Dreyfus model of skill acquisition - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

In the fields of education

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

and operations research

Operations research

Operations research is an interdisciplinary mathematical science that focuses on the effective use of technology by organizations...

, the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition is a model of how students acquire skill

Skill

A skill is the learned capacity to carry out pre-determined results often with the minimum outlay of time, energy, or both. Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills...

s through formal instruction and practicing. Brothers Stuart

Stuart Dreyfus

A native of Terre Haute, Indiana, Stuart E. Dreyfus is Professor Emeritus at University of California, Berkeley in the Industrial Engineering and Operations Research Department. While at the Rand Corporation he was a programmer of the JOHNNIAC computer. While at Rand he was coauthor, with Richard...

and Hubert Dreyfus

Hubert Dreyfus

Hubert Lederer Dreyfus is an American philosopher. He is a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley....

proposed the model in 1980 in an influential, 18-page report on their research at the University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

, Operations Research Center for the United States Air Force

United States Air Force

The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...

Office of Scientific Research. The original model proposes that a student passes through five distinct stages: novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient, and expert.

The original five-stage model

In the novice stage, a person follows rules as given, without context, with no sense of responsibility beyond following the rules exactly. Competence develops when the individual develops organizing principles to quickly access the particular rules that are relevant to the specific task at hand; hence, competence is characterized by active decision making

Decision making

Decision making can be regarded as the mental processes resulting in the selection of a course of action among several alternative scenarios. Every decision making process produces a final choice. The output can be an action or an opinion of choice.- Overview :Human performance in decision terms...

in choosing a course of action. Proficiency is shown by individuals who develop intuition

Intuition (knowledge)

Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without inference or the use of reason. "The word 'intuition' comes from the Latin word 'intueri', which is often roughly translated as meaning 'to look inside'’ or 'to contemplate'." Intuition provides us with beliefs that we cannot necessarily justify...

to guide their decisions and devise their own rules to formulate plans. The progression is thus from rigid adherence to rules to an intuitive mode of reasoning based on tacit knowledge

Tacit knowledge

Tacit knowledge is knowledge that is difficult to transfer to another person by means of writing it down or verbalising it. For example, stating to someone that London is in the United Kingdom is a piece of explicit knowledge that can be written down, transmitted, and understood by a recipient...

.

Michael Eraut summarized the five stages of increasing skill as follows:

1. Novice

"rigid adherence to taught rules or plans"
no exercise of "discretionary judgment"

2. Advanced beginner

limited "situational perception"
all aspects of work treated separately with equal importance

3. Competent

"coping with crowdedness" (multiple activities, accumulation of information)
some perception of actions in relation to goals
deliberate planning
formulates routines

4. Proficient

holistic view of situation
prioritizes importance of aspects
"perceives deviations from the normal pattern"
employs maxims
Maxim (philosophy)
A maxim is a ground rule or subjective principle of action; in that sense, a maxim is a thought that can motivate individuals.- Deontological ethics :...

for guidance, with meanings that adapt to the situation at hand

5. Expert

transcends reliance on rules, guidelines, and maxims
"intuitive grasp of situations based on deep, tacit understanding"
has "vision of what is possible"
uses "analytical approaches" in new situations or in case of problems

A sixth stage for innovation

During in-depth interviews carried out 1987-1990 with Hubert and Stuart Dreyfus by Oxford professor Bent Flyvbjerg

Bent Flyvbjerg

Bent Flyvbjerg is the first Chair and BT Professor of Major Programme Management at Oxford University's Saïd Business School and is Founding Director of the University's BT Centre for Major Programme Management. He was previously Professor of Planning at Aalborg University, Denmark and Chair of...

, Flyvbjerg problematized the fact that the Dreyfus model in its original form does not account for innovation, i.e., how new skills come into being and outcompete old ones. This lack in the original model makes it relatively undynamic and unable to grasp skill acquisition in full, according to Flyvbjerg, who proposed as a remedy a sixth stage for innovation. Flyvbjerg also questioned the way phronesis

Phronesis

Phronēsis is an Ancient Greek word for wisdom or intelligence which is a common topic of discussion in philosophy. In Aristotelian Ethics, for example in the Nicomachean Ethics it is distinguished from other words for wisdom as the virtue of practical thought, and is usually translated "practical...

(practical wisdom) seemed to be conflated with techne

Techne

Techne, or techné, as distinguished from episteme, is etymologically derived from the Greek word τέχνη which is often translated as craftsmanship, craft, or art. It is the rational method involved in producing an object or accomplishing a goal or objective...

(craft) in Hubert and Stuart Dreyfus's thinking about skills. At first the Dreyfus brothers rejected additional stages to the five-stage model on the grounds that they did not understand innovation. In 1990, Flyvbjerg published an evaluation and extension of the model including a sixth stage for innovation. Later, Hubert Dreyfus embraced both a sixth and a seventh stage taking into account innovation and practical wisdom in the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition.

Example uses of the model

Assessing progress in the development of skills.
Helping to define a desired level of competence.
Supporting progress in the development of skills, by understanding the learning needs and styles of learning at different levels of skill acquisition.
Helping to determine when a learner is ready to teach others.

The original five-stage model

A sixth stage for innovation

Example uses of the model

See also