Two factors of expertise? Excellence and professionalism of environmental experts

The aim of this article is to empirically clarify factors and conditions of expertise. In addition to the core concept of expertise as excellence, a second factor needs to be taken into account: professionalism, or professional engagement. This hypothesis was tested and confirmed using data obtained...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:High ability studies 2009-06, Vol.20 (1), p.91-115
Main Author: Mieg, Harald A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
environmental experts
Evaluation Methods
excellence
Expertise
Factor Analysis
Foreign Countries
key competencies
Professional Development
professional engagement
professionalism
Structural Equation Models
Surveys
Switzerland
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The aim of this article is to empirically clarify factors and conditions of expertise. In addition to the core concept of expertise as excellence, a second factor needs to be taken into account: professionalism, or professional engagement. This hypothesis was tested and confirmed using data obtained from a survey on Swiss environmental professionals (n = 3514). The empirical test was based on factor analyses (Study 1) and a structural equation model (Study 2). The expertise scale consisted of nine items for self-assessed perceived expertise amongst professional peers (α = .78). Excellence turned out to be a logarithmic function of years of practice (Study 3). Professionalism prevailed in domains where standards for best practices still needed to be established (Study 4).
ISSN:1359-8139
1469-834X
DOI:10.1080/13598130902860432