Dreyfus model of skill acquisition

Novice

Advanced Beginner

Competence

Proficient

Expert

  • needs recipes
  • follows rules
  • no the big picture
  • no context
  • needs guidelines/cookbooks
  • gets awareness
  • seeks for quick solutions
  • doesn't need the big picture
  • doesn't feel as a part of the system
  • needs maxims (principles)
  • can troubleshoot
  • can use the advice of experts
  • can find a problem
  • still hard to distinguish the important details
  • still has to check many options until finds out the valuable one
  • most people stuck at this stage
  • needs patterns
  • needs the big picture
  • can self-correct
  • can learn from other's experience
  • can apply recipes in the context
  • no longer needs principles
  • responds intuitively and appropriately to the current situation
  • best in patterns matching
  • almost instantaneously sees important details and produces actions
  • feels like a part of the system (rather than controls it)
  • can apply best practices just in the right context