[[Assessing]] tags:: #on/learning #on/assessment | #on/curriculumdesign | #on/expertise Lon Setnik dates:: 2022-04-18 *Why experts do worse at tests designed for beginners.* This reminds me of the [[Expert Blind Spot]], but this is different. This has to do with the importance of context in expertise. It also has to do with how narrow our expertise is, and the fact that our brains are different when we are experts and we (as Demian said) _necessarily_ loose track of what it is like to be a novice. How during [[Debriefing]], novices are better at solving problems for other novices. The expertise reversal effect is the idea that instructional design and assessment designed for novice learners can have deleterious impact on the learning of experts. This matters because it is often presumed that novices and experts can receive the same educational intervention and assessment, and learn differently, but that no one would be harmed. This reminds me of [[The Art of Learning]] discussing [[chunking]], and how chess players were able to memorize boards. As Cynthia said, "This is what happens when a cardiologist tries to do ACLS." ### What would the opposite argument be? How can you harm an expert with an educational intervention? It makes no sense, can you actually make someone dumber? ## Sources: Kalyuga, S., Ayres, P., Chandler, P., & Sweller, J. (2003). The Expertise Reversal Effect. _Educational Psychologist_, _38_(1), 23–31. [https://doi.org/10.1207/S15326985EP3801_4](https://doi.org/10.1207/S15326985EP3801_4) "When new information is presented to learners, it must be processed in a severely limited working memory. Learning reduces working memory limitations by enabling the use of schemas, stored in long-term memory, to process information more efficiently. Several instructional techniques have been designed to facilitate schema construction and automation by reducing working memory load. Recently, however, strong evidence has emerged that the effectiveness of these techniques depends very much on levels of learner expertise. Instructional techniques that are highly effective with inexperienced learners can lose their effectiveness and even have negative consequences when used with more experienced learners. We call this phenomenon the expertise reversal effect. In this article, we review the empirical literature on the interaction between instructional techniques and levels of learner experience that led to the identification of the expertise reversal effect."