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April 24, 2005
Maps as Representations: Expert Novice Comparison of Projection Understanding by Anderson and Leinhardt
This paper focuses on a study comparing the understanding of maps by experts and novices. The study divided subjects into four groups: experts, advanced novices, novices, and teachers. Experts had at least 10 years of experience in geography. Advanced Novices were geography undergraduates who had taken at least two cartography classes. Novices were geography undergraduates who were enrolled in their first geography class. Teachers were social studies teachers with no geography experience.
The subjects were given a map and asked to draw a line on the map to indicate the shortest distance between pairs of cities. The subjects were then given a second map and asked to draw lines of shortest distance between three cities in a particular order. The subjects were then asked if additional information may have helped accomplish the tasks.
Although the subject matter in this paper has little to do with software engineering, this paper is relevant to our study because, in the end, the findings were similar to those found in the examination of experts and novices computer science. In this study, experts approached problems by using rules obtained through experience. Experts could solve problems more quickly because they retrieved pre-established solutions which were used in similar problems. Likewise, advanced novices, with similar knowledge, were able to use rules to generate solutions. Novices and teachers, however, could not solve problems correctly because they lacked the basic rules for problem solving. Many times novices and teachers used incorrect rules to infer more incorrect rules. Overall, this particular examination of experts and novices show that similar observations and conclusions concerning expertise appear can appear in very different subject areas.
EDIT: I found similar observations in different subject areas in the following papers as well:
The Role of Visual Representations in Advanced Mathematical Problem Solving: An Examination of Expert–Novice Similarities and Differences by Stylianou and Silver
Expert–Novice Differences in the Understanding and Explanation of Complex Political Conflicts by Jones and Read
Posted by Justin at April 24, 2005 9:43 PM
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