Research was initiated because of dissatisfaction with the limitations of intelligence tests that lacked the ability to adequately measure practical intelligence and give value to it. In recent times, there has been a slow but steady research effort to consider the differences between practical and academic problem solving. The authors argue that Western culture has always been biased in favor of abstract over practical, the thinker over the doer. They argue for the validity and status of practical intelligence by laying a framework that begins with citing a definition of intelligence, which includes the practical aspect, and reporting on the Scribner model of practical thinking. Experience, in turn, operates with intelligence to produce expertise.
Expertise is explained with reference to studies on medical expertise.
However, expertise needs to be further distinguished. It can be viewed as an outcome or as a process. Adult educators need to consider how experience will make a person an expert. Overall, Tennant and Pogson offer food for thought on this topic.