Browsing by Subject "Expertise"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Becoming an Expert through the Process of Professionalization: A Case Study of an Adult Basic Education Licensure Program
    (2018-05) Kreil, Jamie
    This is a case study of ABE licensure program participants who completed or are actively completing the program as a part of the professionalization process. Program participants were either pre-service (less than one year teaching experience and/or actively looking for a teaching position) or in-service (more than one year teaching experience and already hired). They may also have taken on multiple professional roles before and after program participation, and may have taught a variety of content in a variety of settings. Given this diversity of experience and work settings, research questions addressed what ABE teacher expertise looks like, how it develops through specific licensure program components, and ways in which it can continue to develop after program completion. Findings indicated that experience and time of entry into the program factored into the degree to which participants benefited from specific program components. Implications for program administrators and professional development providers outline how to remain engaged with the field, connect with K-12 practitioners, and prepare teachers on academic and practical levels.
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    Habits of meaning: when legal education and other professional training attenuate bias in social judgments.
    (2012-05) Girvan, Erik James
    Social-cognitive theory explains the persistence of social bias in terms of the automatic placement of individuals into social categories, the function of which is to conserve cognitive resources while providing a basis for some (even if inaccurate) inferences. Within that paradigm, bias attenuation involves transcending social categorization through effortful individuation. Research on learning and expertise supports an alternative perspective: That training to categorize entire situations using, e.g., legal rules, their implications, and associated responses, can attenuate bias in social judgments by displacing or reducing the need to rely upon social categorization. The Competing Category Application Model (CCAM), a novel model of the effects of expertise on use of social stereotypes in judgment and decision-making, is proposed and tested. The results of three experimental studies provide strong evidence for CCAM. Across the studies, the liability decisions of untrained participants, participants trained on unrelated legal rules, and participants trained on indeterminate legal rules were consistent with the use of social stereotypes. By comparison, such stereotypes did not affect the decisions of trained participants who were applying determinate legal rules. Implications of the results and for future directions are discussed.
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    How do tax accountants develop technical-tax expertise? a grounded theory study
    (2013-11) Kuhlmann, Diane Orlich
    This qualitative, grounded theory methodology study focuses on how tax professionals develop technical-tax expertise. The literature review, which examined expertise literature from 1869 through 2010, supports the assertion that expertise is learned over an extended period of time with appropriate types of practice. The expertise literature addresses the difficulty in distinguishing experts from experienced non-experts and suggests criteria that can be used to identify experts. The literature surrounding grounded theory methodology is explored including the history of grounded theory, the key elements of a grounded theory study, and a comparison of the Glaser and Strauss/Corbin methods.In the study, nine technical-tax experts, and three tax professionals who self-identified as non-experts were interviewed regarding their experience in developing technical-tax expertise. At first glance, these experts would appear to have little in common; however, under the surface, they had remarkably similar personal attributes--intelligence matched to the discipline, willingness to work hard, fascination with taxation, and tolerance of ambiguity. In addition, the environmental factors they faced (e.g. the economy, the U.S. tax laws, and the type of firm in which they were employed), helped explain the ease or difficulty they had in developing their expertise. Thus, their personal attributes made it likely that they would both excel and enjoy tax research and the environmental factors they faced either supported or impeded their opportunities to conduct tax research. The study concluded with the following three, interconnected theories on how professionals develop technical-tax expertise: Theory 1: Professionals learn to be experts (progressing on the skill continuum from novice to expert) by engaging in progressive problem solving. For tax professionals, progressive problem solving occurs from conducting research to address real-work tax issues. Theory 2: For each incident of tax research, the increase on the skill continuum is a function of knowledge and effort. Increase on the skill continuum= f(knowledge x effort). Theory 3: To gain expertise, a professional must repeatedly conduct research to address real-world tax issues. Tax professional will repeatedly engage in tax research to the extent they have the desire and opportunity.
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    Personal and professional characteristics of Japanese Master therapists:a qualitative investigation on expertise in psychotherapy and counseling in Japan.
    (2010-09) Hirai, Tatsuya
    This qualitative study explored the characteristics of Japanese master therapists, extracted particular experiences conducive to optimal therapist development, and examined similarities and differences between Japanese and American master therapists. Data collection was conducted through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 10 Japanese master therapists who gained the largest number of nominations from Japanese psychotherapists and counselors. Qualitative data analysis was processed utilizing grounded theory approach (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) and CQR method (Hill et al., 2005). Data analysis was jointly conducted by four Japanese psychologists through group consensus. Results clarified important characteristics of Japanese master therapists. First, as a foundation, they possess positive personality traits, such as modesty, warmth, sincerity, absence of self-centeredness, and resilience. Based on these characteristics, they are able to build trustful relationships with their clients, both at an early stage, and throughout the therapy process. Second, they possess exceptional ability to perceive and process various cognitive (i.e., case formulation, objective monitoring of the therapy process, keen observation of the client's verbal and non-verbal cues) and emotional (i.e., accurate empathy, use of the therapist's feelings during the session) information from the client, from the therapist him/herself, and from the therapy process. This perceptive capacity of understanding makes it possible to perform at a high level of therapeutic effectiveness, maintaining a flexible therapeutic stance depending on the client. Third, master therapists are able to continuously learn from their experiences, stimulated by their curiosity and creativity, as well as their sense of responsibility and discipline as professionals. Finally, cross-cultural comparison of Japanese and American master therapists was discussed, a model of master therapist development was proposed, and suggestions for future research and therapist training were offered.
