Developing Professional Knowledge And Competence

Abstract

p1-chapter 1-The context for professional education and development Defines professionalisation after Johnson as "the process by which occupations seek to gain status and privileg in accord with ideology".early models gave pride of place to knowledge base-problem to which the concept of professionalism provides an answer is the social control of expertise-experts are needed to provide services that the recipients are not adequately knowledgeable to evaluate. Concept of the bargain struck with society -the exchange of competence and integrity for trust, freedom from supervision and interference and protection against unqualified comptetntion as well as substantial remuneration and social status (P2) Rueschmeyer. Thus expertise the prime source of professional power and influence. p5- issue of shift from professsion-centred-ie only the profession had the expertise to know what was wrong with the client and treat it-to client-centred. Change recently, accompanied by/followed by governmental shifts to more control of professions-also for financial reasons. Thus the work of professions has to be viewed in terms of several intersecting sets of power relations-with service users, managers, government, special interest groups and other professions. All framed in an increasing web of state regulation (note relevance to the victim role taken by supervisors). p6-referring to a period of pupillage or internship as one form of learning (why doesn't he call it apprenticeship?)-gradual acquisition of knowledge through demonstration, practice with feedback, and possibly coaching. Strong influence on development of standards and values. Keeps occupational knowledge within the guild. p14-power and status of profession depend on claims to unique forms of expertise. professions prefer to present their knowledge base as carrying the aura of certainty associated with established scientific disciplines sufficiently erudite to justify a long period of training different from otehr professions P16-18-issues of different types and meanings and uses of term knowledge-tacit, propositional, procedural etc p19-part 1-professional knowledge: its character, development and use. professional knowledge cannot be characterised independent of the context in which it is learned and used. Context reveals its essential nature. Chapter 1- what is learned from CPD-nil of note summarised Chapter 2-Kinds of professional knowledge- p48-9-Broudy's typology of the mode of use of knowledge replication application interpretation association replication is rote-learning Application-any use of the knowledge in a different setting or circumstance, working iwth rules or procedures. Distinction between technical and professional education often implies that the former uses only replication and application whereas the latter involves someething more-understanding or judgement. These are identified iwth the interpretative mode. But the concepts, theories etc that rovide us with ways of construing situations and shape our use of knowledge are dominated by unquestioned intergenerational paradigms that are usually unquestioned. Judgement involves practicalwisdom-its acquisition depends, amongst other things, on professional experience. Balances personal professional experience, iwth perspective to prevent overinterpreation and an intuitive capacity to digest and distil previous experience and to select from it those ideas or procedures that seem fitting or appropriate. Broudy calls this semi-conscious, intuitive mode of knowledge use associative and ofen involves metaphors or images. Moves onto context (having dealt with types and modes of use of knowledge above). Posits that you cannot separate knowledge from its intended use. Ideas get reinterpreted during use and may need to be used before meaning is acquired. p 53-conceptes of hot and cool action-representing the time to reflect and make decisions in a situation. So in hot action, no time to reflect and think-people have to develop habits and routines in order to cope. p 100-Chapter 6-professionalizaion -the process by which an occupation seeks to advance its status and prgress towards full recognition within that ideology. Knowleged claims of professions strongly influenced by the need to sustain the ideology of professionalism and further the process of professionalization. p102-towards a map of professional knowledge--considering the types of knowledge, how they are acquired, and their role in professional action. Will deal with propositional knowleged; personal knowledge; process knowledge; moral principles and knowledge embedded in the literature and arts. Propositional knowledge- Virtually all discipline-based knowledge and most of generalizations and practical principles publicly available and codified. Impressions , personal knowledge and the interpretation of experience Experiential knowledge-situations where experience is initially apprehended at the level of impressions , thus requiring a further period of reflective thinking before it is either assimilated into existing schemes of experience or induces those schemes to change in order to accommodate it. Whether this reflection happens depends on the learner. Process knowledge--knowing how-including how to access and use propositional knowledge. p119-reconstructing professional education-3 central questions need to be addressed by every profession what is our professional knowledge base? what is best learned in higher education, what is best learned in professional practice and what is best learned through integrating the 2? what has to be learned before qualification and what is best after? Professional work requires the concurrent use of several kinds of knowledge in an integrated, purposeful manner. Thus the need for propositional knowledge to be introduced when it can be used as it does not become part of professional knowledge until it is used. Also implies that time needs to be devoted to how to use knowledge as well as the acquiring of it. P124-Summary table of Dreyfus model of skills aquisition-novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient, and expert with definitions. Focus on picking up knowledge, rather than the structured approach of behaviouralists. Basic understanding a knowing how rather than knowing that. p128-the Dreyfus model provides an analysis of skilled behaviour under conditions of rapid interpretation an decision-making, in which the logically distinct processes of acquiring information, following routines and making decisions are fully integrated. -not so much the simple skill of riding a bike, but the complex skill of riding a bike in heavy traffic. Accounts for the greater complexity of professional work and the time taken to acquire the skils, Leaves 2 important questions unanswered-how serious is its neglect of the problem of expert fallibility? and what proportion of professional work does it cover? Author believes it underestimates the former and overestimates the latter. Their model emphasises intuition rather than reasoning as the major characteristic of expertise. But offer no explanation of learning from experience-addressed by cognitive scientists. p134-Schmidt-not that experts work at a 'deeper' level, but that they have availability of knowledge representations in various forms , derived from both experience and formal education. SO they conclude that there are at least 2 separable levels or stages-a rapid non-analytical dimension, which is used in the majority of problems, and a slower analytical approach, applied to a minority of problems that present difficulties-neither is preferrd since both may lead to a solution-not now possible to predict which kinds of problems will present difficulties for an individual as difficulties arise from individual experience. p143-Schon-notes that he is concerned with the extraordinary, not the ordinary, unproblematic. An epistemology of creativity rather than everyday clinical practice. p144-clarifies that knowing-in-action is tacit, delivered without conscious deliberation, yielding intended outcomes provided the situation falls within what is recognised as normal. Reflection triggered by recognition that some aspects not nromal and require special attention. Sees reflection as a kind of rapid alert in which the cue to relfect pulls the practitioner out of automatic pilot. The " on-the-spot-experiment-" the author sees as a flamboyant term for the fact that once the situation is recognised as abnormal the practitioner will monitor their actions carefully until normality is resumed. Finds the reflection-in-action problematic. He believes that Schon does not have a simple coherent view of reflection but a set of overlapping attributes, and that he selects whichever subset of attributes best suits the situation under discussion. There is insufficient discrimintation between the rather different forms of relfection depicted in his many examples and this overgeneralisation leads to confusion and weakens his theoretical interpretations.Goes on with considerable critique of Schon, particularly the long stuff with the architect and student, in which he doesn't make clear what is reflection and what is not. Then looks at the difficulty with reflection-on-action-when teh episode continues over several action is this one action divided into several phases, or several actions in succession? Point out problems of his inconsistencies and failure to identify what the reflection actually consists of ie what the thinking process is. Also note the main issue of reflection-in-action is the action, not the reflection. p148-Erault suggests taking the issue of reflection out of the theory and seeing it as a theory of metacognition. See fig for summary of their views. p156-Dewey's definition of reflection- active, persistent and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and the furhter conclusions to which it te