Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance
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The Development of Expertise
Martie Bell
To cite this article: Martie Bell (1997) The Development of Expertise, Journal of Physical
Education, Recreation & Dance, 68:2, 34-38, DOI: 10.1080/07303084.1997.10604893
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The Development of
Expertise
MARTIE BELL
h e well-honed skills and extensive knowledge of experts
allow them to perform the
most complex tasks with graceful
ease and extraordinary proficiency.
Expert physical education teachers
and coaches possess characteristics
and qualities that set them apart
from the rest. Unfortunately, only a
few studies have examined instructional expertise. The findings from
these studies have, however, consistently revealed that expertise in
teaching and coaching is developed
through long years of effort and experience. Yet, effort and experience
do not alone lead one to become an
expert. How is expertise developed?
Expertise appears to grow in distinct and identifiable stages. Based
on research in the cognitive sciences
(Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1986), the renowned educational psychologist,
David Berliner (1994), theorized
that teaching expertise is manifested
in several discrete stages. In this article, the work of Berliner and others is discussed and four developmental stages of expertise germane
to teaching and coaching are identified: (I) beginner, (2) competent, (3) proficient, and (4) expert. The article also identifies the
characteristics inherent in each
stage of expertise. It is important
to examine these stages; for if we
understand the road one walks in
becoming an expert teacher or
coach, we then may be able to help
others in their quest to improve instructional practice.
T
34
In the Beginning
Beginning teachers and coaches are
seldom absolute novices. The years
they have spent in classrooms as students, on playing fields as athletes,
and in preparatory programs have familiarized new coaches and teachers
with the skills, perspectives, and responsibilities pertaining to their chosen profession (Schempp, 1989).
While the workplace of beginning
...beginners must
learn the ropes, the
rules and norms
that govern life in
the workplace.
teachers or coaches may be familiar
to them, it still remains a place
where the neophytes must prove
themselves. In doing so, beginners
must learn the ropes, the rules and
norms that govern life in the workplace. Beginners, therefore, tend to
focus on learning the established
rules and procedures. Their conception of doing the job correctly requires following the rules and rituals,
particularly those concerning student discipline and class management (Schempp, 1985; Solomon,
Worthy, Lee, & Carter, 1990).
At first, beginners try to discern
the commonplace through objective
facts and features of a situation, but
they seldom can sense the overall
task or see relationships between
events. There are times when novices
get lost in accomplishing tasks because of the lack of routines. A beginning teacher may get caught up
in taking attendance and managing
students, while overlooking lesson
progressions, activity pacing, or student assessment (Carter, Cushing,
Sabers, Stein, & Berliner, 1988;
Leinhart & Greeno, 1986).
Because beginners are so focused
on learning the environment and enforcing rules, they seldom feel any
personal control over the conditions
and events of the workplace, and,
therefore, may lack a sense of responsibility for their own actions.
One manifestation of this is the common belief among beginning teachers that students are solely to blame
for misbehavior and lack of achievement (Behets, I990;Fernande~
Balboa, 1994). Rookie teachers often abdicate responsibilities for
students' learning difficulties as
well, often blaming the learner's
background or personal characteristics for the lack of learning or development (Schempp, Tan, Fincher, &
Manross, in press). Believing that
students bring their problems into
the learning environment, and that
the problems reflect social issues and
a lack of parental support, teachers
and coaches with low levels of experVol. 68 No.2· JOPERD • February 1997
tise many times do not attempt to
support or assist the struggling student or athlete.
Novices find their "real world" application of their skills to be their
most important source of information for increasing teaching expertise. This perhaps reflects their limited practical experience. While they
learn to more competently execute
professional tasks and duties, verbal
or written information takes second
place to trial and error. Novices usually develop their instructional repertoires by combining their observations of more experienced teachers,
their trial and error, and their recall
of teachers from their days as students (Sikes, Measor, & Woods,
1985). With the exception of what
they learned from their student
teaching, beginning teachers seldom
rely on their professional training to
help them solve the problems they
encounter in the workplace
(Schempp, Sparkes, Templin, 1993;
Smyth,1995).
