We are led to believe that expertise can be obtained quickly and simply. The truth is more complicated. this slideset examines the pathway from novice to expert.

1. BEYOND TIPS
AND TRICKS
To expertise and wisdom
Glenn Martin, 2023

2. Instant
Expertise
◦ We are fed the idea that expertise is just a touch away,
◦ That there are tips and tools that will tell us what we need
to know, instantly.
◦ “You can know this, you can do that, all just at the time you
need it.”
◦ There’s no harm in admiring this wish, and there’s no harm
in making use of the tools – they are there.
◦ But, does it mean that life has become that simple, and all
the skills and knowledge needed in life can be that easily
mastered?
◦ What might we be missing?
Just a touch away

3. From novice to
expert
◦ What is the difference between a novice and an expert?
◦ If you believe the technological tools (eg, the apps), it is
just a set of steps. With the tools, you can go from plain
ignorance to brilliant expertise with speed and ease:
• build a website
• design a garden
• become a photographer
• understand 20th century history.
◦ What is it experts know that novices do not?
◦ Well, what do you try to do in order to persuade people
that you are an expert?
What do we know….?

4. A Set of Steps
◦ We like to reduce things to a set of steps. A good tool tells
you the steps, in order, to get a job done.
◦ Why would you want things to be more complicated than
this?
◦ If you learn the steps, and follow them, why would you
need things to be more complicated?
◦ Perhaps it is because, for many subjects or tasks, things
really are complicated. There are many factors to take into
account. You can’t include all those factors in a simple set
of five or ten steps.
◦ So, if you start to learn a subject or a process from a simple
set of rules, you have to accept that simplifications have
been made.
Enough to get by, or
enough to fool others….

5. More rules,
more rigour?
◦ Would more rules solve the problem?
◦ If you had ten steps, would that serve better than five
steps? For example, build a website in ten steps…. Is that
the difference?
◦ No, it is not. This is the critical thing to see: ten rules may
not be much better than five.
◦ But, we need to know why this is so (most of the time).
Maybe, but maybe not.

6. The earth is not
flat!
◦ The issue is that things are of different kinds. Suppose you
are building a website. You will probably need different
pages. But you also need text, and images, and links
between pages. And you need a purpose – what are you
trying to achieve with your website?
◦ What is the message? A subject or a task has different
kinds of elements, so you must know what different kinds
of elements it has, and then how these elements are
related to each other.
◦ What does this mean?
And not all steps are the
same kind.

7. Learning the
territory
◦ You have probably observed that when people “know what
they are talking about”, they have some things in common,
and you can learn some of these things quickly.
◦ There are some common things they can do, for example,
a soccer player can dribble the ball with a measure of
control.
◦ There are also some things they can say. They have a
language which enables them to talk about what they are
doing.
◦ They probably also have some practices. Eg, a person who
makes websites will start by making a list of things they will
need.
◦ A person who is new to a subject can probably build a list
of basics quickly.
New words and language;
New skills;
New basic knowledge;
New practices….

8. Understand the
principles
◦ So – what’s missing?
◦ Understanding the principles behind statements, tasks
or practices
◦ A novice has little experience, so they can only do simple,
repetitive things.
◦ Also, they don’t know why it is different this time. The cake
that they baked successfully last week was a failure today!
◦ Why?
◦ The expert understands the principles behind things. It
might be that the ingredients are different, or the oven, or
the temperature of the kitchen.
The principles are deeper
and wider than just one
instance of a thing.

9. An expert
knows….
◦ Instead of a few simple rules, an expert knows what applies
in a wider range of circumstances.
◦ An expert knows when to generalise. Think of how this
applies to a fire fighter. There are different kinds of fires,
because there are different kinds of fuel.
◦ But once you have some experience, you know when to
generalise.
◦ This means you can have more complex sets of action rules
(Do this when…., don’t do this when….)
◦ When you watch someone who is an expert, sometimes
you can almost see them thinking.
◦ You would say they had insight.
◦ This also means they can act fast.
Experts have more complex
sets of action rules.

10. Experts
integrate their
knowledge
◦ One more thing:
◦ An expert starts to own their knowledge and insight. It
becomes part of their being.
◦ Experts don’t just do things as if they had memorised it.
Their skills become part of them.
◦ Experts have internalised their knowledge and skills.
◦ Eventually, exercising and applying their skills involves
their beliefs and habits.
◦ But, experts never stop learning or testing their
knowledge.
It becomes part of their
being.

11. Wisdom
◦ Eventually, you would say an expert exercises wisdom in
applying their knowledge.
◦ They adopt a broader perspective that makes them “more
human”.
◦ This broader perspective links them with experts from
other fields. There are lessons that are the same in the
various fields.
◦ This is a good deal beyond a few simple steps applied
mechanically.
There is a pathway from
novice to expert to
worthwhile human.

12. A Model for
Developing
Expertise
◦ Putting all this together, there is
a pathway from novice to expert
to worthwhile human.
◦ It is helpful to see it visually:
Behaviour → Principles →
Integration.
◦ Peter Senge described this in
TheFifth Discipline, 1990.

13. This slide set prepared by Glenn Martin, June 2023.
Glenn is a teacher and writer.
Website
www.glennmartin.com.au