Craft skills

Abstract

This paper will argue that craft skills, although well established in practice since antiquity, have received little formal academic attention until fairly recently. They are, however, an important and under-researched area of understanding. This paper locates them within a grounded knowledge modelling framework, which includes a description of how methods such as task analysis and cognitive task analysis can be used to elicit and describe craft skills systematically.

We conclude that systematic analysis of craft skills in this manner can be used to improve integration of craft skills within formal education policy and provision, as well as within training. We also identify scope for improving support for managers via systematic use of physical aides-memoires to provide cognitive support, in a manner that is derived from practices within physical craft skills.