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Introduction
Why do some individuals exhibit higher levels of performance, creativity and achievement than their peers? The “study of expertise seeks to understand and account for what distinguishes outstanding individuals in a domain from less outstanding individuals, as well as from the population in general” (Ericsson and Smith, 1991, p. 2). According to Swanson and Holton (2009, p. 252), expertise is a core concept of human resource development (HRD). Much of the work in HRD is concerned with “unleashing expertise for the purpose of improving performance”.
Over the past 100 years, significant advances have been made in studying the development of expertise. Research has debunked the myth that expertise was innate (Baird, 1982; De Groot, 1965; Galton, 1869; Simon and Chase, 1973). Instead, numerous studies have documented that expertise is learned over many years of experience/practice (Bryan and Harter, 1897; Chase and Ericsson, 1981; Gobet, 1998). While research has shown that years of experience are necessary to develop expertise, even decades of experience do not guarantee that an individual will become an expert. In fact, only a small percentage of individuals will become experts – the vast majority will remain experienced non-experts (Ericsson et al., 2007). The intriguing questions are: What differentiates the experienced non-expert from the expert? And what factors contribute to the formation of expertise?
Researchers have proposed theories on the nature of experience which leads to expertise. Dreyfus and Dreyfus (1986) proposed a model for the development of expertise that described the journey from novice to expert. This model postulates that expertise is a function of time and experience. A new professional enters the field as a novice and with some experience becomes an advanced beginner, competent, proficient and ultimately an expert.
The Dreyfus model reflects cognitive psychology research that established that expertise was a learned rather than innate (Bryan and Harter, 1897; De Groot, 1965; Simon and Chase, 1973; Chase and Ericsson, 1981; Schön, 1987; Gobet, 1998). Then, this model suggests that acquiring expertise is sequential – an individual cannot move directly from novice to expert. In addition, the model posits that time and experience do not guarantee the development of expertise – a performer must be talented to achieve expert performance. This model hints at the concept of...