One of the most prominent challenges organizations currently face is transferring knowledge from their experts to new and current employees. Whether a team is being reduced, long-tenured employees are retiring, or new employees are onboarding; sharing and transferring the specific curriculum of the organization's processes, know-how, and practices are essential to continue operating and growing.
Experts are not made from one day to another; we develop expertise over time when acquiring extensive knowledge about a domain with constant practice, understanding, and solving increasingly complex problems. Experts organize, connect, and integrate facts as they acquire knowledge and put it into practice. They are able to recognize patterns and use their “intuition” to make decisions and solve problems quickly. However, experts are not naturally proficient in transferring their specific domain knowledge. Most have a hard time articulating and detailing their thinking processes as they have become intuitive (Persky & Robinson, 2017).
"People with more experience refine their skills and knowledge through helping and explaining things to others." (Falbel, n.d)
Bates (2022) rightly states that “teaching is a mix of art and science.” Those transferring knowledge need expertise in the subject matter and a toolkit of instructional methods and practices from which to pull depending on the learners, the circumstances, and the task being transferred (Bates, 2022).
Here are three key insights for experts to consider when transferring knowledge:
To know when to apply a tool, you need to know it. Understanding the theories of learning and knowing will provide a solid foundation for the expert’s instructional toolkit. The behaviorist, cognitivist and constructivist theories represent a continuum where the focus of instruction goes from transferring facts to the active application of ideas. No theory is better than the other; knowing when and where to use them matters to leverage the approach that best supports the mastery of the subject and the learner (Ermert & Newby, 1993).
Know your learner. Knowing and paying attention to the learners’ previous background, knowledge, and training is critical. This will allow the expert to use such knowledge as a starting point while fostering connections and understanding in the learners (National Research Council, et al., 2000).
Content is not enough. Teaching facts and processes is not enough to successfully transfer knowledge. It is just as important to support learners in developing the ability to find, analyze, organize, relate, represent, and apply the information within the specific field. While promoting metacognition -the ability to predict and monitor performance and levels of mastery- to encourage learners to own and continuously improve their learning and progress (de Jong, 2010; Persky & Robinson, 2017; Bates, 2022).
It is important to understand that there is not one best approach to teaching and learning. At the end of the day, the expert should look for the resources that better promote mastery of the specific task for the specific learner.
Bibliography
Bates, A. W. (2022). The Nature of Knowledge and the implications for teaching. In Teaching in a digital age: Guidelines for designing teaching and learning (pp. 89-145). Tony Bates Associated Ltd.
de Jong, T. (2010). Cognitive load theory, educational research, and instructional design: Some food for thought. Instructional Science, 105-134.
Ermert, P., & Newby, T. (1993). Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective . Performance Improvement Quarterly, 50-72.
Falbel, Aaron. (nd) “Constructionism: Tools to build (and think) with” Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
National, R., Division, O., Board, O., & Committee, O. (2000). Learning: from speculation to science. In How people learn : Brain, mind, experience, and school: expanded edition. (pp. 3-27). National Academies Press.
Persky, A., & Robinson, J. (2017). Moving from novice to expertise and its implications for instruction. American Journal of pharmaceutical educatoin, 72-80.