Expert Knowledge
Expert Knowledge
February 21, 2021
Over the past week, I struggled with the idea of being an expert. I looked at lifting weights, coloring, painting, and cooking. However, it sparked my mind that I make the same breakfast every weekend: a vegetable omelette. This is an automatic process where I do not need directions, I am able to retrieve knowledge I have about making an omelette right inside my mind. I am an expert omelette maker.
According to Bransford et. al (2000), to be an expert one must notice patterns. When I cook an omelette there is always a pattern: chop the vegetables, crack the eggs, put in the pan and flip. An expert can retrieve information with little attentional effort (Bransford et. al, 2000). When I cook an omelette, I do each step without thinking about it. I know that I need any type of frying pan, eggs, and vegetables. However, I can be flexible by adding different cheeses or meats that will add some flavor. I am apt to try new things such as the type of milk I put in the eggs, the oil I cook with, and the temperature I cook the eggs at. I prefer using almond milk and coconut oil, but also cooking at a medium to high temperature. However, if I do not have these items, I am flexible enough in any situation that I can add any milk or oil that I have (Bransford et. al, 2000). Cooking an omelette becomes a mundane task as it is something I have been doing for years, yet if I want to add something new, I am able to assimilate to doing so.
Novices learn and strive to understand, whereas experts understand new information in order to teach others. As a teacher I have adapted to learning how to use Zoom, a video conferencing service, as my mode of teaching students. As a novice, I started to learn new features of Zoom, such as the whiteboard, its tools, and how to share my screen. I learned how to mute all of my students so they could not unmute themselves. With this ,I have become an expert in using Zoom tools as I am flexible to new tools that Zoom has such as the icons students can use that pop up on their video when they have a question or want to love something. With this, I can use my prior knowledge to teach Zoom to someone else (Bransford et al, 2000). To be an expert, one must process and learn the information to be successful.
For my creation this week, I have created a Piktochart, a website to create infographics and posters, about expertise. I chose a Piktochart because they are easy to read and show parts of this unit broken down into pieces. This Piktochart indicates a guide to those wanting to become expert omelette makersIt allows novice omelette makers to notice patterns, be flexible, gain skills, and retrieve relevant knowledge. Please see my full creation here.
