From Novice to Expert

“You cannot be born to expertise, nor buy it or borrow it. You have to work at it”

(Schempp, 2008, p. 11). As Schempp mentioned, no one can be an innate expert.

Endeavor is a crucial key to expertise. However, endeavor alone is not enough. To successfully transform a novice into an expert, one needs to increase his or her experience, knowledge, and skills (Schempp, 2008).

Differences between expert and novice

Before we discuss how a novice may become an expert, it is important to review the differences between the experiences, knowledge and skills that an expert possesses and a novice possesses. Abilities like intelligence or memory does not set experts apart from novices. In fact, the main key lies in how experts think and solve problems

effectively. When defining expertise, “how you organize your knowledge” matters more than “how much knowledge you have” (Schempp, 2008). The reason why experts can think and solve problems in an effective way is mainly due to the formation of their knowledge. According to Bransford (2000), Experts’ knowledge “is organized around core concepts or big ideas that guide their thinking about their domains” (p. 36).

When we examine an expert vs. novice in the news industry, journalism scholars have mentioned that expert practitioners are those who know how to integrate or

eliminate elements during information processing” (Chung, Tsang, Chen, Chang, Chen, 2002, p.21). In comparison, novices’ knowledge is loosely combined (Tsang, Chung, 1995), as novice journalists may only consider the problem from a superficial

perspective (Chen, 1997), and they usually use the same method to cope with different situations (Chang, 2011).

If we analyze experts’ knowledge through the schema theory, we find that experts possess larger schema than novices (Tsang, Chung, 1995). With this large schema, experts are able to: (1). Deal with information processing effectively. (2). Solve problems in a more relaxed manner. (3). Reflect abstract thinking (Chang, 2005). (4).

Classify information to explain real world situations (Tsang, Chung, 1995). (5). Think flexibly, comprehensively, and are more capable of considering other alternatives (Chen, 1997). (6). Shift strategies when unexpected incidents happen (Chang, 2011). For expert journalists, possessing a large schema allows them to capture the deep structure and temporal context of a news event (Chang, 2011), or to consider a situation through a fragment of knowledge (Chen, 1997).

Except for the scale of their knowledge base, how long journalists have been working in the profession may also influence his or her performance. For those

journalists who worked in the field for a longer time, they have accumulated extensive

prior knowledge and prior experience. Therefore, they are able to ask in depth questions (Tsang, Chung, 1995), and are more able to capture the situational factors of a particular incident (Chung, Tsang, Chen, 1996).

The type of knowledge experts possess and novices possess are also different. Both experts and novices possess declarative knowledge, but it is experts who possess more procedural knowledge. Declarative knowledge is about general facts, such as who is the medalist in a sports event. Procedural knowledge is about “knowing how,” and is the strategic knowledge one particularly possesses to solve problems (Tsang, Chung, 1995).

In journalists’ work environment, they face different challenges everyday. It is the procedural knowledge they possess that determines how well they handle various situations. As mentioned in the introduction, procedural knowledge is the key to

expertise. Nevertheless, such knowledge is mostly tacit, which has practical value, but is not easy to conceive through formal education (Tsang, Chung, Yang, 2001).

How to become expert: ways to improve

As mentioned above, experience, knowledge, and skills are three secrets to expertise. According to Schempp (2008), these three elements are in fact interrelated.

One needs to have experience and knowledge to form a robust base for decision-making.

Nevertheless, to perform outstandingly, skillful action is required. To make progress from a beginner level, beneficial activities like journal writing, formal education, seminars, reading transcripts of other people’s experience, and networking with

professionals or peers may also help beginners to keep track and make improvements to become more skilled and knowledgeable (Schempp, 2008).

Schempp pointed out that “practical knowledge earned through experience is more helpful in meeting the daily challenges and demands of work’ (2008, p.128), because this is knowledge people can apply and memorize easily in life. Through experience,

one may identify the strength and weakness of the skills he or she currently possesses, and the skills that need improvement (Schempp, 2008). Take novice journalists for example; through constant interviews, they may improve their skills of interviewing.

Increased interactions with interviewees help novice journalists to establish the concept of news coverage (Huang, R.C., 2012).

From this part we can see that experience is necessary for becoming an expert (Chen, 1997). Nevertheless, increasing experience, or having the same experience as others does not necessarily lead one to expertise. Two elements are involved; one is the prior knowledge one possesses, and the other is about how one organizes knowledge (Tsang, Chung, 1995). In terms of SSU members’ SDL, this part of the literature review explains the interactive model adopted in this study. Joining SSU is the opportunity student journalists found in their SDL journey. The prior knowledge or the schema they possess provides them the elements to further form their SDL. But to move toward expertise, SSU journalists still need to seek out other chances to gain experiences around them. In this case, how they organize and utilize the knowledge and resources they possess becomes decisive. In the previous paragraphs, we have discussed how a SSU student journalist can move towards becoming an expert through SDL. In the following paragraph, the researcher reviews the necessary requirements to take on the profession of journalism.