Coaching Experts to Transform Their Knowledge Karen Schriver, PhD KSA Communication Design &...

Coaching Experts to Coaching Experts to Transform Their Transform Their KnowledgeKnowledgeKaren Schriver, PhDKSA Communication Design & Research, Inc.

Presented to Members of PLAINFebruary 15, 2006

2 © 2006 KSA Communication Design &

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Communication Challenges Many Experts Face Talking to people outside of their

domain Recognizing they have a problem Getting over assumptions about

language


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Contexts that Shape Patterns of Expert Communication Socialization within their domain The culture of their domain

Domain-specific ways of talking, acting, seeing the world


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Characteristics of Experts

Expert knowledge is organized as schemas Experts possess deep tacit knowledge of their

domain that can make articulation difficult Organization of knowledge may make it hard

to access the right stuff at the right level Experts tend to overestimate the audience

“The knowledge effect in writing” (Hayes, Schriver, Spilka & Blaustein, 1988; in Hayes 1989)

If it’s clear to me, it must be clear to them

Relationship Between Undergrad Engineers’ Predictions of Audience’s Knowledge of Vocabulary and Their Own Knowledge

Percentage Overestimated

From J. R. Hayes (2006, in press)


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Expertise May Have a Negative Impact on Writing Many experts tend to

Overestimate their readers’ vocabulary Be prone to “knowledge telling” Be insensitive to the audience’s interests Pay too much attention to seductive details See connections among ideas that are not

actually there


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Domain Experts Who Are Also Excellent Writers Able to model the reader (simulate

interpretation of what is said, who is saying it, and why)

See themselves as clarifying rather than simplifying

Recognize when word choices or rhetorical moves are inappropriate

Have metacognitive awareness for rhetorical moves

Able to shorten lengthy text and retain meaning Compose flexibly across genre and purpose


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What is Framing?

Shaping the topic deliberately so that the speaker’s point of view is clear

Activating the meanings, resonances, and values that the speaker wants the listener to focus on

Echoing and elaborating the point of view


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What is Reframing?

Starting with an existing text and transforming its frame through revision

Extracting meaning(s) from original Choosing a focus and point of view Marshaling new language for the new frame Reshaping the structure to fit a new genre Reconceptualizing ideas for a new audience(s)

A well written reframed text gives the audience the impression that it has been composed for the first time

Reframing is not redeployment or document reuse (as in single-sourcing)


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Two Styles of Shaping Content

Knowledge TellingKnowledge Telling Temporal Order Fact corpus Data dump Excessively detailed “Listy” progressions Quirky transitions Topic shifts without

previews

Knowledge TransformingKnowledge Transforming Audience-centered structure Facts fit rhetorical genre Audience-sensitive data Detail fits audiences’ needs Structurally cued lists Well marked transitions Previews of topics with

graphic reinforcement


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Case Study: The Context

Setting Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy (Univ. of California, Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon)

Domain Experts Professors of Education and English

Audiences Experts

Researchers and English professors who read research Novices

High-school and college-level English teachers Department of education grant monitors at OERI

(Office of Educational Research & Improvement)


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The Task

Reframe academic journal articles, technical reports, or book chapters for a lay audience

Technical report Newsletter format 25+ pages 4 pages Domain experts

like themselves Experts and smart people in other domains

Formal Semi-formal Report Engage, instruct, advise


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Example 1: Academic Journal Article for Experts

Journal Harvard Educational Review

Title Multiple Discourses, Multiple Identities:

Investment and Agency in Second-Language Learning among Chinese Adolescent Immigrant Students


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Sample Academic Prose

Hence our adoption of Omi and Winant’s (1994) view of “racial formation”—seeing race as “a matter of both social structure and cultural representation” (p. 56)—and our inclusion of the term “racialized” to emphasize the historicity of the discursive formation.

—From Harvard Educational Review


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Journal Article: Headings (1 of 2) Conceptualizing the Second-Language

Learner as a Complex Social Being: A Contextualist Perspective

Understanding the English Learning of Chinese-Speaking Adolescent Immigrant Students

The Study The Focal Students and School Personnel Multiple Discourses in the Social Context

Colonialist/Racialized Discourses on Immigrants Model-Minority Discourse Chinese Cultural Nationalist Discourses School Discourse: Social and Academic Gender Discourses


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Journal Article: Headings (2 of 2)

Multiple Identities: Investment and Agency among the Focal Students

Michael Lee Jeremy Tang Brad Wang My School Jessica Ho

Conclusion References Notes


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Journal Article: Frame

Conceptualizing a second-language learner as a complex social being is a relatively recent trend in second-language acquisition (SLA). For many years, error analysis and interlanguage analysis dominated this research (e.g., Corder, 1974; Dulay & Burt, 1974; Selinker, 1974), encouraging a focus on the second language as a formal code, referenced to native-speaker proficiency as the norm. Little recognition was given to learning processes, individual variables, or the social context in which the second language was learned and used.


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“After”: Newsletter for Lay Audience Newsletter

National Center for the Study of Writing and Literacy Briefs on Writing

Title Cultural Differences and Writing: A Study of

English as Second Language Instruction


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“After”: Newsletter Headings How the study was conducted

The educational programs aimed at acquiring English

What’s next?


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“After”: Newsletter Frame

Has the American commitment to educating children been translated into programs that foster the intellectual development of students from non-English speaking countries? Might new developments in approaches to the teaching of writing shed light on current programs? These were some of the questions posed by National Center for the Study of Writing & Literacy researchers in a study of the progress of English writing skills of Chinese middle-school children in California.


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Example 2: Academic Journal Article for Experts

Journal Harvard Educational Review

Title Hearing Other Voices: A Critical Assessment

of Popular Views on Literacy and Work


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Journal Article: Headings Current Views on Workplace Literacy

“Workers’ Lack Literacy” “Literacy Means Basic Skills and More” “Illiteracy Costs Businesses and Taxpayers” “Workers Need ‘Functional Context Training’”

Current Views Revisited Rethinking the Effects of Literacy and Illiteracy Rethinking Workers’ Potential Rethinking the Nature of Literacy

Rethinking the Literacy Requirements of Work and the Nature of Work-Related Training

Different Voices and Other Stories References


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Journal Article: Frame (1 of 3)

Interviewer: What about reading and writing? … Do you need reading and writing skills in banking?

Jackie: I don’t think so, ‘cause say, if you don’t know how to spell somebody’s name, you could look on their California ID and put it in the computer … just push it in on those buttons.


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Alma: But you still gonna have to look at it and read and write….You’ve got to read those numbers when you cash their money! ….If you can’t read and write, you’re not going to get hired no way.

Jackie: That’s true.

Jackie and Alma, students in a vocational program on banking and finance, disagree about the nature and extent of the reading and writing actually involved in being a bank teller. They do agree, however, that


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literacy would be a requirement for getting hired in the first place, even if such skills were unimportant in carrying out the job itself. From what I can tell by examining popular literature, Jackie and Alma are right.


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“After”: Newsletter for Lay Audience

Newsletter National Center for the Study of Writing and

Literacy Briefs on Writing Title

Literacy, Education, and Work: Other Voices, Other Stories


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Newsletter: Headings

The View from the Shop Floor Literacy, and Work in a Bank Proofing

Center Language and the American Dream in

an Assembly Plant Conclusion For more information. . .


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“After”: Newsletter Frame (1 of 3)

U.S. businesses are struggling in the world economy, we are often told, because they have failed to adopt “high performance” business practices— flexible planning, worker participation and teamwork. In order to compete, this story goes, American businesses need workers who can take on greater leadership responsibilities, learn to be more customer-oriented, adapt to a


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technologically-sophisticated work environment, participate in “quality” teams, and make the kinds of judgments once reserved for upper management….Unfortunately, the story continues, American workers are ill-equipped to meet these challenges….


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But is this story accurate? Are American workers—especially “nonmale, nonwhite, and nonyoung” ones—really to blame for America’s economic woes? Do U.S. businesses really demand and support “high performance” work? What are the cognitive and social parameters of today’s workplace, and how are they related to the educational, demographic, and cultural changes going on in the country?


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Coaching Domain Experts

Strategies for Reframing Paraphrase the message of existing text Identify what the new audience

needs/wants Identify the purpose(s) for the new text Characterize intent and goals for content Consider the tone and persona Compose a frame that previews and

delineates the message and renders a point of view


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Summary

Coaching experts is a complex rhetorical skill

Understanding experts’ difficulties with communication can be helpful in diagnosing problems

Teaching experts to transform their knowledge usually requires teaching them how to reframe their ideas

Once experts experience the benefits of reaching a wider audience, they often learn to appreciate the value of plain language


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References

Hayes, J. R., Schriver, K. A., Spilka, R. & Blaustein (1988). If it’s clear to me, it must be clear to them. Reported in Hayes, J.R. (1989). Writing research: The analysis of a very complex task. In D. Klahr & K. Kotovsky (Eds.), Complex information processing: The impact of Herbert A. Simon (pp. 209-234). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Hayes, J. R. (in press). An online writing tutor to test a pedagogical strategy. In P. On’Neill (ed.), Blurring

boundaries: Developing writers, researchers, and teachers: A tribute to William L. Smith. Creskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

Schriver, K. A. (1997). Dynamics in document design: Creating texts for readers. NY: Wiley.

Schriver, K. A. (in preparation). Nurturing expertise in communications design.


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For More Information

Karen Schriver, PhDKSA Communication Design & Research33 Potomac St.Oakmont, PA [email protected]

Coaching Experts to Transform Their Knowledge Karen Schriver, PhD KSA Communication Design &...

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