Showing papers on "Tacit knowledge published in 1988"
13 Jul 1988
TL;DR: It was found that not only do the good students, those who subsequently had greater success at solving the end-of- the-chapter problems, generate a greater amount of explanations, but moreover, the quality of their explanations was better in that it explicated the tacit knowledge, as well as related the example statements to principles and concepts introduced in the text.
Abstract: : This paper summarizes the results of our investigation of: 1) how students learn to solve simple mechanics problems; 2) what is learned when they study worked-out examples in the text; and 3) how they use what has been learned from the examples while solving problems. We also provide justifications for why mechanics problems were chosen, why we examined learning from examples, and how we can capture the understanding of examples by asking students to generate explanations. The underlying assumption of our research is that differences in students' abilities to learn to solve problems arise from the degree to which they have encoded the relevant knowledge from the text, and use this knowledge to parse and understand the worked-out examples. We found that not only do the good students, those who subsequently had greater success at solving the end-of- the-chapter problems, generate a greater amount of explanations, but moreover, the quality of their explanations was better in that it explicated the tacit knowledge, as well as related the example statements to principles and concepts introduced in the text. Good students were also more accurate at monitoring their comprehension of the example statements. Accuracy was important because awareness of misunderstanding usually led to episodes of self-explanations. Worked-out examples were also used in different ways by good and poor students. Keywords: Individual differences.
277 citations
01 Oct 1988
TL;DR: This chapter describes what qualitative physics is, why one should be doing it, and where it came from and discusses some open problems in qualitative physics.
Abstract: Publisher Summary Qualitative physics is concerned with representing and reasoning about the physical world. The goal of qualitative physics is to capture both the commonsense knowledge of the person on the street and the tacit knowledge underlying the quantitative knowledge used by engineers and scientists. The key to qualitative physics is to find ways to represent continuous properties of the world by discrete systems of symbols. One can always quantize something continuous, but not all quantizations are equally useful. One way to state the idea is the relevance principle: The distinctions made by a quantization must be relevant to the kind of reasoning performed. This chapter describes what qualitative physics is, why one should be doing it, and where it came from. It discusses some open problems in qualitative physics.
199 citations
TL;DR: It is shown that questions of local knowledge, tacit knowledge, and “magic,” far from being ignored by scientific researchers, are explicitly a part of their daily practice and give rise to a series of social and technical distinctions which are constitutive of scientific work.
Abstract: Recent work in the sociology of science has highlighted the local and tacit dimensions of scientific work. Against the widely held assumption that we are here dealing with a form of knowledge largely beyond the control and manipulation of scientists, we will argue that the unsaid is indeed a part of conscious scientific practice—and hence subject to negotiation, discussion, and construction. Based on a study of the transmission of hybridoma technology, this paper will show that questions of local knowledge, tacit knowledge, and “magic,” far from being ignored by scientific researchers, are explicitly a part of their daily practice. It will be seen that these questions give rise to a series of social and technical distinctions which are constitutive of scientific work.
99 citations
01 Jun 1988
TL;DR: The Domain of Health: Some Concerns of Automating Social Knowledge is a Knowledge-Based Learning System for a Social Domain and a Case-Study in Adult Literacy using the Domain of Diet Planning and Health is studied.
