Distinguishing adaptive from routine expertise with rational number arithmetic

Adaptive expertise is a valued, but under-examined, feature of students' mathematical development (e.g. Hatano & Oura, 2012). The present study investigates the nature of adaptive expertise with rational number arithmetic. We therefore examined 394 7th and 8th graders’ rational number knowledge using both variable-centered and person-centered approaches. Performance on a measure of adaptive expertise with rational number arithmetic, the arithmetic sentence production task, appeared to be distinct from more routine features of performance. Even among the top 45% of students, all of whom had strong routine procedural and conceptual knowledge, students varied greatly in their performance the arithmetic sentence production task. Strong performance on this measure also predicted later algebra knowledge. The findings suggest that it is possible to distinguish adaptive expertise from routine expertise with rational numbers and that this distinction is important to consider in research on mathematical development.     

The nature of teacher authority and teacher expertise

The so‐called ‘soft skills’ utilised by teachers – including relationship building, awareness of the pupil's context and background and the demonstration of authority – to develop an appropriate learning culture in their classrooms have long been recognised as being a major contribution to effective promotion of positive behaviour. This article considers some of the dimensions of these, focusing on how these help in contributing towards ‘teacher authority’. The article draws on the parallel experiences of teachers and researchers in England, Russia and the United States to illustrate some of the international dimensions of this theme.     

Common features of expertise in working life: implications for higher education

ABSTRACT

We need to know what it means to be an expert in working life today. Universities are often accused of neglecting the basic idea that higher education should be relevant to working life, and research on the subject of expertise in today’s workplace is lacking. Thirteen experts from different fields were interviewed and the obtained data were analysed using grounded theory as an analytical approach. The research questions were: (1) How do experts define expertise? (2) What kind of problems persist in their work? and (3) How are ‘routine’ and ‘adaptive’ expertise performed? The results revealed that expertise is more a social and collaborative phenomenon than an individual property. Experts develop new solutions and seek constant learning in their work. They excel at spontaneous problem solving. These findings suggest that, to prepare students to become experts, deliberate learning and practice should be provided within a framework of collaborative problem solving.     

Fostering teachers' design expertise in teacher design teams: conducive design and support activities

Supporting Teacher Design Teams (TDTs) during local curriculum development efforts is essential. To be able to provide high-quality support, insights are needed about how TDTs carry out design activities and how support is valued by the members of TDTs and how it affects their design expertise. In this study, the design and support processes of two TDTs assisted by an external facilitator were investigated using a case study approach. The results revealed that support offered to TDTs depended on the contextual boundaries and the focus of the design process. The focus, coherence and form of support affected the opportunities for developing teachers’ design expertise. In both cases, teachers’ curriculum design expertise had grown, whereas their pedagogical content knowledge and subject matter knowledge were hardly developed. Findings show that the most conducive support activities and materials were those that could directly be applied in the design process.     

Generalizable aspects of the development of expertise in ballet across countries and cultures: a perspective from the expert-performance approach

The expert-performance approach guided the collection of survey data on the developmental history of elite professional ballet dancers from three different countries/cultures (USA, Mexico, and Russia). The level of ballet expertise attained by age 18 was found to be uniquely predicted by only two factors, namely the total number of accumulated hours of dance practice through age 17 and the age of first having the “idea of becoming a professional dancer.” Older starting ages were associated with a more rapid increase of weekly training, so starting ages were not correlated with amount of practice accumulated at age 17 or attained ballet performance by age 18. Different detailed developmental paths leading to elite ballet performance are described and their theoretical implications discussed.     

Writing for professional recognition in higher education: understanding genre and expertise

ABSTRACT

This study draws on the theoretical frameworks of genre theory and writing expertise to explore how educators manage and excel in writing for professional recognition. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with four educators from different disciplines in which participants discussed their experiences of preparing and writing for Senior Fellow. Despite the fact that writing for professional recognition can be a contentious genre to manage with its reflective features favouring those from certain disciplinary backgrounds, the participants described positive and affirming experiences. The findings also suggest that educators are strategic in their approach, and that the writing process can have unexpected affordances including a developed knowledge of writing, professional confidence and a sense of empowerment. The findings have implications for developing systems and resources to support educators preparing for fellowship.     

