Five-stage developmental theory of pedagogical expertise: novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient, expert¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 3 claims (3 for) · 1 study (1 theoretical), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 3 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The article presents a stage theory of skill acquisition in teaching, following the Dreyfus brothers' general model. Novices learn context-free rules and are 'rational, relatively inflexible'; advanced beginners meld experience with verbal knowledge; competent performers make conscious choices and set priorities; proficient performers gain intuition and holistic similarity recognition; experts act in fluid, nonanalytic ways. Berliner offers it as tentative, with heuristic value for teacher education.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Experience in real classrooms, since real-world experience appears far more important than verbal information in the early stages

Constraints¶

• The article states its application to pedagogy is still unknown; duration in stages varies widely; a person may show characteristics of another stage in particular situations; expertise is highly contextualized and may not transfer well

Target Learners¶

• preservice and beginning teachers
• teacher educators

Target Learning Objectives¶

• understanding developmental stages of teaching skill acquisition

Claims¶

• Expert teachers interpret complex classroom phenomena more accurately and fluidly than novices and postulants [+W]
• Expert teachers' well-practiced routines make their performance fluid, as seen in homework-review and lesson-teaching comparisons [+W]
• Experts predict classroom phenomena and student errors far more than novices, who rarely anticipate misalgorithms [+W]

Related Theories¶

• Berliner's stages of pedagogical expertise development as a grouping framework for teacher expertise research

Examples¶

• Pursue competence, not expertise, as the realistic goal for the vast majority of teacher education graduates
• Match teacher education, mentoring, and evaluation to developmental stage: routines and scripts for novices, analytical mentors from the competent and proficient, and stage-appropriate evaluation

Key Sources¶

• Berliner, David C. (1988). The Development of Expertise in Pedagogy. American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED298122