Attaining Expertise

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Dreyfus Stages of Developing Expertise

Dreyfus (1986) developed the stages of gaining expertise and the characteristics of each. 1. Novice is new to a situation, beginner in experience, little perception, little to no discretionary judgment. 2. Advanced beginner is a little more than a novice. 3. Competent is continuously planning, can start to see situations in the long term, reaching long term goals and understanding of routine procedures and has confidence in their actions. 4. Proficient is the ability to recognize the importance of situations, decision making is not as hard, uses guidance according to certain situations. 5. Expert relies less on rules or guidelines, understands and exhibits more of a deep understanding in accordance with experience, can see the whole picture, moves with fluid movements, skilled and analytical.

New Skills and Changes in the Brain

Learning in order to become an expert takes an enormous amount of time and patience (Stevens, 2014). Allison Stevens explains that doing something over and over does not necessarily make it easier, but it does change the brain, and continues to change throughout one's life. Research has shown that brain cells will make connections with new cells increasing one's capacity to learn.

As an individual learns new things, the brain cells that send and receive information become more efficient and takes less time and effort when signaling other cells. In the beginning of a learning experience, one will need more attention focused on the new task, the more practice an individual gets the less attention is required for action. Increasing knowledge changes the brain and allows stronger signaling between cells, but it order to keep the cells growing, one must continue to take in new information (Stevens, 2014).

Conclusion

Attaining expertise sounds easy enough, but it takes time, dedication, lots of deliberate practice, patience, experience, and steady concentration. An experts mental state allows them to adapt easily to changing situations, and look to the future for upcoming events.

It sounds like a tremendous amount of work to become an expert of anything, but would definitely be worth it in the long run.

References

Authur, J. PhD. & Khorasani, F. PhD (2008) The 8 Disciplines of Problem Solving Process. Retrieved December 6, 2015, http://www.meptec.org/Resources/24%20-%20Arthur%20Jonath%20%26%20Assoc.pdf

Benner, P. (1984). From novice to expert: Excellence and power in clinical nursing practice. Menlo Park: Addison-Wesley, pp. 13-34.

Beuke, C. PhD (2011) How to become an Expert. Retrieved December 5, 2015, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/youre-hired/201109/how-become-expert

Dreyfus, H.L. & Dreyfus, D. (1986) Mind over Machine: the power of human intuition and expertise in the era of the computer Oxford; Basil Blackwell

Hoffman, R.R. (Ed.). (1992). The Psychology of Expertise: Cognitive Research and Empirical AI. New York: Springer Verlag.

Schneider, W. (1985). Training high-performance skills: Fallacies and guidelines. Human Factors, 27, 285-300

Stevens, A.P. (2014) Brain & Behavior. Learning Rewires the Brain. Retrieved December 5, 2015, from https://student.societyforscience.org/article/learning-rewires-brain