Abstract: Section I. Introduction.- 1. Introduction.- Section II. Tacit Knowledge and Apprenticeship.- 2. The Practice of the Use of Computers. A Paradoxical Encounter between Different Traditions of Knowledge.- Paradoxical Views of Knowledge in the Age of Enlightenment.- On Following Rules.- What is a Computer?.- A Boat Builder on the West Coast of Sweden.- Judging Light in Photography.- Technology and Culture.- Routine Practice and Development Practice.- Error-Location in a Computer Program.- Three Categories of Knowledge.- An Epistemological Error.- 3. The Nurse as Engineer - the Theory of Knowledge in Research in the Care Sector.- Two Irreconcilable Traditions.- Systems Theory in Medical Care.- Expert Systems.- The Theory of Knowledge for Practitioners.- The Concept of Practice.- Who Draws the Boundary between Man and Machine?.- Conclusion.- 4. Automation-Skill-Apprenticeship.- The Dream of the Automated Factory.- Practical Knowledge.- Propositional Knowledge.- Conclusions.- 5. Computerization and Skill in Local Weather Forecasting.- Method.- What is the Weather Like Today?.- Weather Forecasting and Computerization.- Working Knowledge and Skill.- The Inner Weather Picture.- Experiences of Numerical Forecasts.- Experiences of the Computerized Map-Plotting System.- Skill as a Basis for Alternatives.- Conclusion.- 6. Tacit Knowledge, Working Life and Scientific Method.- Section III. Skill and Artificial Intelligence.- 7. Can Skills be Transferable?.- The Politics of Skills Transfer.- What are Skills?.- The Strategic Significance of Skills.- Transferring Skills.- Models for the Transfer of Skills.- Preconditions for the Transfer of Skills.- Technology and Skills.- Artificial Intelligence and Skills.- The Politics of Skills.- 8. Artificial Intelligence and Social Action: Education and Training.- Nature of Expert Knowledge and Its Transfer.- Design Issues.- Social Domains: Design Criteria for AI Systems.- Human-centred Approach for Knowledge Transfer.- Participatory Model.- The Human Domain: AI Technology and its Limitations.- Towards Designing Human-Centred Learning Systems: A Research Initiative at the SEAKE Centre.- A New Initiative in Health Care Training.- The Domain of Health: Some Concerns of Automating Social Knowledge.- A Knowledge-Based Learning System for a Social Domain: A Case-Study in Adult Literacy using the Domain of Diet Planning and Health.- Designing the System: using Learning as a Social Process.- Learning through Designing the Knowledge Base.- Piloting the System with Students and Lessons Learnt.- Back to the Health Care Project: Preliminary Work.- Concluding Remarks.- 9. Skill, Education and Social Value: Some Thoughts on the Metonymy of Skill and Skill Transfer.- Introduction: Skills and Social Interaction.- The Metonymy of Skill.- Power of Knowledge Transfer.- Two Models of Knowledge Transfer Colonial and Independent.- 10. Knowledge Acquisition for Expert Systems.- Computer Knowledge.- System Development.- Understanding the Problem.- The Knowledge Acquisition Process.- Methods.- Conclusion.- 11. Knowledge-Based Computer Decision-Aids for General Practice.- Information Overload in General Practice.- How Do General Practitioners Make Decisions?.- General Practitioners as Experts?.- What Do We Mean by Knowledge?.- What Kinds of Knowledge?.- Certainty and Risk in Data and Knowledge.- Putting Knowledge to Practical Use.- The Oxford System of Medicine (OSM).- The User Interface.- Will General Practitioners Accept a Computerized Decision-Aid?.- Section IV. Artificial Intelligence and the Flexible Craftsman.- 12. Creativity, Skill and Human-Centred Systems.- Common Sense and Tacit Knowledge.- The Acquisition of Skill.- Problems of Human-Machine Interaction.- Human-Centred CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing).- 13. Professional Knowledge and the Limits of Automation in Administrations.- The Problem.- Learning from Experience and the Computerization of Administrative Work.- Distributive Effects of the Use of New Technology.- Substitutive Effects of the Use of New Technology.- Conclusions.- 14. The Changing Nature of the Engineering Craft Apprenticeship System in the United Kingdom.- The 1960s to the Present Day.- The Engineering Craft Job Structure.- Training for Engineering Craft Skills.- Conclusions.- 15. Delegation and Decentralization - Computer Systems as Tools for Instruction and Improved Service to Clients.- Delegation and Central Control in the Norwegian National Insurance Service.- Instruction and Quality of Service.- Information Technology and the Decentralized Organizational Structure.- Quality of Service and the Importance of Direct Contact with the Public.- Conclusion.- 16. Applying Expert Systems Technology: Division of Labour and Division of Knowledge.- New Paradigm or More of the Same?.- Codifying Domain Data.- Experiences from Applied Expert Systems.- The Flexibility Myth.- The Explanation Problem.- ES Amplification of the Organizational Culture.- Concluding Advice to System Designers.
