Studying human expertise: Beyond the binary paradigm

The empirical study of human expertise has grown up largely within the information-processing framework. We contend that assumptions and practices inherited from that framework have significantly hampered the study of expertise. Most studies have been conducted within a binary paradigm that sets novices apart from experts while ignoring any qualitative distinctions in between. End-state description has been preferred over accounts of learning; accounts of learning as a smoothly continuous process have been preferred over accounts of qualitative change. To overcome the binary paradigm, psychologists need to adopt an explicitly developmental approach, one that identifies multiple way stations toward expertise and seeks to explain qualitative changes in knowledge and motivation. We consider two insufficiently developmental conceptions ('theory-change' accounts and global stage models) and two others that, in our view, harbour greater promise (the Piagetian framework as elaborated by Feldman and the Vygotskian framework as extended by Scribner). Progress in the study of human expertise doesn't just depend on the more widespread adoption of developmental research programmes. There also needs to be more open and frank discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of different frameworks than has been customary.