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    Portrait of the master genetic counselor: a qualitative investigation of expertise in genetic counseling.
    (2012-08) Capel-Miranda, Cacy Jai
    This study begins to describe personal and professional characteristics of master genetic counselors—those considered to be experts or among the best-of-the best clinicians in genetic counseling. The focus of the investigation was the person of the master genetic counselor. Fifteen, peer-nominated genetic counselors participated in in-depth, semi- structured telephone interviews exploring their personal qualities, inspirations, motivations, strengths, struggles, and professional development. Analysis using a modified version of Consensual Qualitative Research (Hill, 2012) resulted in four broad themes: 1) Personal Characteristics of Master Genetic Counselors, 2) Relationships with Patients, 3) What Constitutes Success, and 4) Views of the Profession. Findings indicate master genetic counselors: a) have insatiable curiosity, love learning and are life-long learners; b) are reflective, self-aware, confident and recognize their limitations; c) are authentic and genuine, and consider their personality to be their counseling style; c) form collaborative and interactive relationships with patients based on trust; d) have nuanced attunement to the complexity and multiple levels of the counseling process; e) struggle when they cannot connect with patients; f) have deep empathy, are inspired by patients, and derive personal meaning from their work; g) are affected emotionally by their work, but effectively manage the emotional impact; h) view success as patient- centered and based in the patient/genetic counselor relationship; i) view their professional development as ongoing; and j) hold various perspectives on psychosocial aspects of genetic counseling, on the art vs. science nature of the field, and development of the profession. Major findings are discussed in conjunction with theory and previous research. The findings provide strong support for the Reciprocal-Engagement Model of genetic counseling practice (McCarthy Veach, et al., 2007). Study strengths and limitations, implication for training and practice, and research recommendation are discussed.
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    Rapid dynamic assessment of expertise: A comparison of performance and mental efficiency measures in accordance with cognitive load theory.
    (2007-11) Johnson, David Lloyd
    The purpose of this study was to determine whether the use of performance measures for instructional adaptation were more effective and efficient than the use of mental efficiency measures. Fifty-three undergraduate accounting students were randomly assigned to a performance group, a mental efficiency group, and a non-adapted control group. Participants were administered an initial diagnostic test, were placed in a training session about accounting cost-volume-profit analysis, and were administered a final diagnostic test, similar to the initial diagnostic test, and a mental effort rating of the training session. Performance group participants were placed in the training session and allowed to skip certain training session stages based on the results of rapid verification tests administered during the initial diagnostic test. Mental efficiency group participants were placed in the training session and allowed to skip certain training session stages based on the results of rapid verification tests and mental effort ratings administered during the initial diagnostic test. The non-adapted control group participants were placed in the training session at the beginning and did not skip any stages. The training session consisted of four difficulty levels, each with five stages. At each stage a faded worked example and a faded completion problem were provided and a rapid verification test and a mental effort rating were administered. Performance group participants advanced to the next stage or repeated the current stage based on the results of the rapid verification test. Mental efficiency group participants advanced to the next stage or repeated the stage based on the results of the rapid verification test and mental effort ratings. The non-adapted control group did not repeat any training session stages. The study produced no significant differences between any treatment groups for instructional time, final diagnostic test score, mental effort rating of the training session, or instructional efficiency (final diagnostic test score divided by mental effort rating of the training session). The author speculated that the non-significant results of the study were attributable to either an insufficient training session length or to the use of faded completion problems rather than conventional problems.
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    Viewing Expert Judgment in Individual Assessments through the Lens Model: Testing the Limits of Expert Information Processing
    (2018-05) Yu, Martin
    The predictive validity of any assessment system is only as good as its implementation. Across a range of decision settings, algorithmic methods of data combination often match or outperform the judgmental accuracy of expert judges. Despite this, individual assessments still largely rely on the use of expert judgment to combine candidate assessment information into an overall assessment rating to predict desired criteria such as job performance. This typically results in lower levels of validity than what could theoretically have been achieved. Based on archival assessment data from an international management consulting firm, this dissertation presents three related studies with an overarching goal of better understanding the processes underlying why expert judgment tends to be less accurate in prediction compared to algorithmic judgmental methods. First, the Lens Model is used to break down expert judgment in individual assessments into its component processes, finding that when combining assessment information into an overall evaluation of candidates, expert assessors use suboptimal predictor weighting schemes and also use them inconsistently when evaluating multiple candidates. Second, the ability of expert assessors to tailor their judgments to maximise predictive power for specific organisations is tested by comparing models of expert judgment local and non-local to organisations. No evidence of valid expertise tailored to organisations is found as models of expert judgment local to a specific organisation performed only as well as models non-local to that organisation. Third, the importance of judgmental consistency in maximising predictive validity is evaluated by testing random weighting schemes. Here, simply exercising mindless consistency by applying a randomly generated weighting scheme consistently is enough to outperform expert judgment. Taken together, these results suggest that the suboptimal and inconsistent ways that expert assessors combine assessment information is drastically hampering their ability to make accurate evaluations of assessment candidates and to predict candidates’ future job performance. Even if they are able to demonstrate valid expert insight from time to time, over the long run the opportunities for human error far outweigh any opportunity for expertise to be truly influential. Implications of these findings for how assessments are conducted in organisations as well as recommendations for how expert judgment could still be retained and improved are discussed.