Knowledge restructuring through case processing: The key to generalise expertise development theory across domains?

In many domains evidence exists that expertise development goes along with the adaptation of cognitive structures and processes. Whilst it is generally assumed that expertise and its acquisition is domain-specific, there are nevertheless similarities across domains that may evoke comparable processes and lead to similar cognitive restructuring. The “Knowledge Restructuring through Case Processing” (KR-CP) theory is proposed as a domain-general framework that takes into account similarities and differences between domains in order to explain corresponding processes and performances of professionals in different domains. The KR-CP theory is based on the assumption that dealing with complex cases plays a major role in many professional domains and allows for cognitive adaptations to routine as well as novel situations. The focus of this review is to investigate the capacity of this assumption to explain expertise development in multiple domains. Starting from the domain of medicine, in which such outcomes have been extensively studied, three further domains are analysed. Evidence is reviewed from counselling and psychotherapy, business management, and law. Thereby specific methodological complications emerge concerning the criteria for expert selection, the definition of levels of expertise, or the degree of authenticity of participants' tasks. Nevertheless, direct and strong indications for restructuring knowledge into scripts and macro-concepts could be identified in all three domains. To further substantiate the KR-CP theory, studies are needed that explicitly address the comparison of case processing in different domains. •We formulated a domain-general framework that takes similarities and differences between professional domains into account.•Studies in three different domains (psychotherapy and counselling, business management and law) were analysed.•The assumption that case processing shapes students’ and experts’ knowledge structures was tested.•Similarities in case formats and processing appear to result in similarities in knowledge structures across domains.•What individuals perceive as ‘a case’ in their domain depends on expertise level, theoretical school and professional role.