It would be a relief to believe that
one need only spend a certain
amount of time teaching or coaching, and the lessons learned in the
experience would elevate one to the
next level of expertise. Unfortunately, that is not the case. To become better skilled at one's professional practice, a novice teacher or
coach needs to do more than simply
spend time on the job.
The well-honed skillsand extensive knowledge of experts allowthem to performthe mostcomplex taskswith graceful ease and extraordinary proficiency.
From Novice to Competent
As teachers and coaches gain experience in handling different situations,
they begin cataloging recurring
events in their memory. As their
knowledge of situations and events
expands, they begin to recognize
similarities across context. Recognizing recurring events across different
situations allows a veteran teacher to
select from a variety of responses
that have been tested in prior experiences. Competence begins to
emerge when teachers or coaches
learn from each new experience by
examining their responses and
practices to find a better solution
to the problem, or a preferable
February 1997· JOPERD· Vol. 68 No.2
plan of action.
Competent teachers and coaches
may still be somewhat rule oriented,
but they are now guided by context
to determine when to apply rules.
They develop a strategic knowledge
that permits them to ignore or to follow the rules as the context may dictate. For example, a coach may
choose to ignore athletes talking to
each other and sacrifice the rule "no
talking when the coach talks" in order to move ahead with the practice.
A beginning coach would likely enforce the no talking rule and, thus,
unconsciously sacrifice the practice
whereas the competent coach may
choose to ignore talking that may
contribute to, or least does not distract from, the task.
Competent teachers base their inclass decisions on a combination of
experience and formal knowledge.
An example of this characteristic is
illustrated in teacher feedback. Novices are schooled in giving positive
feedback to bolster a child's selfesteem. Through experience, competent teachers learn that in certain
instances praising a child may communicate low expectations to the
child, and, at times, constructive
criticism serves as a more effective
feedback (Berliner, 1994).
35
the demands of these developing
situations (Housner & Griffey, 1985).
Their acute perceptual capacities
make them more conscious of the
consequences of their decisions. This
leads proficient pedagogues to set realistic, rational goals and to assemble
plans for attaining these goals.
Proficient teachers and coaches
are more in command of the curricular and instructional activity of
their domain. Because they are not
as rule-focused as novice or competent teachers and coaches, proficient
teachers and coaches take more control of the learning environment.
Proficient teachers and coaches feel
a strong personal involvement in and
responsibility for the successes and
failures of their charges. These
teachers and coaches tend to hold
themselves accountable for student
learning problems and believe the
solutions to these problems reside
within their abilities and responsibilities (Schempp et al., in press). When
learning problems arise, proficient
teachers and coaches analyze their
lesson and continually seek alternative activities and procedures that
might help students and athletes
who are having difficulties. At this
level of expertise, the teachers and
coaches are now able to analyze a
situation and select a solution from a
large repertoire of possible solutions
and responses. They sense when an
Gaining Proficiency
activity is not achieving its purpose,
Having accumulated considerable
and they are able to alter that activity
experience, and with planned and
or devise a new one without a serious
deliberate attempts to improve their
loss of momentum.
practice, proficient teachers and
As the teachers and coaches
coaches consistently demonstrate the progress and become more profiability to distinguish the important
cient, instruction becomes so familfrom the unimportant in the learniar to them that their intuition and
ing environment. They have devel"know-how" become prominent.
oped a sense of timing and can deThey no longer think about every actermine when something is not work- tion they take, and therefore their
ing in a lesson and adroitly change
instructional behavior takes on a
the course of action. These skilled
natural flow and timing. They recogindividuals can observe the unfoldnize similarities across context and
ing events of a class, practice, or
make applications from one situagame and can anticipate likely outtion to the other. For example,
comes. Based on their perceptions of when a proficient teacher detects a
possibilities and their predictions of
student is having problems learning
outcomes, proficient teachers can
an underhand volleyball serve, he or
generate contingency plans to meet
she may relate the problem to a simi-
Although competent teachers and
coaches have experience which affects their actions and behaviors,
they still lack, to a degree, the sensitivity and intuition to decipher potentially important environmental
cues. This inability to distinguish the
important from the unimportant
may make it difficult for teachers or
coaches to accurately target their attention. For example, a teacher
might be so intent on managing one
student's off-task behavior, that she
or he may not detect a student struggling to master the skills being practiced.
