The Models of Skill Acquisition and Expertise Development: A Quick Reference of Summaries

CONTENTS

PREFACE

THE BOOK

THE AUTHOR

ABBREVIATIONS

CHAPTER 1

LEARNING, SKILL ACQUISITION AND EXPERTISE DEVELOPMENT

1.1 Learning and Performance

1.2 Expertise

1.3 Expertise Development

CHAPTER 2

CLASSIFYING THE MODELS OF SKILL, PROFICIENCY AND EXPERTISE DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 3

STAGE-BASED MODELS

3.1 Conscious Competence Theory

3.2 Fitts & Posner (1967) Model of skill acquisItion

3.3 Anderson (1982) ACT-R Theory of Cognition

3.4 Ackerman (1988) Theory of Ability Determinants of Skill Acquisition

3.5 VanLehn (1996) Cognitive Skill Acquisition Theory

3.6 Kim et al. (2013) Theory of skill retention

3.7 Vygotsky (1978) Zone of Proximal Development

3.8 Dreyfus & Dreyfus (1986) Stages of Skill Acquisition

3.9 Alexander (1997) Model of Domain Learning

3.10 Hoffman (1998) Proficiency Scale

3.11 Jacobs (1997) Levels of Human Competence

3.12 Rosenberg (2012) Novice-to-Expert Transition

CHAPTER 4

PRACTICE-, TIME-, OR TASK-BASED MODELS

4.1 Bloom (1968) Mastery Learning Model

4.2 Ericsson et al. (1993) Deliberate Practice Model of Expert Performance

4.3 van Merriënboer et al. (1992) 4-Component Model of complex skill acquisition

4.4 Klein (1993) Recognition-Primed Decision (RPD) Model for Rapid Decision-Making Expertise

CHAPTER 5

FACTOR-BASED MODELS

5.1 Sternberg (1999) Model of Intelligence as expertise development

5.2 Langan-Fox et al. (2002) Skilled Performance Theory

CHAPTER 6

EXPERT MODELING-BASED MODELS

6.1 Collins (1989) Cognitive Apprenticeship Model

6.2 Lajoie (2003) Trajectory of Expertise

6.3 Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) Approach to Model Expertise

6.4 Vygotsky (1978) Zone of Proximal Development

CHAPTER 7

COGNITION-BASED MODELS

7.1 Spiro et al. (1990) Cognitive Flexibility Theory

7.2 Klein & Baxter (2oo9) Cognitive Transformation Theory

CHAPTER 8

PHASES OF SKILL ACQUISITION: INTEGRATING VARIOUS VIEWS

8.1 Novice

8.2 Advanced Beginner

8.3 Competent

8.4 Proficient

8.5 Expert

8.6 Mastery

8.7 Relevance of Stages in Professional Jobs

RELEVANT PUBLICATIONS BY THE AUTHOR

REFERENCES

INDEX

PREFACE

Broadly the book deals with the discipline of education. It cross-cuts in the disciplines of learning sciences, training, instructional design, cognitive sciences, cognitive psychology, expertise development, and performance improvement.

In the context of organizations, researchers and corporate leaders have started focusing on how to ensure robust human resource development and performance management of employees to meet their business goals. For the last half a century, researchers and scholars have tried to unlock the mysteries of human learning, identify the process of developing people to a higher level of competence, and improve overall performance at the jobs and other areas. The knowledge base in these subject areas is usually organized as models, frameworks, theories, or explanations of how people acquire new skills and become an expert in those skills. A vast amount of literature has been written about major models mentioned in most foundational research papers. This book summarizes several foundational models and theories from the literature review of four-decade of research on learning, skill acquisition, expertise development, and performance improvement of people.

HR specialists, learning designers, instructional designers, and performance consultants are trying to structure their training and learning programs for employee development around established models or best practices. This book clarifies the mechanisms of skill acquisition and expertise development, which can be used to design research-based curriculums in educational or corporate settings.

This book is forked out from the literature review during my doctorate research program, which eventually changed direction to a different topic. However, I find that this literature review still holds value for new researchers in the discipline of education, training, and learning. In general, the researchers are required to demonstrate a broader understanding of key models, theories, and philosophies in their disciplines in the literature review section of their research proposal or research paper. Arguably, this is also the most challenging step, upon which most students and researchers are not trained. A typical new researcher in the field of learning, training, cognitive sciences, education, or allied disciplines starts painfully reading thousands of pages of scattered research papers written about various skill acquisition and expertise development models. After extensive analysis, they start forming their viewpoint and converge to a specific theory, model, or aspect of it as the philosophical base for their research proposal or further exploration on a topic.

Ironically, most new researchers do not get a good handle on where to start their literature review and which direction to go for more in-depth exploration. That is where this book may act as a time saver for those new scholars or research students in training, education, and learning disciplines who are either new to these disciplines or who do not have any prior experience in conducting a literature review in these disciplines.