The changing nature of expertise: insights from the case of TAVI

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we interrogate the current views on medical expertise, and expertise more in general, by building upon the study of an innovative medical procedure called transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI). We find that phenomena like TAVI require that we modify our traditional views of expertise to acknowledge its social, material and distributed nature. We also find that in the case of TAVI expertise feeds upon the broad circuits of knowledge created by the combination of professional relationships, social ties and, increasingly, economic interests. Becoming and remaining an expert implies not only being socialised in a local regime of activity but increasingly also participating in, learning to navigate, and exploiting alternative and potentially competing circuits of knowledge, which may be controlled by private companies. The case of TAVI helps us to appreciate expertise as a translocal and connected phenomenon and foreground some of the implications of the emergence of proprietary circuits of knowledge.     

Orchestrating expertise in reading and writing

With increased attention focused on the economic cache afforded through literacy and numeracy skills, governments around the world have turned their attention to developing the expertise of their teachers. Improving teachers' levels of competency leads to improvement in student achievement. In this qualitative case study, we focus on the Educational Foundations Program, in Ontario, Canada, established in part to develop competencies in the area of literacy instruction by addressing teachers' content knowledge. Serious questions about the ways in which the notion of ‘expertise’ is understood and developed arose as the programme was implemented. We examine notions of expertise and the experiences of teachers, administrators and curriculum leaders charged with orchestrating expertise in reading and writing in their respective districts.     

Teacher expertise and the development of a problem representation

This study examined ways in which expert and novice teachers mentally represent classroom problems in matters of instruction, assessment, and curriculum planning. A triad judgement task was administered to expert teachers (n=20) and novice teachers (n=98) to determine whether deep, structural features (i.e. the theoretical underpinnings associated with the problem) and/or surface features (narrative characteristics of the problem including grade level and subject) were used to interpret and represent a problem situation presented in a classroom context. Findings were consistent with results from previous studies examining problem representation among experts and novices in other domains. That is, the experts in this study primarily relied on the deep features to form a mental representation of a problem situation whereas the novices tended to rely on surface structures to do so. However, findings also revealed that novice teachers relied on the deep, structural features of the problem under certain conditions.     

Skills-based learning for reproducible expertise: looking elsewhere for guidance

Despite the prevalence of adult skills-based learning, adult education researchers continue to ignore effective interdisciplinary skills-based methods. Prominent researchers dismiss empirically supported teaching guidelines, preferring situational, emancipatory methods with no demonstrable effect on skilled performance or reproducible expertise. This paper presents findings showing empirically supported best bet practices for adult skills-based learning. These findings are synthesised into seven guidelines for skills-based teaching. Educators may use these practices to inform practice and structure learner-centred adaptive training programmes.     

Making the simple more complex: the influence of job‐embedded professional development in supporting teacher expertise in reading

This paper explores how job‐embedded professional development supported a Year 1 teacher as he enacted his growing expertise in the teaching of guided reading. By analysing coaching conversations focussed on the teacher's guided reading practices, we studied the way his teaching developed over a 7‐month period. Our findings suggest the teacher gained deeper understandings in the domain of reading, which allowed him to be more responsive to children during guided reading. We discuss the factors that enhanced or inhibited his ability to implement what he learned and offer suggestions for supporting teachers through job‐embedded professional development.     

Developing adaptive expertise in the wake of rehearsals: An emergent model of the debrief discussions of non-rehearsing teachers

This study explores conceptual links between practice-based teacher education and adaptive expertise, drawing on constructs of teacher noticing and position. We specifically examined debrief discussions following rehearsals, focusing on the experiences of non-rehearsing teachers (NRTs) who participate in rehearsals as students. We propose an emergent model of how debriefs can support NRTs’ development of adaptive expertise, through qualitative analysis of debriefs with secondary mathematics teachers. Debriefs provided opportunities for NRTs to socially construct adaptive expertise through making their experiences public and considering implications for teaching. We discuss ways debriefs contribute to the co-construction of adaptive expertise in practice-based teacher education.     