Competent coaches and teachers
are still learning as they follow established rules, recognize and classify
contextual conditions, and label and
describe recurring events. They still
feel they are not completely and personally determining what happens
and, therefore, continue to lack a
sense of responsibility for the events
and actions of their classroom or
playing field. Their need or inclination to blame someone or something
else for problems and failure still remains prevalent. Examples of this
may be when a teacher perceives students' aggressiveness as caused by
observing too much violence on television or when the teacher attributes
an athlete's lack of motivation to
work ethic or family background.
36
lar student who has had problems
with a badminton serve. With the
connection made, the proficient
teacher can recall the successful solution to the badminton problem and
make an application to the volleyball
dilemma.
Because proficient teachers and
coaches are able to recognize similarities across situations, they can
predict potential outcomes of unfolding events with a high degree of
accuracy and precision. This was
demonstrated in a study when teachers with advanced teaching skills
were asked to look at a series of
slides of classroom events and comment about what they were thinking
as they viewed the slides (Carter et
al., 1988). The teachers provided
rich commentaries about their observations, and drew upon their own experiences to make judgments about
what they viewed. According to
Carter et al. (1988), the teachers
made many assumptions about
what they saw, appeared to be looking for the meaning of events portrayed, (and) inferred relationships between actions and situations in the slides... (p. 28).
While proficient teachers and
coaches assume a greater instructional responsibility, evidence the
ability to transcend situations, and
show a greater sophistication in deriving solutions to teaching problems, they remain analytic and deliberative in their decision making.
That is, they still demonstrate a logical progression in their decisionmaking process. They reach decisions following a process of conscious analysis and after deliberating
potential solutions to the detected
problems. Experts begin to make decisions that, at times, appear to defy
logic or explanation, but still represent superior solutions to professional problems.
Attaining Expertise
A major characteristic of experts
seems to be a strong intuitive grasp
of the living, learning environment.
Experts use an intuition that has
been sharpened by years of experiVol. 68 No.2' JOPERD • February 1997
ence in making decisions, rather
than using a logical, analytic, and deliberate decision-making process that
is commonly used by novice teachers
or coaches. Because experts are intuitive and often do not use a linear,
step-by-step approach to decision
making, their responses and performances appear fast, fluid, and natural. Characteristic of an expert's performance is a high degree of automaticity, which Bloom (1986) described as experts "knowingin-action." Automaticity of performance for expert teachers or
coaches can be found in their daily
teaching or coaching routines. These
routines are the repetitive activities
that seemingly occur with little planning, practice, or forethought.
Siedentop and Eldar (1989) attribute an expert's automaticity to an
ability to discriminate information
early and respond quickly.
When discriminating information
(i.e., sorting the important from the
unimportant in the learning environment) , experts attend to the "atypical" in a situation. Carter et al.
(1988) found that the expert assessed teaching events as typical or
atypical and that the assessment of
typicality affected the way experts
processed information. If a situation
was assessed as typical, the experts
demonstrated less of a need to process the observable events. If a situation appeared to be unusual or atypical, the experts attempted to make
meaning or sense of the anomalies.
When experts tend to the atypical,
they draw upon their extensive and
highly organized knowledge to efficiently and economically process information and then determine their
actions. When situations or events
are working in a normal pattern,
however, they tend not to reflect on
what is occurring, but rather they
simply monitor the process until
something seems out of line. Detecting something atypical captures the expert's attention. The
reliance on intuition in decision
making, their large quantity of
knowledge, and their analytic
framework for monitoring ongoing
February 1997 • JOPERD • Vol. 68 No.2
Years spent asstudents and athletes familiarize newteachers with knowledge. skills, and perspectives pertaining to their chosen profession.
events all contribute to the unique
and effective instruction of expert
teachers and coaches.