This book presents new researchers in learning, training, cognitive sciences, or education disciplines with a big picture starting point for their literature review journey. This book aims to offer a collection of summaries of existing models and theories to give a bird’s eye view to new researchers based on which they can decide which direction to dig further. The book provides them a condensed but ‘just enough’ review of 23 significant models of skill acquisition and expertise development presented by leading researchers during the last half a century of classic and new research in a single volume. The review is complemented with over 200 authentic sources, which a researcher read for a detailed and deeper dive and set the direction for further exploration.

Last but not least, I must admit that this book is not a detailed reference and does not replace the in-depth review required during research phases. It is probably relevant to mention that the book should be considered a collection of summaries derived from a literature review of several famous skill acquisition and expertise development models. This book does not intend to offer an in-depth critique of the existing models and does not attempt to derive any new model or new theory.

Ideally, this book is meant for research students, researchers, and scholars (new and seasoned) who are researching the areas of human performance, education, expertise, skill development, instructional design, cognitive sciences, learning theory, training design, and similar disciplines. Academics or professors teaching courses or subjects in the above areas may find this book useful enough to recommend it to their students to plan for detailed literature reviews in such areas.

This book may also be helpful to professional instructional designers, learning specialists, trainers, and consultants interested in designing and delivering their programs or training sessions. The book may help them to understand the mechanisms of human performance improvement, the process of human skill acquisition, and theories of human expertise development.

Lastly, please contact me with your proposal if you are a budding researcher or a research student who would like to co-author an expanded edition of this book. It could be an edition offering summaries/reviews of additional models or extending already covered models with expanded critiques from several different disciplines.

Raman K. Attri (Dr)

April 2019

The journey toward expertise is unceasing. Even those who have attained the knowledge, strategic abilities, and interests indicative of expertise cannot sit idly by as the domain shifts under their feet.

Alexander (2003, p. 12)

THE BOOK

The book offers condensed summaries of twenty-three major skill acquisition and expertise development models presented by leading researchers during the last half a century of classic and new research. This book presents new researchers in learning, training, cognitive sciences, or education disciplines with a big picture starting point for their literature review journey.

The book presents an easy-to-understand taxonomy of twenty-three models, giving new researchers a good bird’s eye view of existing models and theories. They can decide which direction to dig further. The reviews in this book are complemented with over 200 authentic sources, which a researcher read for a detailed and deeper dive and set the direction for further exploration. This book would also act as an essential reference for training & learning professionals and instructional designers to design research-based training curriculum to develop the skills of their staff.

Chapter 1 of the book elaborates on how the processes of learning, skill acquisition, and expertise development are interwoven.

Chapter 2 presents a classification system to categorize various models reviewed in the literature under five groups.

Chapter 3 describes twelve models of skill and expertise acquisition which are represented in the form of stages used frequently in learning, training, and performance literature. The chapter also briefly discusses each model's implications toward developing the skills and expertise of a less proficient individual to a higher level of proficiency.

Chapter 4 reviews practice-, time- or task-based models, which are theories or models suggesting that acquisition of knowledge & skills, development of expertise, and performance improvement is a function of nature of the practice, amount of time spent on the task and task type.

Chapter 5 presents the factor-based models, suggesting the interplay of several factors that influence the acquisition of knowledge & skills, development of expertise, and performance improvement.

Chapter 6 embarks on describing expert modeling-based models, suggesting modeling an expert through elicitation or guidance for the acquisition of knowledge & skills, development of expertise, and performance improvement.

Chapter 7 covers some newer movements toward cognition-based models, which are theories or models focusing on mechanisms of cognitive learning for the acquisition of knowledge & skills, development of expertise, and performance improvement.

Chapter 8 concludes the book by integrating views from various thought leaders to explain a famous staged skill acquisition model.

THE AUTHOR

Dr Raman K Attri is a corporate business researcher, learning strategist, and professional speaker with a strong zeal to enable people to unravel human learning and performance. He specializes in providing competitive and strategic value to organizations by accelerating the time-to-proficiency of employees through well-researched models. He holds a doctorate in business from Southern Cross University, Australia. His international professional career spanned over 25 years across various disciplines, such as scientific research, systems engineering, management consulting, training operations, professional teaching, and learning design. A strong proponent of learning as the core of human success, he provides advisory on accelerated learning techniques which earned him over 100 educational credentials, including two doctorate degrees, three masters’ degrees, and tens of international certifications. Despite physical disability since childhood, he leveraged it to learn, research, and test a range of how-to methods to accelerate the rate of personal learning and professional performance at the workplace. He has published his methods in scholarly journals, blogs, books, and conferences. He also runs a Get There Faster movement to enable people to speed up their mastery. He can be reached at http://ramankattri.com.