Development of Professional Expertise

"This edited volume on expertise is unique in its dual focus not only on professional performance, but also on the objective measurement of professional performance. Moreover, professional performance is studied and discussed throughout the chapters not in the context of traditional sterile laboratory settings, but in the context of actual professional settings. This authentic context requires scholars and practitioners to address factors that are ignored in laboratory settings, such as the dynamics of professional performance, changing conditions, and high-stakes stress. Striving toward objective criteria for measuring expert professional performance also requires the identification and analyses of representative tasks that are valid in professional practice. This welcome focus on objective measurement of professional performance should lead to insights about transfer, innovation, and novel ways to develop training and practice activities. This comprehensive volume is a must-read for anyone interested in superior performance in professional settings."
- Micki Chi, Arizona State University


"When I first read the work of Anders Ericsson, it changed forever the way I thought about the meaning and importance of talent. No one has done more to deepen our understanding of what it takes to master a task."
- Malcolm Gladwell


"This book has many fascinating chapters on the latest developments in training, including training design, technological breakthroughs, what effective training involves, how much time needs to be spent on various types of training, how training is used successfully in different domains, especially the military, and performance measurement. This is a cutting edge book; the best chapters really move the field forward."
- Edwin A. Locke, Emeritus, University of Maryland


"If you want to learn about the science of expertise as well as what experts do to develop and maintain their expertise - this is the book to have! Anders Ericsson has created a wonderful gem; a one-of-a-kind source that clearly highlights the thinking, the research, and the practical principles generated from the study of expertise. For those in organizations that are concerned about developing and managing talent and competencies in their workforce - this is a must-read!"
- Eduardo Salas, University of Central Florida


"...offer the interested reader an excellent example of the work under way in fields like the military, medicine, scientific labs, and other industrial and academic areas... This volume, which follows closely on the publication of the Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance (Ericsson et al., 2006), brings together [the] leading researchers, practitioners, and engineers... Development of Professional Expertise represents yet another in a long line of important contributions by K. Anders Ericsson to our understanding of human learning." ...

K. Anders Ericsson, PhD, is presently Conradi Eminent Scholar and Professor of Psychology at Florida State University. For the last thirty years he has studied the development of expert performance in domains such as music, chess, medicine, business, and sports, and how expert performers attain their superior performance by acquiring complex cognitive mechanisms and physiological adaptations through extended deliberate practice. He has edited several books on expertise, such as Toward a General Theory of Expertise (1991), The Road to Excellence: The Acquisition of Expert Performance in the Arts and Sciences, Sports, and Games (1996), and the influential Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance (2006). His research has been recently featured in New York Times, Scientific American, Fortune Magazine, New Scientist, and Time magazine. He is also a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Association of Psychological Science, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.

1. The Measurement and Development of Professional Performance: An Introduction to the Topic and a Background to the Design and Origin of this Book K. Anders Ericsson, Ray Perez, David Eccles, Laura Lang, Eva Baker, John Bransford, Kurt VanLehn and Paul Ward; Part I. Challenges in Past and Contemporary Efforts to Measure and Train the Objective Performance of Professionals: 2. The 20th Century Revolution in Military Training Ralph Ernest Chatham; 3. Developing Professional Expertise with a Cognitive Apprenticeship Model: Examples from Avionics and Medicine Susanne P. Lajoie; 4. Leadership Development and Assessment: Describing and Rethinking the State of the Art Michael D. Mumford, Tamara L. Friedrich, Jay J. Caughron and Alison L. Antes; 5. Revolutions, Leaders, and Diagnosticians: Reflections on the Themes in Chapters 2-4 Earl Hunt; Part II. Past and Contemporary Efforts to Design Instruction, Train, and Maintain Professional Performance: 6. Research on Past and Current Training in Professional Domains: The Emerging Need for a Paradigm Shift Jeroen J. G. van Merrinboer and Eddy W. Boot; 7. Designing Training for Professionals Based on Subject Matter Experts and Cognitive Task Analysis Jan Maarten Schraagen; 8. How to Help Professionals Maintain and Improve Their Knowledge and Skills: Triangulating Best Practices in Medicine Dave Davis; 9. Advances in Specifying What Is To Be Learned: Reflections on the Themes in Chapters 6-8 Richard E. Mayer; Part III. The Assessment and Training of Skilled and Expert Performers in the Military: 10. Toward a Second Training Revolution: Promise and Pitfalls of Digital Experiential Training Ralph Ernest Chatham; 11. Evaluating Pilot Performance Brian T. Schreiber, Winston Bennett Jr, Charles M. Colegrove, Antoinette M. Portrey, David A. Greschke and Herbert H. Bell; 12. Contrasting Submarine Specialty Training: Sonar and Fire Control S. S. Kirschenbaum, S. McInnis and K. P. Correll; 13. Training Complex Cognitive Skills: A Theme-Based Approach to the Development of Battlefield Skills Scott B. Shadrick and James W. Lussier; 14. Structuring the Conditions of Training to Achieve Elite Performance: Reflections on Elite Training Programs and Related Themes in Chapters 10-13 Robert A. Bjork; Part IV. The Development of Expertise and Expert Performance: 15. The Influence of Learning Research on the Design and Use of Assessment Eva L. Baker; 16. Acquiring Conceptual Expertise from Modeling: The Case of Elementary Physics Kurt VanLehn and Brett van de Sande; 17. Teaching for Expertise: Problem-Based Methods in Medicine and Other Professional Domains Henny P. A. Boshuizen; 18. Enhancing the Development of Professional Performance: Implications from the Study of Deliberate Practice K. Anders Ericsson; 19. It Takes Expertise to Make Expertise: Some Thoughts about Why and How and Reflections on the Themes in Chapters 15-18 John D. Bransford and Daniel L. Schwartz; Part V. General Discussion: 20. The Value of Expertise and Ex...