{"id":5752,"date":"2020-07-28T09:00:01","date_gmt":"2020-07-28T14:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=5752"},"modified":"2020-07-29T18:47:50","modified_gmt":"2020-07-29T23:47:50","slug":"deliberate-practice-doesnt-align-with-schooling-well-not-precisely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.braindevs.net\/blog\/deliberate-practice-doesnt-align-with-schooling-well-not-precisely\/","title":{"rendered":"Deliberate Practice Doesn\u2019t Align with Schooling (Well: Not Precisely)"},"content":{"rendered":"

With his research into expertise<\/em> \u2013 concert-level violinists, world-ranked chess players, elite runners \u2013 Anders Ericsson more-or-less created a new field of study.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

How can we become amazingly awesome at challenging tasks? Ericsson has a system: deliberate practice<\/em>.<\/p>\n

As described in his book Peak<\/em> (written with Robert Pool), deliberate practice has four key components:<\/p>\n

Well defined, specific goals,<\/p>\n

Focus,<\/p>\n

Feedback (often from an expert, or an experienced teacher), and<\/p>\n

Getting out of your comfort zone.<\/p>\n

Gosh, that sounds a lot like school, doesn\u2019t it? If we could structure our school thinking according to Ericsson\u2019s research, perhaps we could help all our students become concert-level chemists, world-ranked fraction multipliers, and elite poetry analysts.<\/p>\n

In fact, we already try to do so much of this, don\u2019t we? We write goals on the board, encourage students to concentrate, give lots o\u2019 feedback, and encourage students to try new things.<\/p>\n

In other words: deliberate practice seems a perfect fit for schools. Obviously\u2026<\/p>\n

Or then again: maybe not.<\/p>\n

The Popular Mistakes<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Ericsson\u2019s work has been most popularized by Malclom Gladwell\u2019s book Outliers<\/em>. You might oversimplify that book with this sentence: \u201cThe Beatles succeeded so spectacularly because they practiced 10,000 hours in Berlin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peak<\/em> briskly summarizes Gladwell\u2019s inaccuracies:<\/p>\n

First<\/strong>: 10,000 hours is a catchy round number, but lots of other numbers would have been just as accurate. 10,000 hours applies to one category of budding experts (musicians) at a particular stage (the age of 20) of learning one specific skill (the violin).<\/p>\n

Second<\/strong>: even this much-touted number is correct only as an average<\/em>. Half of the violinists whose data went into this number has practiced LESS than 10,000 hours.<\/p>\n

Third<\/strong>: the Beatles weren\u2019t practicing<\/em>. They were performing<\/em>. Ericsson\u2019s research shows clearly: deliberate practice looks substantially different from ultimate successful performance.<\/p>\n

These inaccuracies \u2013 important in themselves \u2013 also remind us: if we want to apply Ericsson\u2019s research to our school work, we have to be more careful than Gladwell.<\/p>\n

With that guidance in mind, let\u2019s consider the fit between deliberate practice and education.<\/p>\n

The GOALS Are Different<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Research into deliberate practice focuses quite narrowly on specific kinds of learning.<\/p>\n

He studied people wanting to be world champions in one<\/strong> (and only<\/strong> one<\/em>) very specialized skill: chess, or hurdling, or concert piano playing.<\/p>\n

He did NOT study what most teachers do: helping students be good enough at one skill to move on to the next.<\/p>\n

For instance: I don\u2019t want my students to win the \u201cAngle-Side-Angle World Mathlympic Championship Gold Medal.\u201d I want them to understand angle-side-angle well enough to move on to side-angle-side; and, ultimately, well enough to solve complex geometry proofs.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want them to win more National Mann Booker Nobel Book Prizes than anyone else. I want them to write good enough Macbeth<\/em> essays so they\u2019ll write even better Kindred<\/em> essays.<\/p>\n

In fact, I don\u2019t want them to focus single-mindedly on any one thing. I want them to make gradual progress in all sorts of disciplines and skills: pottery, cooperation, Spanish, history, citizenship, driver\u2019s ed.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s possible<\/em> that deliberate practice will improve all kinds of learning \u2013 including school learning. But: let\u2019s not be like Gladwell and simply make that assumption.<\/p>\n

Our UNDERSTANDING OF TEACHING Is Different<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Ericsson puts it this way:<\/p>\n

One of the things that differentiates violin training from training in other areas \u2013 soccer, for example, or algebra \u2013 is that the set of skills expected of a violinist is quite standardized, as are many of the instruction techniques.<\/p>\n

