The ESTE™ Framework (Figure 1) facilitates the exploration of one’s innate interests or preference in entrepreneurship, science, technology, or engineering. If you are familiar, or hopefully getting familiar, with the ESTE™ journey, you understand the differentiation between these different domains that also align with certain ways of thinking and behaving.

The ESTE™ Framework can also be regarded as more of a spectrum or continuum, as opposed to a box with definitive lines where Scientific can overlap and co-exist with Technological, which in turn can overlap and co-exist with Engineering, and so on (Figure 2).

So, within the spectrum of ESTE™, one can engage in thinking and problem solving that crosses and extracts relevant parts from the different domains or disciplines, rendering a solution that addresses both scope and breadth. In other words, disciplinary boundaries are crossed, engaged, and leveraged at its deepest level to generate the best solution (Figure 3).

Research shows that the difference between novices and experts resides in how an expert notices, organizes, represents, interprets, and retrieves information. ESTE™ Leverage accelerates the development of novice problem solving to expert problem solving by enforcing several attributes:

• Problem Classification – rather than choosing a solution based on a superficial assessment at a high-level, ESTE™ enables problem solvers to look deeper and broader for a solution that is comprehensive in scope and breadth.

  • For example, when we embark on finding a solution to a problem, we can begin by assigning our working assumptions to the Science domain and ‘unknowns’. Then, we can find the connections in the Technology domain and our ‘knowns’. Perhaps our potential solutions will align more in the Engineering domain. And, then we create, invent, ideate, and free associate our collective solution with the mindset of an Entrepreneur.

• Automaticity – ESTE™ promotes deep understanding of problems that over time become fluent or ‘second-nature’ for the problem solver. Problem classification after consistently using the ESTE™ Framework model will foster automaticity.

• Self-efficacy – ESTE™ promotes individuality and innate talents while also valuing contributions to group settings. Self-leadership and efficacy are necessary attributes to ensure individual as well as team success. For more on relational thinking in the context of team dynamics, see blog, How Does ESTE™ Help Me Relate on a Team?

Contrary to its implied label, being an expert does not mean that one knows everything. In fact, Dreyfuss describes an expert as one whose actions are driven more innately or by intuition rather than by a comprehensive knowledge base.

The Dreyfuss Model, developed by brothers Hubert and Stuart Dreyfuss at the University of California Berkeley in 1980, describes how individuals progress through 5 stages of development in terms of their acquisition of skills and learning progression:

1. Novice - adheres to rules or guidelines and needs supervision

2. Advanced Beginner - can apply rules to new situations with less supervision

3. Competent - understands that many situations don’t follow rules

4. Proficient - can select a course of action for any situation

5. Expert - action driven by intuition with the ability to make subtle and refined discriminations

To take the concept of expertise one step further, an adaptive expert is one who becomes metacognitive about their learning such that they continue to pursue expansion of their knowledge and experience. In other words, our expertise, means we have now become our own teacher.

How to leverage the ESTE™ Framework in your progression from a novice to expert stage.

1. When learning something new, identify your ESTE™ domain to understand where you are the happiest. Where do you find yourselves gravitating?

2. Use this area to anchor the joy you’ll find in learning the new topic.

3. Explore the other ESTE™ domains – what previous experiences have placed you in the domains outside of your preferred domain? What are the common denominators between your previous experiences and your new topic of interest?

4. How can you leverage past experiences and apply them to the current new topic and/or new domain?

[National Research Council 2000. How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/9853; Felder RM and Brent R 2016.Teaching and Learning STEM: A Practical Guide. Jossey-Bass; Dreyfuss SE. The Five-Stage Model of Adult Skill Acquisition. Bulletin of Science Technology & Society 2004; 24:177]

ESTE® Leverage - founded in the belief that Entrepreneurship, Science, Technology, and Engineering are innate in each of us - grounded in the science of learning & assessment – dedicated to the realized potential in every individual.