97 citations
TL;DR: The authors showed that the behaviour of drivers in the presence of child pedestrians is more closely related to the objective risk, which is very low, than to the subjective risk which drivers tend to think is rather high.
Abstract: It is often assumed that behaviour is more directly determined by subjective estimates of risk than by objective risk. While this may be the case for events about which there is little experience such as nuclear accidents, it is certainly not the case for everyday events such as the risks encountered on the road. For example, we have shown that the behaviour of drivers in the presence of child pedestrians is more closely related to the objective risk, which is very low, than to the subjective risk, which drivers tend to think is rather high. These relationships can be explained in the same way as other discrepancies between tacit knowledge demonstrated in skilled behaviour and conscious verbally elicited knowledge. When behaviour is well practised and automatic it does not require conscious control. Under these circumstances, conscious verbal ‘knowledge’ may be a reflection of social stereotypes rather than having any close relationship with the tacit knowledge which is controlling behaviour. Whe...
52 citations
01 Jan 1988
TL;DR: This chapter describes what qualitative physics is, why one should be doing it, and where it came from and discusses some open problems in qualitative physics.
Abstract: Publisher Summary
Qualitative physics is concerned with representing and reasoning about the physical world. The goal of qualitative physics is to capture both the commonsense knowledge of the person on the street and the tacit knowledge underlying the quantitative knowledge used by engineers and scientists. The key to qualitative physics is to find ways to represent continuous properties of the world by discrete systems of symbols. One can always quantize something continuous, but not all quantizations are equally useful. One way to state the idea is the relevance principle: The distinctions made by a quantization must be relevant to the kind of reasoning performed. This chapter describes what qualitative physics is, why one should be doing it, and where it came from. It discusses some open problems in qualitative physics.
51 citations
01 Jun 1988
TL;DR: In this paper, what is "tacit knowledge" and what role does it play in working life, and what implications does it hold for understanding the implications of expert systems for working life.
Abstract: What is “Tacit knowledge”? What role does it play in working life? What implications does it hold for understanding, for example, implications of expert systems for working life? What do philosophers of science have to learn from working life studies?
44 citations
TL;DR: It is suggested that nurse education acknowledge the importance of ‘tacit knowledge’ in Nurse Education curricula and develop the practising nurse’s skill in recognising the important of integrating ‘Tacit Knowledge” in the decision process about patient care.
34 citations
TL;DR: The paper demonstrates the crucial role of practice in ‘rule-following’ in the real world and challenges the notion of the ‘rules-model’ as put forward by Logical Positivists.
Abstract: This paper discusses the interrelationship between wisdom, science and craft from the perspective of the Wittgenstein concept of tacit knowledge. It challenges the notion of the ‘rules-model’ as put forward by Logical Positivists, and shows the limitation of this model for describing the tacit dimension of knowledge. The paper demonstrates the crucial role of practice in ‘rule-following’ in the real world. It is held that ‘to follow a rule’ is to practice a custom, a usage or an institutional practice. Hence, rules can only exist as a link in social life.
27 citations
01 Jan 1988
TL;DR: The article uses the Scandinavian tradition, with its roots in a Labor Process Approach, as a way to analyze the meaning of cooperation for workplace democracy and its implication for the design of computer support.
Abstract: During the last decade, literature about work has increasingly focused on the importance of collective communication, tacit knowledge, and group activities. The idea of designing computer support for group-based work activities, which we loosely call 'cooperative work', is a useful and challenging one, for it represents a break from design approaches that focused on centralized and bureaucratic systems of communication and control.To get a clearer idea of the meaning of cooperative work, this article will look at historical patterns of work organization and management strategies. It will contrast user-centered concepts of cooperative work, with the idea of seeing cooperative work in the context of democracy in the workplace. The focus on workplace democracy has been a main theme in the Scandinavian systems tradition. The article uses the Scandinavian tradition, with its roots in a Labor Process Approach as a way to analyze the meaning of cooperation for workplace democracy and its implication for the design of computer support.
23 citations
TL;DR: The authors contend that conceptions of the importance of professional status are assimilated during work experience and the necessity and importance of role modelling, role repetition and interactions with a professional group are supported by findings from the literature and the authors' current research.
