Expertise and creativity

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Expertise and Creativity

This training is supposed to help you become a financial services expert.

What is an expert?

Expertise

According to Bransford et al, Research shows that it is not simply general abilities, such as memory or intelligence, nor the use of general strategies that differentiate experts from novices. Instead, experts have acquired extensive knowledge that affects what they notice and how they organize, represent, and interpret information in their environment. This, in turn, affects their abilities to remember, reason, and solve problems.

Experts have stored in long-term memory a vast database of very well organised knowledge and strategies
Experts understand how to adapt strategies appropriately to a range of circumstances
Experts notice things that novices don’t and experts can see implications that are hidden from novices
Experts are so well practiced that retrieving the appropriate knowledge is automatic and almost unconscious
Experts tend to be flexible or creative when confronted with the new or unfamiliar
In spite of their obvious skills and knowledge, some experts can be truly useless trainers.

Creativity

Finance professionals need to be creative. Creativity does not involve artistry or craftsmanship. Many artists are not in the least creative - and many highly creative people could not draw to save their lives. The essence of creativity is the ability to solve new problems or come up with better solutions to old problems. Throughout your career, unless your clients are clones, you will be faced with a series of new situations. Creativity would allow you to devise the best possible advice for your clients.

Warning

If you do devise a new solution you need to test it very thoroughly indeed before presenting it to clients. Make sure you are indeed being brilliantly innovative - not just as thick as a plank and totally unable to see obvious flaws!

Higher-order thinking

Resnick delved further into the kind of “higherorder” thinking that experts do and identified the following characteristics:

it is non-algorithmic - not following a specified procedure
complexity
produces a range of possible solutions with different advantages and disadvantages
requires a weighing-up and comparison of a range of factors
involves applying multiple possibly conflicting criteria
involves uncertainty and hence requires probability-literacy
involves metacognition - “selfregulation of the thinking process”
requires the organisation and
imposition of meaning on information
it is hard work

How People Learn:Brain, Mind, Experience, and School
John D. Bransford, Ann L. Brown, and Rodney R. Cocking, Editors; Committee on Developments in the Science of Learning, National Research Council 6 x 9, 346 pages, 1999.

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What is Learning? Constructivism Types of Learning Expertise and Creativity Formal Training Short-term memory Associative memory, Repetition & Encoding Associative memory and the Zebra Accountability and Assessment Validity and reliability More Validity Testing and the IQ test The Adult Learner Back to Gryphon Home	Expertise and Creativity This training is supposed to help you become a financial services expert. What is an expert? Expertise According to Bransford et al, Research shows that it is not simply general abilities, such as memory or intelligence, nor the use of general strategies that differentiate experts from novices. Instead, experts have acquired extensive knowledge that affects what they notice and how they organize, represent, and interpret information in their environment. This, in turn, affects their abilities to remember, reason, and solve problems. Experts have stored in long-term memory a vast database of very well organised knowledge and strategies Experts understand how to adapt strategies appropriately to a range of circumstances Experts notice things that novices don’t and experts can see implications that are hidden from novices Experts are so well practiced that retrieving the appropriate knowledge is automatic and almost unconscious Experts tend to be flexible or creative when confronted with the new or unfamiliar In spite of their obvious skills and knowledge, some experts can be truly useless trainers. Creativity Finance professionals need to be creative. Creativity does not involve artistry or craftsmanship. Many artists are not in the least creative - and many highly creative people could not draw to save their lives. The essence of creativity is the ability to solve new problems or come up with better solutions to old problems. Throughout your career, unless your clients are clones, you will be faced with a series of new situations. Creativity would allow you to devise the best possible advice for your clients. Warning If you do devise a new solution you need to test it very thoroughly indeed before presenting it to clients. Make sure you are indeed being brilliantly innovative - not just as thick as a plank and totally unable to see obvious flaws! Higher-order thinking Resnick delved further into the kind of “higherorder” thinking that experts do and identified the following characteristics: it is non-algorithmic - not following a specified procedure complexity produces a range of possible solutions with different advantages and disadvantages requires a weighing-up and comparison of a range of factors involves applying multiple possibly conflicting criteria involves uncertainty and hence requires probability-literacy involves metacognition - “selfregulation of the thinking process” requires the organisation and imposition of meaning on information it is hard work How People Learn:Brain, Mind, Experience, and School John D. Bransford, Ann L. Brown, and Rodney R. Cocking, Editors; Committee on Developments in the Science of Learning, National Research Council 6 x 9, 346 pages, 1999.