Food for thought

[Mickey]

Quite a bit of wisdom in this thread Tobus hit the nail right on the head with how younger people view education. My son is one of few youngsters I know who not only wants to go to college but also is looking forward to it. Then he thinks he may go for USMC OCS. I'm so very happy and proud that he wants to go to school.

I'm all for education. But the OP here is about who is an expert? When I'm looking for an expert, in any field, I'm not looking for credentials. I'm looking for experience and hopefully, references. If I'm going in for surgery, I want the crusty old guy who's done the procedure a few thousand times, not the intern who I know was taught correctly, and maybe did one or two.

I've done drywall one time. And it came out flawlessly because I studied everything I could find on the subject, and I'm a bit of a perfectionist. I am NOT an expert at drywall. I've watched experts. They KNOW what they are doing. I just went through the motions.

Something I learned many years ago after being across several message boards is that everybody is a genius and an expert when they have access to google. In all message boards, it doesn't take long to figure out who really knows what they are talking about, who regurgitates what they've read or heard, and those that enjoy making others feel stupid.

This is one of the few message boards that I've ever found where nearly everyone actually admits their level of knowledge on the subject, even if asked directly, and generally do not BS folks when asked an honest question. That's why I stick around. This a darn great bunch of people with very little pretense. Not easy to find these days.

[CDNSushi]

Something I learned many years ago after being across several message boards is that everybody is a genius and an expert when they have access to google.

This is precisely why, as an instructor I use the principles of (Bloom's) taxonomy of knowledge when I teach my students. Not all knowledge is created equal, and there is a distinction between "lower levels" of knowledge and "higher levels." Simple repetition and recall of facts and figures is a basic form of knowledge, whereas the ability to take those facts and figures and not only USE them, but reformulate them in order to produce and create a NEW result is a superior form of knowledge.

Case in point. Last week I taught my (very low-level) ESL students a formula for making a "CLOSED" (yes/no) question in English. I taught them that we can use the form "To do" with a subject and another verb to make the sentence grammatically correct, and we can use "To be" with either a noun or adjective.

I.e. DO + YOU + <verb> ? ARE + YOU + <noun>; ARE + YOU + <adjective>?

E.g. Do you swim? = correct.
Are you swim? = incorrrect.

Do you happy? = incorrect.
Do you a student? = incorrect.
Are you happy? = correct.
Are you a student? = correct.

Then, I asked them comprehension questions. I wrote this on the board:

Fill in the blanks with the correct type of word you need to form the question:

Do + you + _____________ ?
Are + you + i) ___________ ?
Are + you + ii) ___________?

MOST students were able to fill in the blanks appropriately.

Do + you + <verb> ?
Are + you + i) <noun> ?
Are + you + ii) <adjective>?

No problems there, right? But does that mean the students KNOW and UNDERSTAND the material? Well, yes and no. The above question tested their lower level knowledge. But let's see if they possess a higher level of knowledge. I wrote this on the board:

Find and correct the mistake(s) (if any):

a) Is she play baseball?
b) Does Ventforet Kofu have a good team this year?

Result: Very few students were able to answer this because they only knew how to recall and regurgitate the rule -- they did NOT yet know how to USE the rule to apply it in a real-world sense.

Anyway, I digress. An "EXPERT" is somebody who has more than simple, lower-level understanding of a topic. It is someone who can apply ALL the taxonomical levels of knowledge to a topic. Specifically, it is someone who can:

RECALL: define, describe, identify, know, label, list, match, name, outline, recall, recognize, reproduce, select, state.
COMPREHEND: understand, convert, defend, distinguish, estimate, explain, extend, generalize, give an example, infer, interpret, paraphrase, predict, rewrite, summarize, translate.
APPLY: change, compute, construct, demonstrate, discover, manipulate, modify, operate, predict, prepare, produce, relate, show, solve, use.
ANALYZE: break down, compare, contrast, diagram, deconstruct, differentiate, discriminate, distinguish, identify, illustrate, infer, outline, relate, select, separate.
SYNTHESIZE: categorize, combine, compile, compose, create, devise, design, explain, generate, modify, organize, plan, rearrange, reconstruct, relate, reorganize, revise, rewrite, summarize, tell, write.
EVALUATE: appraise, compare, conclude, contrast, criticize, critique, defend, describe, discriminate, evaluate, explain, interpret, justify, relate, summarize, support.

That is an expert. Whether or not they have the credentials on paper or by life experience, someone who can do all these things does truly know what they are talking about. Now how we recognize an expert and separate the wheat from the chaff as it were, is a whole other matter!