Building Expertise, Second Edition [Hardcover]

Ruth C. Clark (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1890289132 | ISBN-13: 978-1890289133 | Publication Date: March 17, 2003 | Edition: 2

Building expertise is the source of competitive advantage in the knowledge economy. But downsizing, babyboomer retirements, organizational restructuring, and technological change all drain the reservoirs of expertise in the 21st Century organization. Based heavily on the most recent research, the second edition of Building Expertise provides the trainer, training designer, and training manager with guidelines and examples to help them accelerate expertise in their organizations. Specific topics include:

· How experts and novices are different
· Eight instructional principles that accelerate expertise
· Four instructional architectures to serve as design templates
· The latest research on how to develop learning that is both motivational and instructionally sound

Editorial Reviews

Review

Building Expertise presents a clear, organized, and accurate description of how to design training that is consistent with research evidence. -- Richard E. Mayer, Professor of Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara. Author of Multimedia Learning.

Few have done more than Ruth Clark to provide instructional practitioners easy access to the findings of scientific educational psychology. -- M. David Merrill, Department of Instructional Technology, Utah State University. Author of 5 Star Instruction.

From the Back Cover

Building Expertise

This third edition of the classic resource, Building Expertise draws on the most recent evidence on how to build innovative forms of expertise and translates that evidence into guidelines for instructional designers, course developers and facilitators, technical communicators, and other human performance professionals. Ruth Colvin Clark summarizes psychological theories concerning ways instructional methods support human learning processes. Filled with updated research and new illustrative examples, this new edition offers trainers evidence-based guidelines to help them accelerate genuine expertise within their organizations. This new edition includes

Eight instructional principles that can accelerate expertise

Four instructional architectures to serve as design templates

The most current research on how to develop learning that is both motivational and instructionally sound

Completely updated review of relevant research from cognitive and instructional design fields

Practical guidelines for problem-centered instruction, motivation, and transfer

Information on how to exploit the features of new technology in ways that support human learning processes

Praise for the Third Edition of Building Expertise

"Accelerating the development of expertise is crucial to organizations' ability to thrive in today's global economy. With sound theoretical framework and immediately applicable guidelines, Building Expertise is a must-read for every serious performance improvement professional."
—Rosaline Tsai, Ph.D., global training director, Honeywell Building Solutions

"Building Expertise synthesizes research into accessible design principles that can be easily applied to a broad range of instruction including eLearning and other innovative technologies."
—Frank Nguyen, Ph.D, assistant professor, Department of Educational Technology, San Diego State University --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Pfeiffer; 2 edition (March 17, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890289132
• ISBN-13: 978-1890289133
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,764,222 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I received my doctorate in instructional psychology from USC in the mid 1980's and worked as a training manager in an IT Department for five years. In my seminars and books on training by goal is to translate instructional research into useful guidelines for practitioners in workforce learning.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ground your training in research-based methods, August 13, 2003

By 

Kathy Porter (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Building Expertise, Second Edition (Hardcover)

Want to know why certain instructional methods work or when they should be used? Want knowledge to improve your credibility as a learning expert with others? Based heavily on cognitive research, this book from well-known expert Ruth Colvin Clark provides the rationale for sound instructional methods.
The concepts and guidelines in Building Expertise are mature, widely-accepted, and most will be familiar to readers in the training field. The book's first three chapters explain in simple terms how the brain is thought to work during learning. Each later chapter focuses on a cognitive learning process and summarizes the methods that research has shown support it. With chapter titles like "Leveraging Prior Knowledge," the organization of the book reinforces Ruth Clark's thesis. Her thesis is simple, but profound: it is instructional methods, not media, that influence learning. Some methods work better than others because of the way our brains function. Some methods work better for beginners than for advanced learners. The gems in this book are the occasional information on techniques that sometimes hurt learning and when to avoid them. While there are examples and pictures of training that follow the guidelines, this is not a how-to book. This book explains why and when to do something, not how to do it. For that reason, Building Expertise may be of interest to learning consultants and training managers, as well as to practitioners who want to deepen their knowledge of instructional design.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A gem of a book packed with useful analysis and advice, November 30, 2003

By 

Chris Hopton (Ipswich, Suffolk United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Building Expertise, Second Edition (Hardcover)

As a high-school teacher I am finding this book an invaluable read. The combination of insights from educational psychology and practical examples of instructional design make this an essential read for all those who want to make their teaching more effective and who are dismayed by the many examples of poorly conceived e-learning that can be encountered on the web. I think this book is worth twice the price and deserves a very wide readership. It certainly amply rewards thoughtful and careful study.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great resource and a valuable addition to the research in training, January 1, 2009

By 

W. Brantley (Louisville, Kentucky USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Building Expertise: Cognitive Methods for Training and Performance Improvement (Hardcover)

Every trainer should buy this book! For too long, the training field (and teaching) has had little research to back up the conventional wisdom. Now, thanks to the neuroscience revolution, trainers and educators are learning how the brain actually learns. That is why Clark's book is so valuable. It has changed my teaching and training.