Designing for intermediate

Expertise · some prior knowledge · All situations

8 rows from 8 pages say what to change when the brief's expertise is intermediate; 6 of them cite a claim. Pages whose rows cite claims come first. Read the basis before relying on a row: many carry a claim to learners or settings it did not test, and say so.

Cognitive Flexibility

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Expertise intermediate or advanced, an ill-structured domain (clinical reasoning, law, policy)	Use criss-crossing: revisit each concept in several short cases under different themes across sessions; drop the step-by-step part tasks.	Presenting multiple cases from different perspectives supports transfer in ill-structured domains [+M]; tested with first- and second-year undergraduates, untested with professionals

Elaborative Reasoning

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are advanced or intermediate on this topic	Use why-prompts freely, on denser material, with fewer modelled answers; move early to learner-written questions	Elaborative interrogation benefits increase as learners' prior knowledge increases [~M] (one study reported in a review: larger gain in the high-knowledge domain)

Employ flexible error treatment strategies matched to objectives, competence, affect, and correction effectiveness

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are intermediate or advanced, and the form has been taught	Prompt first (repeat the error, give a rule clue, ask again); give the correct form only if the prompt fails. For an advanced learner who gets by with paraphrase, push for the exact form rather than accepting the workaround	Prompts and explicit correction larger than recasts in classrooms [~M]; workaround row: advanced learners content with circumlocution risk fixed errors [~W] (one learner's diary)

Error Analysis

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
adult or professional, intermediate	Collect a confidence rating on each answer; review confident errors first and in most depth; low-confidence errors may need re-teaching, not analysis.	high-confidence errors [+M]; tested on recall, untested on professional judgement

Goal Setting & Monitoring

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are novice on the task (new procedure, first attempts); or intermediate/advanced	Novices: process goals naming the strategy steps, split into proximal sub-goals, outcome goals only once the process runs unprompted. Experienced learners: outcome goals with a stated criterion, which they may set or negotiate (learner-set goals are an untested proposal)	Process goals for novices [+M]; tested with high-school writers, untested in other domains

Holistic Learning

Principle

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are intermediate or advanced for this content	Replace the overview with the opening sketch; start at the first part they cannot explain; spend the time on integrative tasks	Expertise reversal [~M] (review of cognitive-load studies, carried to overviews; no crossover point)

Elaboration Theory

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are intermediate or advanced for this content	Replace the epitome with the elicitation sketch; start at the first level they cannot explain; drop syntheses they can already produce.	untested proposal; advance organizers [~M] found no special benefit for low-knowledge learners, so neither direction of an expertise effect is established for overviews

Programmed Instruction

Pattern

If the brief says…	Then change…	Basis
Learners are intermediate or advanced, or vary widely in prior knowledge	Place each learner with unprompted unit items; let those at criterion take the unit check directly; give larger steps and fewer cues to the rest.	Untested proposal; faster step responses with higher proficiency [~W] is associational and from algebra tutors