Components of Expertise
Herling (2000:13) in his "Operational definitions of expertise and competence" outlined three basic components of expertise: knowledge; problem-solving; and experience.
Here, I propose a more sophisticated differentiation that involves four types of knowledge:
- Epistemic Knowledge;
- Tooled Knowledge;
- Meta-Cognitive Knowledge;
- Idiosyncratic Knowledge.
Epistemic knowledge refers to the understanding and the formation of principles and generalizable causal relationships. Epistemic principles are highly likely to cross domain boundaries.
Tooled knowledge refers to specialized techniques of fact-finding, interpretation, or analysis. They are highly domain-specific.
Meta-Cognitive Knowledge refers to knowledge about one's own cognition. It involves constantly improving one's schemata regarding one's own optimal cognitive and psychic functioning.
Idiosyncratic Knowledge is divided into two types. Personal Idiosyncratic Knowledge refers to personal experiences that are not (yet) integrated into higher order functional schemata. Social Idiosyncratic Knowledge refers to social knowledge of highly arbitrary nature, which one has to learn as an instrument to function better in the society.
It is important to note that all types of knowledge can be either derived by the person themselves via Peircean abduction, or they can be acquired through systematic training or education.
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