How Experts Differ From Novices

1. Context and Access to Knowledge

1.1. Experts are able to retrieve information that is relative to a given situation at hand without having to sort through all of their knowledge

2. Fluent Retrieval

2.1. Able to retrieve information that is relative to given situation fluently and effortlessly. Places less demand on conscious attention

3. Experts and Teaching

3.1. Just because someone is an expert, they may not be a great teacher.

4. Metacognition

4.1. The ability to know what you don't know.

5. Memorization vs. Understanding

5.1. Memorizing is not the same thing as understanding.

6. Beyond Time On Task

6.1. Having people play an active role in monitoring their learning reinforces what they do and do not know. Examples of monitoring: attempts to seek and receive feedback about one's process.

7. Things that Affect Transfer:

7.1. Cultural Background, Metacognition, Active vs. Passive Approach to transfer, Context, Problem Representation.

8. Meaningful Patterns of Information

8.1. Experts are able to recognize patterns and features that novices cannot.

9. Organization of Knowledge

9.1. Experts' organization of thought is based around concepts rather than facts.

10. Adaptive Expertise

10.1. Experts are able to apply knowledge effectively to new problems without glossing over distinctive factors.

11. Transfer

11.1. The ability to transfer previously learned concepts to new situations

12. Time to Learn

12.1. Learning takes time and becoming an expert in something takes a significant time investment. In schools, attempts to cover topics too quickly leaves kids confused because they don't have an adequate background for what they are learning.

13. Motivation

13.1. Humans are motivated to learn when they see applicability in their day to day lives. Schools teach abstract problems whereas employers focus on real, day to day, concrete problems. There is a disconnect between the two.