Within the context of this study, expertise is used to describe the range of skills (a continuum) which lies between those of novice and expert. Although some of these expert-novice differences have been identified, what is less understood is how an individual becomes an expert: the transition from novice to expert. As the study tests a specific hypothesis and seeks information related to a specific objective, it has both confirmatory and exploratory components. The independent variables were context, level of expertise and Problem Type and the dependent variables were solution time and solution patterns. There were two categories of context (familiar and unfamiliar), two levels of expertise (novice and expert) and two Problem Types (simultaneous and successive movement). Solution time was analyzed within a confirmatory framework and solution patterns within an exploratory framework. An information-processing approach to problem-solving was used. From 108 university students an inventory of contexts was compiled to produce familiar and unfamiliar isomorphic problems. The level of expertise of a second group of 57 subjects was based on educational background and produced Concept Map. From this process, two intermediate groups of subjects were identified as relative experts or novices. Each subject was presented with eight isomorphic problems, four in familiar and four in unfamiliar contexts, were presented to each subject. The subjects were presented with one of two Problem Types reflecting Simultaneous or Successive movements as defined by Piaget. The problem solutions were recorded using the technique developed by Ericsson and Simon (1984), were divided into 5-second intervals, and then evaluated using a Coding Grid developed for this study. Thus, the data submitted for analysis was based on a total of 224 problems. While the subjects in this study did represent two distinct levels of expertise, they did not evidence those characteristics associated with the extremes of the expert-novice continuum. There were no significant differences between experts and novices in their problem solution times, but the relative expert subjects did demonstrate some of the 'traditional' expert traits. In particular, experts evidenced an improved ability to recognize key information and, thereby, improve the accuracy of their performance. The more expert problem solver also used more conceptual, as distinct from computational, types of strategy. Overall, while there were no significant differences in solution time, many expert-novice distinctions arose when examining the processes whereby these solutions were achieved. In particular, while the experts tended to show an analytical approach, the novices were more speculative.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uottawa.ca/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/5756 |
| Date | January 1990 |
| Creators | Blais, Christine Lorraine. |
| Publisher | University of Ottawa (Canada) |
| Source Sets | Université d’Ottawa |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 225 p. |
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