01 Jan 1988
TL;DR: In this paper, the presuppositions and specific character of practical knowledge in different spheres are discussed, and the successive chapters fall into four interrelated groups: (1) those dealing with general theoretical problems associated with knowledge and practice and their interrelations; (2) those relating with habit, learning, technique and skill as social phenomena, phenomena tied to socially established traditions and customs; (3) those that dealing with that special kind of practical know-how which is manifested in our use of language; and (4) those playing an important role in the sphere of art.
Abstract: More than forty years after Gilbert Ryle published his paper on "Knowing How and Knowing That" in 1945, 1 the problem of practical knowledge has still failed to establish for itself a secure position in the field of problems dealt with by analytic philosophers. Thus even today it can safely be asserted that it is discursive or theoretical knowledge, knowledge linguistically expressed, above all knowledge in the form of propositions, that holds centre stage in analytic treatments of epistemology and cognition. The present volume, which consists of treatments of the presuppositions and specific character of practical knowledge in different spheres, is an attempt to fill this gap. The successive chapters fall into four interrelated groups: (1) those dealing with general theoretical problems associated with knowledge and practice and their interrelations ; (2) those dealing with habit, learning, technique and skill as social phenomena, phenomena tied to socially established traditions and customs; (3) those dealing with that special kind of practical knowledge which is manifested in our use of language; and (4) those dealing with the role of practical knowledge and of tradition in the sphere of art.
01 Jun 1988
TL;DR: Present production techniques do not provide an environment for the development of skills in training hence the retention of an apprenticeship model is fundamental as “The experiences of the senses and practical intellect are perhaps an essential complement and prerequisite of the successful automation of industry”.
Abstract: Behind the concept of the automated factory lies the view of knowledge in which all human thought and action can be logically described in a formalized language, and in which all conceivable activities are predictable. So far all attempts to realize this vision have refuted this as being the case. The problem with automating propositional knowledge can be illustrated in analogy to the use of formulae at the expense of practice which means an enormous loss in association material when it comes to tackling problems. It is important to limit use of formalizations to ensure freedom of action through the ability to have a feel for things. Present production techniques do not provide an environment for the development of skills in training hence the retention of an apprenticeship model is fundamental as “The experiences of the senses and practical intellect are perhaps both an essential complement and prerequisite of the successful automation of industry”. (Emile, Rousseau)
01 Sep 1988
TL;DR: The focus of this paper is on design and evaluation techniques supporting active end-user involvement in Information System (IS) development based on rapid prototyping with Fourth Generation Systems and three proposals on techniques to meet these requirements are given.
Abstract: The focus of this paper is on design and evaluation techniques supporting active end-user involvement in Information System (IS) development based on rapid prototyping with Fourth Generation Systems. The paper discusses experiences on the development and use of mainly two sorts of prototypes denoted horisontal and vertical prototypes. The experiences result from an interview study, carried out by the author and two colleagues, in nine Danish development projects. A central result from the study is that users did not give sufficient response on presented horisontal prototypes. Moreover, unexpected iterations became necessary in most of the projects studied although horisontal prototypes had been accepted by the users. In contrast vertical prototypes, which are capable of handling realistic data from the use domain, appeared to stimulate extensive and constructive response from users before the final system tests. These observations lead to the daim that the developers should be aware of the tacit knowledge which plays an important role in users' work practices. To utilise the users' tacit knowledge, the design techniques based on prototyping should involve the end-users more actively, and the evaluation techniques should support testing in a work-like setting early in the development process. Three proposals on techniques to meet these requirements are given. The first proposal is aimed at having end-user representatives participating in certain design activities where Fourth Generation Systems are being used. The second proposal is aimed at utilising the potential of simulating functionality behind horisontal prototypes. The final proposal is aimed at performing ongoing evaluation activities in conjunction with design activities.
01 Jan 1988
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present some considerations from the Danish part of the project: "Comprehensive Criteria and Exemplary Prototype of a Human-centred Computer-integrated Manufacturing System".
Abstract: This paper presents some considerations from the Danish part of the project: “Comprehensive Criteria and Exemplary Prototype of a Human-centred Computer-integrated Manufacturing System”.