Research School Network: Moving from Novice to Expert – Implications for Guided Practice Why is it so hard to reveal the processes of expertise and what does this mean for guided practice?

Over the course of this half term, Durrington staff have been focusing on developing the quality of their guided practice. I have recently written about how the T&L team have created a guidance card to support this on our ​“Classteaching” page, if you want to find out more about our approach. This focus has got me thinking about the challenges of modelling the processes undertaken by experts (teachers) to novices (students). It can be easy to say, ​“teachers need to model their thinking and deconstruct the processes they use,” but it is not necessarily that straightforward. As Persky and Robinson (2017) note in their study ​“Moving from Novice to Expertise and its Implications for Instruction”, sometimes being an expert can be a hindrance when training novices. This is because the efficiency of experts can make identifying the exact processes they go through difficult to articulate. As things come naturally to the expert, it can be hard for them to identify the parts that a novice may find challenging.


The process of becoming an expert is relatively intuitive – it requires experience and a strategic increase in the challenge of the tasks being practised. Taking learning to play tennis as an example: as a parent, if you have dreams of your child becoming the next Roger Federer, the general consensus is that you should start with mini-red tennis (small rackets, slower balls, and a smaller court), and then progress through the junior divisions before stepping up to full-scale adult tennis. In doing so, you remove barriers to success at the novice stages – the ​“sink or swim” mentality is unlikely to work. Learners generally don’t move directly from novice to expert. The issue with classroom practice is that the time for students to be novices is limited, practice time is limited (and variable in quality), and expert processes are not always readily visible.

What differentiates experts from novices?
According to Persky and Robinson (2017), there are several characteristic differences between experts and novices:

• Experts know more
• Expert knowledge is better organised and integrated
• Experts have better strategies for accessing knowledge and applying it to unfamiliar tasks
• Experts are generally better at self-regulation (they know when to check for errors and how to redirect their efforts) and have different motivation.
• An expert’s brain organises knowledge around core components that guide thinking, whereas novices generally organise knowledge as lists of facts, figures, or heuristics
  
• Experts are often faster at completing routine tasks but may spend more time thinking deeply about complex matters
• Experts can retrieve important aspects of their knowledge with little attention, whereas for novices the process of retrieval can have a high cognitive load
• Experts can decontextualise knowledge – for example, in GCSE geography we teach about the impacts of desertification in the Sahel when looking at arid environments, but as an expert I can also draw on this knowledge when asked for evidence of climate change in a later natural hazards unit

What are the implications for teaching (especially guided practice)?

• Start novice learners with simpler tasks and gradually build up the level of challenge through guided practice. Slowly build in complexity and model the similarities and differences in how tasks of varying complexity can be approached.
• Build strong foundational knowledge before students engage in problem-solving. To support this, teachers can guide the retrieval of relevant knowledge with the class – for example: ​“This question is asking us to assess the effectiveness of climate change mitigation strategies… before we tackle the structure of the answer, let’s remind ourselves of the main mitigation strategies we studied last week.” Similarly, teachers can reduce cognitive load by scaffolding early attempts through providing formulas, equations, writing scaffolds, or by brainstorming relevant content prior to practice.
• To support students in organising knowledge, clearly verbalise when you identify patterns or make links to previous learning. For example, in GCSE citizenship: ​“When I am thinking about why union action may not always be popular, I can link this to direct action by pressure groups…”
• Ensure sufficient time is allocated for deliberate independent practice.
• Support students in identifying patterns. Direct questions to students during the ​“we” part of guided practice to help them identify themes within tasks or suggest possible links to the problem they are trying to solve.
• During the ​“I” part of modelling, clearly demonstrate how you check for errors and redirect your efforts – for example: ​“On reflection, a better way to introduce this point would be… This is because…”
• Allow time for discussion during guided practice about why one piece of information or approach is more pertinent than another.
• Slow down – experts are fast, so deliberately rehearse slowing down your thought processes. Consider scripting this and identifying where students may experience more challenge than you do.

Getting students to replicate the processes of an expert is key to success in any domain. Doing this in the classroom can be easier said than done, but it is possible if wethink carefully about our guided practice.


Ben Crockett
Co-Director, Durrington Research School

References

PerskyAM, Robinson JD. Moving from Novice to Expertise and Its Implications for Instruction. Am J Pharm Educ. 2017 Nov;81(9):6065.