Editorial: Pedagogic frailty and concept mapping

The model of pedagogic frailty adds cohesion to consideration of the factors that impinge upon teaching at university and which may inhibit innovation. The model was developed through the examination of expert knowledge structures using concept maps. In this editorial, we summarise the pedagogic frailty model and explain its relationship to the concept mapping tool. We emphasise the need to use excellent concept maps (succinct maps with high explanatory power) for the development of theory and the exploration of the ‘yet-to-be-known’. We introduce the papers in this special issue that each consider pedagogic frailty and/or concept mapping from different perspectives. This illustrates the utility of the frailty model and how it connects to a variety of well-established bodies of research that influence activities within universities at all levels.

Designing Decision Aids to Promote the Development of Expertise

ABSTRACT We investigate whether the use of decision aids that integrate experts' knowledge structures into their designs can effectively promote the acquisition of expert-like knowledge and improve future judgments. Results of two laboratory experiments (one involving 115 senior accounting students and one involving 78 master of accounting students) indicate that: (1) novice users of a decision aid that has an expert knowledge structure embedded into its interface make complex fraud risk assessments that are more similar to experts' risk assessments than do users of aids without expert knowledge structures; (2) users of a decision aid that has an expert knowledge structure embedded into its interface develop knowledge structures that are more similar to the knowledge structures of experts than do users of aids without expert knowledge structures; (3) knowledge structures mediate the relationship between decision aid design and judgment performance; and (4) novices develop expertise through decision aid use even when they are not instructed to learn from the decision aid.

Biology and Management of Dogfish Sharks

Abstract.—Spiny dogfish <em>Squalus acanthias </em>have historically been a prominent species in the Pacific Northwest. Overfishing, however, has resulted in the curtailment of some commercial dogfish fisheries in Washington State. Historically valuable for oil and also as a food fish, dogfish has nevertheless garnered the reputation of a trash fish for its predation on commercial and recreational species, and of a nuisance fish for damage caused to fishing gear. This study employs cultural consensus analysis to compare expert knowledge structures of recreational fishermen and fishery scientists concerning dogfish biology, ecology, and management and conservation in Puget Sound. Results show that fishermen and scientists share a common knowledge base. Cultural consensus findings have positive implications for the future development of hypotheses fundamental in scientific inquiry and also for regulatory and educational functions of dogfish management.