Developing Expertise
Beginning teachers and coaches
are expected to enter their professions the first day and perform like
their more experienced colleagues. The job requirements and
expectations for teachers or
coaches are the same the first day
and the last day in their profession. The study of expertise development gives new insight into the
developmental stages of gaining
expertise as a teacher or a coach.
The beginner's ability and skill in
meeting professional obligations is
different than at the stages of the
competent, the proficient, and the
expert. Understanding expertise
development holds important implications for all professionals in
the teaching and coaching fields.
Preparing Teachers and Coaches
Two dominant characteristics pervade the beginning developmental
stage of teaching and coaching expertise. First, beginners tend to be
rule-bound: they need to learn the
explicit and implicit rules governing
their profession and workplace.
Teacher education programs that
strive to supply beginning teachers
and coaches with guiding principles
to assist in governing their pedagogical and managerial activities would
find their efforts appreciated by the
novice professional. In the workplace, supervisors and colleagues
should pay careful attention to informing the neophyte teacher and
coach of the established rules and
policies regulating the institutional
operation. Supplying novices with
the implicit rules and job-related expectations would also ease the beginners' transition into the workplace
and speed their progress to the next
37
stage of expertise.
Second, work experience is more
important than verbal information
for the novice. Experience provides
the beginner with the contextual
knowledge necessary to make decisions. The development of expertise
is a personal and experiential journey. It is a trail marked in the experiences encountered. Simple verbal
prescriptions, lectures, or textbook
readings may have limited use for beginners who need to practice their
profession to improve their performance. Providing preservice teachers
and coaches with practical experiences and integrating these experiences with coursework will allow
them to begin assembling the knowledge that comes from practice, and
will speed their progress toward developing expertise.
Promoting Expertise
By understanding the stages of expertise development, teachers or
coaches can identify their stage of
expertise. They can then set goals
toward achieving increased expertise in their professional practice.
An administrator who understands
the teachers' or coaches' stage of
development may provide the information and opportunities necessary for them to reach the next
stage. For example, pairing novice
teachers or coaches with a mentor
gives the beginner an opportunity
to observe an experienced professional at work performing the
same duties that face the beginner.
Later, the two of them can discuss
the rationale and experiences behind the mentor's decisions and
actions. Gaining behind-the-scenes
knowledge and an experienced
perspective should prove invaluable to the beginner in moving toward advanced levels of expert performance.
Even the teachers and coaches
who have gained expertise can improve the quality of their practice.
An expert in any field is constantly
in search of the new, the better,
the improved. To no longer strive
for professional development is to
38
freeze one's competence and never
reach one's professional potential.
As with most professionals with expertise is their fields, teachers and
coaches seek to increase their
knowledge. Providing reading materials, inservice or clinical experiences, or the chance to meet with
other professionals can increase
their knowledge base. Experience
is a critical component of developing expertise. Teachers and
coaches who value their experiences are steeped in the practical
application of the field in which
they work: the classroom, the gym,
and the playing field.
The study of expertise is relatively new to the field of sport and
physical education. Already, we
have gained valuable information
and insight from the limited research available. Clearly, if we are
to understand and to promote better teaching and coaching, we
need to better understand the
thoughts, actions, and perspectives
of the professionals consistently excelling in their fields. The field of
sport and physical education may
find its own future in better teaching and coaching by looking into
the hearts, minds, and histories of
these rare individuals.
References
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preservice physical education teachers. Journal of Teaching in Physical Education, 10,66-75.
Berliner, D. C. (1994). Expertise: The
wonder of exemplary performances.
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students: diverse perspectives (pp. 161186). Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace
College.
Bloom, B. (1986, February). Automaticity. Educational Leadership, 70-77.
Carter, K., Cushing, K., Sabers, D., Stein,
P., & Berliner, D. (1988). Expert-novice differences in perceiving and processing visual classroom stimuli. Journal of Teacher Education, 39(3) 25-31.
Dreyfus, H. L., & Dreyfus, S. E. (1986).
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Martie Bell is a lecturer at East Carolina
University, Greenville, NC 27858.
Vol. 68 No.2· JOPERD • February 1997