Negative Knowledge: Understanding Professional Learning and Expertise

In this paper, we critically analyze how the concept of negative knowledge contributes to the understanding of professionals’ expert practice and learning. Negative knowledge is experientially acquired knowledge about what is wrong and what is to be avoided during performance in a given work situation. In terms of its theoretical foundation, the concept relates to constructivist theorization and metacognition. Building on existing conceptions of negative knowledge, we systematically relate the concept to research on expertise and learning from errors. The concept of negative knowledge augments existing theories of professional knowledge by emphasizing knowing about what to avoid as part of experts’ effective actions. During routine actions, negative knowledge enhances professionals’ certainty of how to proceed and increases the efficacy through the avoidance of impasses and suboptimal problem-solving strategies. Quality and depth of reflective processes after actions are related to the development of negative knowledge. The potential of negative knowledge for the investigation of professional learning is discussed through reference to recent empirical work. Re-submitted for publication in: Vocations and Learning: Studies in Vocational and Professional Education.     

Negative expertise: comparing differently tenured elder care nurses' negative knowledge

Negative expertise is conceptualised as the professional's ability to avoid errors during practice due to certain cognitive agencies. In this study, negative knowledge (i.e. knowledge about what is wrong in a certain context and situation) is conceptualised as one such agency. This study compares and investigates the negative knowledge of elder care nurses at three different levels of professional experience. Thereby, various forms of negative knowledge—declarative, procedural, self-reflective and vicarious—are investigated. Moreover, the specificity of negative knowledge is compared across different levels of professional experience. Verbal data was collected from a prompting task study of 37 elder care nurses. These were prompted 20 diagnoses of varying typicality for the professional field. The nurses were asked what was critical to pay attention to and what ought to be avoided in case of these diagnoses. The study's results reveal a significant superiority of highly tenured elder care nurses in vicarious negative knowledge, as well as in highly specified negative knowledge. Procedural and procedural negative knowledge (PNK)—which are the most important facets in quantitative terms—show an approximately parallel developmental pattern among the different groups. For declarative knowledge, a U-shaped intermediate effect was discovered. It is concluded that PNK has the most immediate error-preventive function. With regards to future research, the great specificity of highly tenured elder care nurses' negative knowledge discovered in this study is discussed here as one possible explanation as to why they are able to intentionally avoid errors (i.e. their negative expertise).     

Is too much help an obstacle? Effects of interactivity and cognitive style on learning with dynamic versus non-dynamic visualizations with narrative explanations

Educational technology research and development - The aim of this study was to investigate the role of visual/verbal cognitive style and interactivity level in dynamic and non-dynamic multimedia...     

Bildungslaufbahnen von Generationen: Befunde der LifE-Studie zur Interaktion von Elternhaus und Schule

Since the PISA-events of the year 2000, the question of how the association between social background and educational success can be reduced is one of the central focuses of educational policy and research. In this regard, permeability in the education system as well as delaying the sorting of students into different tracks, are regularly discussed as potential solutions. Findings from the LifE-Study on the effectiveness of these practices are presented in the present paper. This is being done by describing the educational expectations and transitions between Grade 6 and the age of 35. The present paper thus presents a long-term perspective of the influence of social background on educational pathways.     

Mentor support and academic achievement

How does the support of mentors based in Study Centres affect the performance of distance education students, both in their course assignments and in their final examinations? Helmut Fritsch and Gerhard Ströhlein ‐ from the Central Institute for Distance Education Research (ZIFF) in the FemUniversitat in West Germany ‐ address this question through an analysis of some of the data collected at the University. In their discussion, they also shed light on some of the methodological problems raised by this kind of analysis, while stressing the system‐specific nature of their findings.     

Can self-report data on deficits in reading and spelling predict spelling disability as defined by psychometric tests?

Questionnaire data concerning spelling and reading self-assessment, habits, and school history were obtained for 79 adults (54 women and 25 men). The items were used to predict affectedness as defined on the basis of psychometric tests. For this purpose, two different discriminant analytical approaches (linear discriminant analysis and hierarchical classification with CART) were compared using a cross-validation design. 86.8–92.6% of the learning sample and 87.5–88% of the cross-validation sample were classified correctly. The CART model was preferred due to a balanced relation of sensitivity and specificity. Our results support the conclusion that self-report data are appropriate to substitute psychometric tests if these cannot be administered.