Mastery. Expertise. Growth Mindset. There are a number of different ways to describe it, and at the core we all want to know how to consistently get better at what we do. And this is the main topic explored in Surpassing Ourselves, a wonderful product of the research collaboration of Carl Bereiter and Marlene Scardamalia.
Comparing experts with novices to understand the dynamics of expertise too often leads to pithy conclusions about what we need to do. “Put in your 10,000 hours!” As the authors point out, this rarely yields interesting observations, mainly because experts have had plenty of time for their knowledge to crystallize into easy, flexible responses to problems within their field. Instead, we learn more from comparing experts with others who have ample experience in the same field yet who have failed to become experts. Experienced non-experts, so to speak.
We’ve all had interactions with experienced non-experts. The long-tenured teacher who is phoning it in with the same lesson plans they’ve used for twenty years, oblivious to the blank and confused stares of students in the classroom. The tech support “specialist” who can operate within the script for resolving common issues, yet gets flustered when presented with an issue outside of the norm.
So if expertise isn’t just something that happens by putting in the time, how do we become experts?
First, by reinvesting our mental resources as we become more experienced (instead of just coasting along)
Second, by choosing to solve harder and harder problems as you become more experienced, going beyond the routine typical problems that come up 95% of the time.
Third, by tackling adventurous problems where success is not guaranteed, and where we need to learn to follow the elusive sense of promisingness in a particular direction.
Fourth, by cultivating communities in which everyone is committed to developing expertise
Becoming an expert in something isn’t some elusive end-goal that we may or may not ever reach. Practicing expertise is something we can choose to do every day, with simple questions. “Am I coasting through this, or really engaging at the peak of my current abilities?” “What’s the next problem I should solve?” “With whom can I learn?”
I hope you enjoy my detailed notes. If you’re inspired, I heartily recommend reading the full version so you can enjoy Carl Bereiter and Marlene Sardamalia’s examples and way of describing their ideas.