Because most violin techniques are decades or even centuries old, the field has had the chance to zero in on the proper or \u201cbest\u201d way to hold the violin, to move the hand during vibrato, to move the bow during spiccato<\/em>, and so on.<\/p>\n

The various techniques may not be easy to master, but a student can be shown exactly what to do and how to do it. (Peak<\/em>, p. 91)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Does that sound like education to you? Heck, we can\u2019t get the field to agree on teaching strategies for one of education\u2019s most foundational skills: learning how to read<\/em>. Almost everything in our world is up for contentious debate.<\/p>\n

Note that Ericsson is explicit: instruction techniques for algebra do not fit the pattern he studies<\/em>. We don\u2019t have decades-old tried-and-true techniques for teaching algebra (or grammar, or bunting).<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why education is hanging out with psychology and neuroscience: to develop and understand new<\/em> techniques.<\/p>\n

The Role of FEEDBACK Is Different<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Ericsson\u2019s model follows a precise feedback pattern:<\/p>\n

The student practices a discrete skill.<\/p>\n

The teacher provides specific feedback.<\/p>\n

The student tries again, and improves.<\/p>\n

The student recognizes her immediate progress, and continues to grow.<\/p>\n

In education, however, the cause\/effect relationship between feedback and progress gets MUCH more complicated.<\/p>\n

Specifically, we know that short-term performance does not reliably predict long-term learning<\/em>. In a research review<\/a> that I cite often, Nick Soderstrom makes this important claim:<\/p>\n

\u201cImprovements in [short-term] performance can fail to yield significant [long-term] learning\u2014and, in fact, \u2026 certain manipulations can have opposite effects on learning and performance<\/em>.<\/strong>\u201d (Emphasis added)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In fact, we\u2019ve got an entire field of memory research that focuses on \u201cdesirable difficulties.\u201d The relevant headline: if students get everything right immediately, their work isn\u2019t difficult enough. We need them to be struggling more to ensure long-term learning.<\/p>\n

If Soderstrom and the \u201cdesirable difficulties\u201d team are right \u2013 and I certainly think they are \u2013 then the feedback pattern essential to deliberate practice doesn\u2019t align with the kind of teaching and learning that schools prioritize.<\/p>\n

We Think Differently about FUN<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Throughout Peak<\/em>, Ericsson and Pool emphasize that deliberate practice requires determination and focus, and rarely results in fun.<\/p>\n

Experts don\u2019t become experts because they enjoy<\/em> this work more. They keep going despite their lack of enjoyment.<\/p>\n

For instance, he describes a study of participants taking a singing lesson. Those participants who were NOT professional singers felt relaxed, energized, and elated<\/em> after the lesson; it allowed them to express themselves in a way they didn\u2019t usually get to do.<\/p>\n

However, the participants who WERE professional singers felt relaxed and energized, but NOT elated. They were working, not expressing themselves. In Ericsson\u2019s words, \u201cthere was focus but no joy\u201d (p. 151).<\/p>\n

Schools, however, want at least a little fun \u2013 maybe even a little joy \u2013 during the day. We needn\u2019t focus excessively on making everything delightful. But, more than a deliberate practice model, we should keep in mind our students\u2019 rightful need for connection and even elation.<\/p>\n

In Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n

First<\/em>: although I\u2019m arguing that deliberate practice doesn\u2019t necessarily promote the kind of learning that schools undertake, I do (of course!) admire this research pool, and Ericsson\u2019s towering role in it.<\/p>\n

Second<\/em>: Education suffers from a strange problem right now: we\u2019ve got too many varieties of plausible-sounding guidance<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The problem isn\u2019t finding something to try. It\u2019s deciding which of the dozens (hundred?) of options to choose.<\/p>\n

I certainly think that a deliberate practice model might be useful for teachers to know \u2013 especially teachers who focus on creating world-level experts.<\/p>\n

But: I don\u2019t think it should be the primary educational model for most of us.<\/p>\n

We should think about managing working memory overload<\/em>. And fostering attention<\/em>. And creating the optimal level of desirable difficulty<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s not be like Gladwell and simplistically apply Ericsson\u2019s model to our work. Let\u2019s find the parts that fit us perfectly, and use those to help students reach their Peak.<\/p>\n

\n

If you’re the sort of person who reads this blog, you’re also the sort of person likely to know that Anders Ericsson passed away<\/a> at the beginning of July. In addition to being a world-renowned scientist, he was also famous for being an immensely kind person.<\/p>\n

Certainly that was our experience here at Learning and the Brain. We have so many reasons to miss him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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