Revert to Default: Subject Matter Experts in the Workplace Classroom

• In Event: Roundtable Session 73
  In Roundtable Session: Workplace Expertise, Subject Matter Expertise, and Competence for Sustainable Development in Workplace Learning

Abstract

This study reports findings from the workplace, that indicate that common teaching models, which appear to be in favor in most K-12 formal environments are abandoned for traditional ‘efficiency’ models that emulate industry conveyor lines. Questions arise about the appropriateness of teaching tools that are employed in the workplace due to time constraints, physical plant/classroom constraints, and expectations and attitudes exhibited by incumbent learners and teachers within this environment. Preliminary results bear out the thesis that SMEs revert back to the default teaching method – in other words, they teach the way they were taught ten, twenty, or thirty years before. What they saw and experienced in their school days seems to be repeated in their own classrooms many years later.

Authors

• Timothy K. O'Mahony, University of Washington

• Michael Richey, The Boeing Company

• David French, The Boeing Company