The Curse That Haunts Informal Learning
An incident at work has made me think about the “curse of knowledge.” As one becomes proficient in their chosen field, they accumulate knowledge and experiences that grows their body of knowledge. The longer a person is in a field, they are able to use chunking to become experts. The person climbs the mountain of knowledge and once they reach a certain point, they can no longer see where they started. They forget what it was like to be a beginner in the field.
This is the curse of knowledge and this is a major barrier to informal learning. It takes a special skill for an expert to re-enter the beginner’s mind and to communicate the concepts to a non-expert. Some informal learning experts believe that it is enough for learners to mingle among themselves and they will pick up the knowledge (supposedly by osmosis). But, if that were true, I could become a brain surgeon by hanging around my local hospital.
One can learn a great deal from experts but there has to be some structure and the expert not only has to be an expert in the subject matter but accomplished at communicating that knowledge. Your average office expert isn’t rewarded for his or her teaching abilities but for their acquisition of skills and knowledge. I know some managers would like to think they are encouraging learning among their employees but, when the pressure is on, informal teaching and informal learning are luxuries that many organizations can’t afford.
Tags: curse of knowledge, informal learning, informal teaching