TWO COURSES OF EXPERTISE

Abstract

At least some aspects of cognitive development can be conceptualized as processes of spontaneous expertisel): Starting with little or no documented declarative knowledge or rules, children acquire domain-specific content knowledge enabling them to solve various problems in the target domain through accumulated experience.In this paper, after briefly discussing the significance of the above conceptualization, we will propose three issues related to the processes of spontaneous expertise, which are, we believe, not only theoretically interesting in developmental research, but also can profitably be studied cross-culturally.What significance does it have to conceptualize the processes of cognitive development as those of spontaneous expertise?It has been asserted that developmental or adult-child differences in cognition are similar to expert-novice differences (e. g., Brown & DeLoach, 1978).This assertion implies that adults and children differ primarily in the amount and structuredness of knowledge in the target domain; in other words, in explaining the adult-child differences, maturational and/or domain-general cognitive variables are at most secondary.Thus this assertion gives an answer to the question, "What develops?"-It is domain-specific knowledge that develops.To conceptualize the processes of cognitive development as those of spontaneous expertise goes a little further: It suggests an answer to the question, "How does it develop ?".The processes of expertise are undoubtedly based upon the accumulation of experience, which mostly consists of solving problems in a given domain.In the course of expertise, people, under the supervision of more capable members, come to solve more and more complex problems in the domain, utilizing relevant prior knowledge which is in turn gradually enriched and integrated.Using Piagetian terminology (Piaget, 1950), a new problem situation is assimilated into pre-existing knowledge,.and this results in accommodation of the knowledge.The key concern for developmental re-An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Conference on Child Development in Japan and the United States, April 1983, Stanford, CA.The authors are grateful to the participants of the conference for their stimulating comments and reactions, and to David Crandall for his editing and proofreading the manuscript.