Complete thesis - Murdoch University

the conditions under which performance of the task is to be demonstrated (Mayer, 1993).When used in this sense, it is usually distinguished from knowledge and understanding.Alternatively, and at the other pole in terms of definitions, competence involves both theability to perform a given task in a given context and the capacity to transfer knowledge andskills to new tasks and situations – the skilled application of understanding (Mayer, 1993).Within education competence or mastery are often linked to the concept of learning objectivesor outcomes, and usually are seen as positions on a continuum which spans pre-novice toexpert. Jonassen and Grabowski (1993) describe such a continuum as leading from ignoranceto expertise, encompassing three learning phases:introductory – very little directly transferable prior knowledge about a skill or content areaexists. It represents the initial stages of schema assembly and integrationadvanced – more advanced knowledge is acquired in order to solve more complex domainor context dependent problemsexpertise – results from extensive experience that requires broad transfer of the knowledgeacquired during the previous phases.Dreyfus and Dreyfus (1986) developed a richer skills acquisition model that focusses on adulteducation (as the stage beyond secondary schooling). This model is based on five stages:novice – rules in a context-free task environment determine novice actions. No previousexperience is required for the beginner to recognise these features, but performance ispooradvanced beginner – additional aspects of the problem situation can be recognised andaid the advanced beginner in applying instructional maxims (which, unlike a rule,requires some understanding of the domain in which the maxim applies (Polanyi, 1958)).Decisions are still based mainly on rule application. A goal of this stage is to developmore generalised understandings of the rules and when to apply themcompetence – having a deep enough understanding of the rules to know when they areapplicable and how to apply them in novel situations. Decision making about whichperspective or plan to adopt is applied to deal with overwhelming possibilities within asituation. At this point, incidental complexity may seem overwhelming, but a holisticapproach can be identified in the conscious problem-solving undertakenproficient – pattern recognition arising from extensive experience is used to identify theproblem as intuitive reaction. Decisions still need to be made, based on rules andconscious analysis of alternatives based on experience63