KNOWLEDGE RESTRUCTURING AND THE ACQUISITION OF PROGRAMMING EXPERTISE

This paper explores the relationship between knowledge structure and organization and the development of expertise in a complex problem-solving task. An empirical study of skill acquisition in computer programming is reported, providing support for a model of knowledge organization that stresses the importance of knowledge restructuring processes in the development of expertise. This is contrasted with existing models which have tended to place emphasis upon schemata acquisition and generalization as the fundamental modes of learning associated with skill development. The work reported in this paper suggests that a fine-grained restructuring of individual schemata takes place during the later stages of skill development. It is argued that those mechanisms currently thought to be associated with the development of expertise may not fully account for the strategic changes and the types of error typically found in the transition between intermediate and expert problem solvers. This work has a number of implications. Firstly, it suggests important limitations of existing theories of skill acquisition. This is particularly evident in terms of the ability of such theories to account for subtle changes in the various manifestations of skilled performance that are associated with increasing expertise. Secondly, the work reported in this paper attempts to show how specific forms of training can give rise to this knowledge restructuring process. It is argued that the effects of particular forms of training are of primary importance, but these effects are often given little attention in theoretical accounts of skill acquisition. Finally, the work presented here has practical relevance in a number of applied areas including the design of intelligent tutoring systems and programming environments. © 1994 Academic Press, Inc.