Developing technical expertise in secondary technical schools: The effect of 4C/ID learning environments

In this study, the effectiveness of learning environments, developed in line with the specifications of the four components instructional design model (4C/ID model) and the additional effect of ICT for fostering the development of technical expertise in traditional Ghanaian classrooms, was assessed. The study had a one-by-one-by-two pretest–posttest quasi-experimental design. Three functionally equivalent classes of students from three similar (secondary technical) schools were randomly exposed to three different treatments. The sample consisted of 129 students. The treatment groups consisted of one control group with a regular method of teaching and two experimental groups: a 4C/ID learning environment with ICT; and a 4C/ID learning environment without ICT. The content for the treatments was selected from the secondary technical education syllabus. Technical teachers were trained to implement the interventions. After the pilot study, the materials were validated by experts and revised. Teachers were retrained. The main study, consisting of six sessions, was conducted in regular classrooms in three schools. Results indicated that a 4C/ID learning environment promotes the development of technical expertise in secondary technical education better than teaching designed in line with a regular method of teaching. Moreover, results reveal no significant difference in learning gains for the 4C/ID learning environment between the group with ICT and the group without ICT. In the final section, the theoretical, research and practical implications of the results for the instructional design and technology community as well as for educational practice, are discussed.     

Learning to mentor: unravelling routine practice to develop adaptive mentoring expertise

While studies have shown that mentoring is central to new teacher development, few investigations have examined what mentors learn about themselves as mentors. The purpose of the study was to illuminate mentor learning. The article reports on two case studies that investigated the development of mentoring expertise over a two-year period. During this period, the two mentor participants were engaged in a professional development intervention focused on fostering mentoring expertise. Data sources included transcribed professional conversations, interviews and action research documentation. Analysis of these data found that despite good intentions, mentors’ preconceptions of their role were difficult to change. Where substantive change was evident, there was a conceptual shift from a focus on mentee and student learning to include mentor learning. The study suggests that the development of mentor expertise is complex and cannot be assumed. The complexity associated with letting go of deeply ingrained beliefs and practices to develop mentoring expertise is illuminated in the dynamic interaction between the school context, the mentor’s preconceptions and re-conceptualisation of their role along with the on-going assessment of professional learning opportunities.     

Opportunities to develop adaptive teaching expertise during supervisory conferences

Adaptive teaching expertise is a critical component of quality teaching. University-based supervisors should employ specific supervision styles and discourse types during post-lesson observation conferences to help student teachers develop adaptive competencies such as, justifying decision-making, balancing experimentation and risk to pupils, and discussing instructional adaptations to address pupils' contextualized-needs. Findings from a sixteen-week, multiple-case study suggest that student teachers and supervisors (N = 6) do not use critical discourse to capitalize on opportunities to develop adaptive teaching expertise. If student teachers are expected to become adaptive experts, teacher educators must learn how to leverage discourse to promote development of adaptive teaching expertise.     

西方国家教师学习研究动态及其启示

西方国家教师学习研究自20世纪80年代后发生的变化主要表现在对教师学习的重视与定位，学习目标、内容、方式、研究方法更为具体、细腻，关注课堂实践的有效性以及教师专业发展。从西方国家教师学习研究的趋势看，许多国家着重探讨教师学会教学、学会反思和学会为师等基本问题，力求说明教师学习与教师专业成长的关系。     

建立新型司法鉴定制度和体系刍议

司法鉴定结论作为确定事实的法定证据,对诉讼、仲裁、行政执法等公正性起着重要乃至决定性作用。但现行司法鉴定体制存在许多弊端,使之公信力下降,导致司法公正的不能实现。因此提出建立与司法改革发展相适应的新型司法鉴定制度十分重要。     

The anonymous reviewer: the relationship between perceived expertise and the perceptions of peer feedback in higher education

Peer feedback often has positive effects on student learning processes and outcomes. However, students may not always be honest when giving and receiving peer feedback as they are likely to be biased due to peer relations, peer characteristics and personal preferences. To alleviate these biases, anonymous peer feedback was investigated in the current research. Research suggests that the expertise of the reviewer influences the perceived usefulness of the feedback. Therefore, this research investigated the relationship between expertise and the perceptions of peer feedback in a writing assignment of 41 students in higher education with a multilevel analysis. The results show that students perceive peer feedback as more adequate when knowing the reviewer perceives him/herself to have a high level of expertise. Furthermore, the results suggest that students who received feedback from a peer who perceives their expertise as closer to the reviewee’s own perceived expertise was more willing to improve his or her own assignment.