, and 5 are qualities of experts and these are developed through practice. Items 1 and 2 are qualities that can give us some initial advantages, but in themselves these cannot carry us far. The smartest people with the best memories still need to develop through stages 3, 4 and 5 in order to develop expertise.

1. Select a course you are taking in a discipline that is not in your intended major. Interview your professor and ask him/her to explain to you one central unifying concept that is important for understanding that discipline. Take notes and do not leave the office until you can understand that concept well enough to state it satisfactorily in your own words.

2. After you leave the office, restate the concept in writing in your own words. Then, using your own life’s experience, list two examples in which the understanding of that concept could be applicable and useful. Finally reflect on how doing these two items resulted in learning that was not present before you did these.

3. Figure 2-1 shows the power of commitment. List four qualities that you believe should be present when your commitment to your own learning is strong. Over the next week, commit to practice by bringing these qualities to one learning task—no cheating, no whining.

4. Note during the week when one quality is especially difficult to enact and hypothesize why that particular quality is troublesome. At the end of the week, try to see a concept that links all of the difficulties you encountered. Could you sense when your brain tended to move from disciplined focus and concentration to survival mode by seeking brief diversions?

References

Bransford, J. D. et al., eds. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience and school. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Coyle, Daniel, (2009). The talent code. New York: Bantam.

Pascarella, E. T. and Terenzini, P. T. (1991). How college affects students. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass