Level Two. Expertise.
Level Two. Expertise.
By Michelle Lloyd.
What was expertise? The term had certainly been used a lot of late but R V was unclear on what it truly meant.
At school there had been a few show and tell classes from parents who had come in to talk with them about what it was they did at their chosen profession. It was all interesting to the ears of R V but he had to admit that as the talks had been given, he had started to get a lot less clear and a bit more confused each time.
There had been florists, GPs, computer experts and more but R V had found that the more he heard about each one the less sure he was about what his preference for each of them was and what he favoured the least. All the experts had expertise in their own areas. R V could not help but be astounded by how expert they all sounded at what they did and then feel a bit overwhelmed by it all.
R V felt sad because try as he might he could not ever even imagine sounding that adept or expert at his chosen job. He knew it was a far way off and he knew he did not have to decide anything but the more he heard different experts talk, the less he felt able to have all that much knowledge about everything.
Having sat at the back of the class to think, it was when the talks were over that R V’s teacher went over to sit next to him. She asked him what was wrong as he looked extremely thoughtful and he told her that whilst he appreciated all the work that had gone into the show and tells, it had all made him decide that being an expert may just be too hard for him. R V’s teacher asked what he meant by that and he explained that while there were subjects like maths that he knew he was more expert at than others, he was sure that he did not know all that there was about it and even more sure than he would not ever be able to show and tell his expertise as the parents had done. R V’s teacher assured that him while it may look as if someone had all the answers no real expert did and actually learning was something that everyone had to do. Being an expert meant that one could asses their own expertise in an area and improve on it, having all the answers was not an aim but using knowledge to the best of their ability was important. Expertise could develop, R V’s teacher told him and whatever he chose to do, it was his experience and integrity that would give him that ability to show and tell about it.