Dreyfus model of skill acquisition

In the fields of education and operations research, the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition is a model of how students acquire skills through formal instruction and practicing. Brothers Stuart and Hubert Dreyfus proposed the model in 1980 in an influential, 18-page report on their research at the University of California, Berkeley, Operations Research Center for the United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research.^[1] The original model proposes that a student passes through five distinct stages: novice, advanced beginner, competent, proficient, and expert.

The original five-stage model

In the novice stage, a person follows rules as given, without context, with no sense of responsibility beyond following the rules exactly. Competence develops when the individual develops organizing principles to quickly access the particular rules that are relevant to the specific task at hand; hence, competence is characterized by active decision making in choosing a course of action. Proficiency is shown by individuals who develop intuition to guide their decisions and devise their own rules to formulate plans. The progression is thus from rigid adherence to rules to an intuitive mode of reasoning based on tacit knowledge.

Michael Eraut summarized the five stages of increasing skill as follows:^[2]

1. Novice

• "rigid adherence to taught rules or plans"
• no exercise of "discretionary judgment"

2. Advanced beginner

• limited "situational perception"
• all aspects of work treated separately with equal importance

3. Competent

• "coping with crowdedness" (multiple activities, accumulation of information)
• some perception of actions in relation to goals
• deliberate planning
• formulates routines

4. Proficient

• holistic view of situation
• prioritizes importance of aspects
• "perceives deviations from the normal pattern"
• employs maxims for guidance, with meanings that adapt to the situation at hand

5. Expert

• transcends reliance on rules, guidelines, and maxims
• "intuitive grasp of situations based on deep, tacit understanding"
• has "vision of what is possible"
• uses "analytical approaches" in new situations or in case of problems

A sixth stage for innovation

During in-depth interviews carried out 1987-1990 with Hubert and Stuart Dreyfus by Oxford professor Bent Flyvbjerg, Flyvbjerg problematized the fact that the Dreyfus model in its original form does not account for innovation, i.e., how new skills come into being and outcompete old ones. This lack in the original model makes it relatively undynamic and unable to grasp skill acquisition in full, according to Flyvbjerg, who proposed as a remedy a sixth stage for innovation.^[3] Flyvbjerg also questioned the way phronesis (practical wisdom) seemed to be conflated with techne (craft) in Hubert and Stuart Dreyfus's thinking about skills.^[4] At first the Dreyfus brothers rejected additional stages to the five-stage model on the grounds that they did not understand innovation.^[5] In 1990, Flyvbjerg published an evaluation and extension of the model including a sixth stage for innovation.^[6] Later, Hubert Dreyfus embraced both a sixth and a seventh stage taking into account innovation and practical wisdom in the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition.^[7]

Example uses of the model

• Assessing progress in the development of skills.
• Helping to define a desired level of competence.
• Supporting progress in the development of skills, by understanding the learning needs and styles of learning at different levels of skill acquisition.
• Helping to determine when a learner is ready to teach others.

See also

• Chris Argyris' concepts of Action learning
• Four stages of competence
• Practice (learning method)
• Reflective practice
• Skill
• Neuroplasticity
• Procedural memory
• Shu Ha Ri
• Kata
• Merleau Ponty
• Neural net
• Language proficiency, particularly ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines

References

1. ^ Dreyfus, Stuart E.; Dreyfus, Hubert L. (February 1980). A Five-Stage Model of the Mental Activities Involved in Directed Skill Acquisition. Washington, DC: Storming Media. http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA084551&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf. Retrieved June 13, 2010. 
2. ^ Cheetham, Graham; Chivers, Geoff (2005). Professions, Competence and Informal Learning. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 337. ISBN 1 84376 408 3. http://books.google.com/?id=xwyqLR-mG4cC&pg=PA162&dq=%27%27%27Dreyfus+Model+of+Skill+Acquisition%27%27%27#PPA162,M1.  Reprinted from Eraut, Michael (1994). Developing Professional Knowledge and Competence. London: Falmer Press. p. 124. ISBN 0 7507 0330 X. 
3. ^ Flyvbjerg, Bent, 1990, Rationalitet, intuition og krop i menneskets læreproces: Fortolkning og evaluering af Hubert og Stuart Dreyfus' model for indlæring af færdigheder (Rationality, Intuition, and Body in Human Learning: An Interpretation and Evaluation of the Hubert and Stuart Dreyfus Skill Acquisition Model). Aalborg: Department of Development and Planning, Aalborg University.
4. ^ Flyvbjerg, Bent, 1991, "Sustaining Non-Rationalized Practices: Body-Mind, Power, and Situational Ethics. An Interview with Hubert and Stuart Dreyfus." Praxis International, vol. 11, no. 1, April, pp. 93-113.
5. ^ Flyvbjerg, Bent, 1990, Rationalitet, intuition og krop i menneskets læreproces: Fortolkning og evaluering af Hubert og Stuart Dreyfus' model for indlæring af færdigheder (Rationality, Intuition, and Body in Human Learning: An Interpretation and Evaluation of the Hubert and Stuart Dreyfus Skill Acquisition Model). Aalborg: Department of Development and Planning, Aalborg University.
6. ^ Flyvbjerg, Bent, 1990, Rationalitet, intuition og krop i menneskets læreproces: Fortolkning og evaluering af Hubert og Stuart Dreyfus' model for indlæring af færdigheder (Rationality, Intuition, and Body in Human Learning: An Interpretation and Evaluation of the Hubert and Stuart Dreyfus Skill Acquisition Model). Aalborg: Department of Development and Planning, Aalborg University.
7. ^ Dreyfus, Hubert L., 2008, On the Internet, second edition, London: Routledge.

Further reading

• Benner, Patricia (2004). "Using the Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition to Describe and Interpret Skill Acquisition and Clinical Judgment in Nursing Practice and Education". Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society 24 (3): 188–19. doi:10.1177/0270467604265061. http://bst.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/24/3/188. 
• Eriksen, Jørgen W. (2010). "Should Soldiers Think before They Shoot?". Journal of Military Ethics 9 (3): 195–218. doi:10.1080/15027570.2010.510861. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15027570.2010.510861. 

External links

• Table of the Dreyfus Levels