Surpassing Ourselves: An Inquiry Into the Nature and Implications of Expertise [Paperback]

Carl Bereiter (Author), Marlene Scardamalia (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 19, 1993

Expertise has been around since the dawn of civilisation, but until recently the creation of experts was able to go on without anyone having to understand it, or pay any attention to its social impact. Today, as societies compete to produce more and better experts, the need grows to understand expertise - what lies behind expert performance, how it is acquired, and what keeps people functioning like experts. The authors examine the nature of expert knowledge, both the part that shows and the much larger part that is hidden, and offer an explanation of how it comes about. Hard work, practice, and experience are not enough to make an expert. The expert is recognised by an ability to solve nonroutine problems in a given domain. The expert's secret is their willingness to work at the edge of their competence and to keep reconstructing their skills at higher levels. Expertlike tendencies have been found in some university students, and even some schoolchildren function more like experts than like the other students in their classes. Yet schooling often undermines the development of expertise. Bereiter and Scardamalia describe a kind of classroom culture, the "knowledge-building community" which supports expertlike learning, and extend these ideas to the picture of an "expert society", in which expertise is normal rather than exceptional. Expertise is an expression of the uniquely human potential to go beyond the competencies given us by nature.

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Open Court Publishing Company (October 19, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812692055
• ISBN-13: 978-0812692051
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #991,410 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best popular (but science based) book on expertism, March 20, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Surpassing Ourselves: An Inquiry Into the Nature and Implications of Expertise (Paperback)

An excellent book by two excellent expert & learning researchers on nature and implications of expertise in human behaviour. Has various implications in the fields of schooling, life-long learning, apprenticeship and just plain old teaching. Does not contain psychological jargon, is easily understood, but contains profound material any educator should be willing to tackle. Excellent work (no wonder it's "hard to find").

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Read for Educators Designing a New Approach to Authentic Learning, September 1, 2008

By 

Paul A. Reynolds "fablevision" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Surpassing Ourselves: An Inquiry Into the Nature and Implications of Expertise (Paperback)

Surpassing Ourselves: An Inquiry Into the Nature and Implications of Expertise, by by Carl Bereiter and Marlene Scardamalia, provides a very accessible, but scholarly look at the nature of expertise - and why we need to fundamentally rethink how we understand and nurture "adaptive expertise." This is critical as we prepare students to face a future where memorizing what we already know (and spitting it back on standardized tests) isn't the kind of 'expertise' we need (if indeed, it even qualifies as authentic expertise.)

As Bereiter and Scardamalia explain, we need to move beyond the idea that expertise is a commodity one "gets" with a degree and then is able to rest on that expert label for one's career. Real expertise moves beyond what is known - into the dark area of the unknown - where one grasps in darkness at completely new insights, innovation, invention.

Until we create an educational system that gives students permission to play in this field of the unknown - where failure is an acceptable and organic part of the landscape, they will never know the liberating power of unfettered romps in the realm of messy, inventive expertise. This is a must-read for any school reformer - or life-long learner needing encouragement to push themselves to discover their full potential.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book on expertise., November 11, 2006

By 

John A. Harper Jr. - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Surpassing Ourselves: An Inquiry Into the Nature and Implications of Expertise (Paperback)

This book is the best I've read so far of the what and how of expertise. What it is and how to do it. It is very well written, and although it recognizes the defects of other theories it doesn't "put down" it mostly just promotes a constructive and well thought out discription of the processes and environment conducive to expertise.