RESUMEN

To be effective, experts need to simultaneously develop others (i.e. provide advice and feedback to novices) and advance their own learning (i.e. seek and incorporate advice and feedback from others). However, expertise, and the state of efficacy associated with it, can inhibit experts from engaging in these activities or doing so effectively. We discuss when and why cognitive entrenchment and reduced perspective taking lead experts to hold misperceptions about others. We then explain how these misperceptions lead experts to provide less helpful advice and feedback to novices and to be less likely to seek and take input from others. We offer insights to overcome these barriers, enhancing experts' ability to provide and propensity to seek advice and feedback.

Asunto(s)

Aprendizaje , Solución de Problemas , Retroalimentación , Humanos

RESUMEN

Possessing expert schemas is a positive feat that may yield different types of adaptive outcomes (e.g., informing procedural understanding that may result in a student skipping a few of the solution steps involved). Limited schemas, in contrast, may deter progress of a novice learner, limiting his/her capability to flourish. Taken as a whole, it may be concluded that expert schemas are more advantageous than novice schemas, differentiating learners in terms of expert and novice. Having said this, however, more recently, researchers have argued that possessing expert schemas could serve as deterrence. Recently, researchers have acknowledged a theoretical concept known as cognitive entrenchment, which is defined as a high level of stability in domain schemas. This description interestingly suggests that "entrenchment" or "situated fixation" of a course of action (e.g., a subject matter) could hinder the progress and learning experience of a person, namely-his/her inability and/or unwillingness to adapt to a new context, and/or his/her inflexibility and insistence to stay on course without any intent to change. One example of cognitive entrenchment is observed in professional football, wherein it has been argued that some football coaches are cognitively entrenched within their expert schemas, resulting in their demised game plans and strategic acumen. We advance the study of cognitive entrenchment by proposing an alternative viewpoint, which we term as the "perceived zone of certainty and uncertainty." This proposition counters the perspective of cognitive entrenchment by arguing that it is cognitive appraisal, judgment, mental resolute, and determination of a person in cognitive certainty of his/her success or failure, or the cognitive uncertainty of success or failure, that would explain the notion of inflexibility and/or unwillingness to adapt, and/or insistence to stay on course without any attempt to deviate. Moreover, we rationalize that certainty of success or failure would closely associate with a feeling of comfort, whereas uncertainty would associate with his/her feeling discomfort. In this analysis, we strongly believe that willingness to change and adapt, reluctance and insistence to remain on course, and/or inclination to embrace flexibility may not necessarily relate to the concept of cognitive entrenchment; rather, inflexibility and/or reluctance to change for the purpose of adaptation has more to do with the desire of a person to seek a state of comfort. Finally, our conceptual analysis of cognitive entrenchment also considers an interesting theoretical concept, which we termed as "perceived optimal efficiency." Perceived optimal efficiency, similar to cognitive relevance theory, is concerned with the relationship between minimum investment of time, effort, cognitive resources, etc., and an optimal best outcome. The issue for discussion, from our point of view, is related to the extent to which the certainty of success or failure would associate with perceived optimal efficiency.

RESUMEN

One interesting observation that we may all concur with is that many experts, or those who are extremely knowledgeable and well-versed in their respective domains of functioning, become "mediocre" and lose their "touch of invincibility" over time. For example, in the world of professional football, it has been argued that an elite football coach would lose his/her air of invincibility and demise after 10-15 years at the top. Why is this the case? There are different reasons and contrasting viewpoints that have been offered to account for this observed demise. One notable concept, recently introduced to explain this decline, is known as cognitive entrenchment, which is concerned with a high level of stability in one's domain schemas (Dane, 2010). This entrenchment or "situated fixation," from our proposition, may act to deter the flexibility and/or willingness of a person to adapt to a new context or situation. Some writers, on this basis, have argued that cognitive entrenchment would help explain the demise of some experts and/or why some students have difficulties adapting to new situations. An initial inspection would seem to indicate that cognitive entrenchment is detrimental, potentially imparting evidence of inflexibility, difficulty, and/or the unwillingness of a person to adapt to new contexts (Dane, 2010). This premise importantly connotes that expertise may constrain a person from being flexible, innovative, and/or creative to ongoing changes. In this analysis, an expert may experience a cognitive state of entrenchment, facilitated in this case by his/her own experience, knowledge, and/or theoretical understanding of a subject matter. Having said this, however, it is also a plausibility that cognitive entrenchment in itself espouses some form of positivity, giving rise to improvement and/or achievement of different types of adaptive outcomes. Drawing from our existing research development, we propose in this conceptual analysis article that personal "entrenchment" to a particular context (e.g., the situated fixation of a football coach to a particular training methodology) may closely relate to three major elements: self-cognizance of cognitive load imposition, a need for efficiency, and the quest for stability and comfort. As we explore later, there is credence to accept the "positivity" of cognitive entrenchment-that by nature, for example, a person would purposively choose the status quo in order to minimize cognitive load imposition, optimize efficiency, and/or to achieve minimum disruption and a high level of comfort, which could then "optimize" his/her learning experiences. We strongly believe that our propositions, which consider eight in this article, are of significance and may, importantly, provide grounding for further research development into the validity of cognitive entrenchment.