ABSTRACT
During their lives most young people and adults acquire a remarkable range of skills and knowledge. These include oral language, reading, mathematics, sports, musical and artistic activities, geography, navigation skills and game playing, to mention just a few. Recent advances in understanding the development of skills and expertise suggest that there is some commonality in the way that we learn and become expert in a wide variety of different skills, including physical skills such as football and cognitive skills such as reading. This chapter is mainly concerned with cognitive skills and expertise, as these are especially important in education. It provides a review of what is known about the learning of skills and development of expertise and synthesizes fi ndings from theory and research.
