If you’re wondering how Experts figure out what to focus on, read this article. Bloom’s study shows that experts are made, not born. While this may not be surprising, the fact remains that Experts often rely on their intuition alone. As a result, their knowledge is inert or “conditionalized.”
Bloom’s study shows that experts are always made, not born
According to a 2006 publication, The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance, true expertise is the product of years of practice and dedicated coaching. A person cannot become an expert simply by practicing ordinary tasks. Expertise requires discipline and pushing oneself beyond what one is comfortable with. The authors of the study, Ericsson, Prietula, and Cokely, studied data on expert performance and behavior to draw their conclusions.
Benjamin S. Bloom’s study showed that the vast majority of the experts he studied were not born, but were made. They received intensive training, had devoted teachers, and had enthusiastic family support. Although some factors were unavoidable, others contributed to their success. The best experts studied for years and received superior instruction and support. In other words, they were never born with the expertise they have.
Experts often rely exclusively on their intuition
To figure out what to focus on in a decision, experts often use their instincts. They use years of experience that is held in their subconscious frameworks to make decisions. For example, experienced dentists use intuition to make complex decisions faster than they could rationally. Even some influential businessmen admit to making decisions based on their intuition. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean they’re bad at making decisions.
While intuition may be valuable, it is important not to put too much emphasis on it. Instinct is not ESP and can be prone to biases. It can be influenced by emotions, which can lead to poor decisions. Intuition is not sequential and may cause a conflict with others in a group. When relying on intuition too much, experts could become too self-reliant on it, affecting teamwork.
Experts’ knowledge is “conditionalized”
The ambivalent nature of expert knowledge has given rise to criticism of the expert culture and the politics of knowledge, as well as of deficient quality management, licensing, and accreditation mechanisms. Yet, perhaps the most profound aspect of this criticism is the fact that it has no basis in personal experience and judgment, making it impossible to apply expert knowledge in all situations. Experts have learned to “condition” their knowledge so that it is more easily transferable.
Experts’ knowledge is “inert”
An expert’s knowledge is not automatically available during an examination but can be used when needed. This conditionalized knowledge is useful for a variety of tasks, including problem-solving. In a variety of domains, experts can benefit from studying and applying conditionalized knowledge. Some of this knowledge is “inert”, which means it is not actively activated or conditionally relevant to the problem. For example, experts in classroom management might not be able to link classroom management to real teaching situations.
Alfred Whitehead described a major problem in schools: inert knowledge. Such knowledge is only recalled when explicitly prompted, and it is not used to solve problems when relevant. The problem of inert knowledge is one of the primary goals of AI and machine learning. By providing students with relevant contexts, instructors can help them solve problems that are both factually and performance authentic. The problem of inert knowledge has led to the development of a range of different educational models.