As the literature on expertise underscores, "thinking" or "metacognition" is a key factor in expertise. Dr. Cabrera, in this talk, discusses the weakness of 'encyclopedic' knowledge possessed by Ivy League students and harshly criticize them for they struggle to transfer those memorized knowledge. It could be said he addresses "a mile wide and an inch deep" approach taken by curriculum designers nowadays, which prevents deep understanding of issues that an expert is expected to have. According to him, "system is broken." As a result, he offers his own DSRP (Distinctions, Systems, Relationships, Perspectives) theory, which, in my opinion, summarizes what a "genuine expert" possesses in terms of knowledge transfer. Enjoy it!

Upon coming across this cartoon, I've felt an urge to share it with you because it touches on some relevant issues we've been discussing since the very beginning of the course. Please first click on the picture to enlarge it, and sorry for this inconvenience :)

You're welcome Seda :) It is even more depressing to know that this perception won't change as long as we live under today's economical perceptions. It is simply "be a part of the system or get ready to be called as marginal" :)

In this TED talk delivered by Nicholas Christakis, you can see how important the role of networks in our lives is. You will also be introduced to some visualization of network analyses which are gaining a crucial role in examining the connections among people or neurons.

Dr. Barron is a developmental psychologist at Stanford University. She mainly studies processes of collaborative learning. She is well-known for her 5-year-study documenting adolescents' learning ecologies. She is also the author of the article "When smart groups fail", which is one of the most cited articles in Journal of the Learning Sciences and one of the ground-breaking studies investigating collaborative interactions. Below, you can find the link for this study. Moreover, she is co-author of some influential books written by some other key learning scientists. You can also check for these publications from her online profiles provided below:

Her official Stanford page: https://ed.stanford.edu/faculty/barronbj

Her Google Scholar profile: http://scholar.google.com.tr/citations?user=V8bau84AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Her academia.edu profile: http://stanford.academia.edu/BrigidBarron

"When Smart Groups Fail" Article: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/S15327809JLS1203_1#.VDwST_mth2E

Professor James W. Pellegrino is a Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Illinois. He is, at the same time, co-director of Learning Sciences Research Institute. His main research interests lie within children's and adult's thinking and learning. With the aim of providing a deep understanding of the issues, he concentrates on the nature of learning, analyses of complex learning and environments, powerful technology tools. So far his research expertise has brought influential results including implications for practitioners and policy makers. He is also co-author of the books "Knowing What Students Know: The Science and Design of Educational Assessment" and "How people learn: Bridging research and practice". In order to have a better understanding of his key position in the learning sciences, please check the links given below:

A detailed profile: http://www.lsri.uic.edu/people/james-pellegrino

His ResearchGate profile: http://www.researchgate.net/profile/James_Pellegrino

An interview on Instructionally Integrated Testing: http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2014/03/05/ndia_pellegrinoqa.html