Practice (learning method)


Practice is the act of rehearsing a behavior repeatedly, to help learn and eventually master a skill. Sessions scheduled for the purpose of rehearsing and performance improvement are called practices. They are engaged in by sports teams, bands, individuals, etc., as in, "He went to football practice every day after school".
In British English, practice is the noun and practise is the verb, but in American English it is now common for practice to be used both as a noun and a verb.

Etymology

The word "practice" derives from the Greek "πρακτική", feminine of "πρακτικός", "fit for or concerned with action, practical", and that from the verb "πράσσω", "to achieve, bring about, effect, accomplish".

Common types

Some common ways practice is applied:
How well one improves with practice depends on several factors, such as the frequency it is engaged in, and the type of feedback that is available for improvement. If feedback is not appropriate, then the practice tends to be ineffective or even detrimental to learning. If a student does not practice often enough, reinforcement fades, and he or she is likely to forget what was learned. Therefore, practice is often scheduled, to ensure enough of it is performed to reach one's training objectives. How much practice is required depends upon the nature of the activity, and upon each individual. Some people improve on a particular activity faster than others. Practice in an instructional setting may be effective if repeated only 1 time or 3 times, or it may be practiced many times before evaluation.

Deliberate practice

Psychologist K. Anders Ericsson, a professor of Psychology at Florida State University, was a pioneer in researching deliberate practice and what it means. According to Ericsson:
People believe that because expert performance is qualitatively different from a normal performance the expert performer must be endowed with characteristics qualitatively different from those of normal adults. We agree that expert performance is qualitatively different from normal performance and even that expert performers have characteristics and abilities that are qualitatively different from or at least outside the range of those of normal adults. However, we deny that these differences are immutable, that is, due to innate talent. Only a few exceptions, most notably height, are genetically prescribed. Instead, we argue that the differences between expert performers and normal adults reflect a life-long period of deliberate effort to improve performance in a specific domain.

One of Ericsson's core findings was that how expert one becomes at a skill has more to do with how one practices than with merely performing a skill a large number of times. An expert breaks down the skills that are required to be expert and focuses on improving those skill chunks during practice or day-to-day activities, often paired with immediate coaching feedback. Another important feature of deliberate practice lies in continually practicing a skill at more challenging levels with the intention of mastering it. Deliberate practice is also discussed in the books Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin, The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, by Angela Duckworth, Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell, and Deliberate Practice for Psychotherapists, by Tony Rousmaniere.
Ericsson also believes that some anatomical characteristics were believed to be fixed traits in the past. Genes rarely dictate what traits will be. However, his study has proven that the characteristics have the ability to change and adapt in response to intense practice over multiple years. Ericsson's statements on practice also support the 10 year rule. Ericsson believes that elite performance is the product of maximal effort over at least a decade. The maximal effort is described as using deliberate practice in order to improve performance.
Duckworth describes how deliberate practice affects education, motivation, and learning outcomes. In a presentation she gave at the American Educational Research Conference in 2014, she spoke about the importance of grit – of students' focusing on material with which they struggle. In her view, grit allows a student to persevere and succeed in the face of adversity. Duckworth says that if a student can apply grit in their academic work, their effort will increase. Duckworth says that effort is equally important as talent in achieving academic goals. In a study she conducted at the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C, she found that the students who used the grit tactic tended to advance to the finals.
Two recent articles in Current Directions in Psychological Science criticize deliberate practice and argue that, while it is necessary for reaching high levels of performance, it is not sufficient, with other factors such as talent being important as well. More recently, a meta-analysis found the correlation coefficient between deliberate practice and performance was 0.40, the size of which is large compared to other predictor variables. In addition, Malcolm Gladwell's point-of-view about deliberate practice is different from Ericsson's view: in a May 2016 Freakonomics podcast interview, he said, "He's a hard practice guy, and I'm a soft practice guy." Gladwell claims that talent is important with an intentional dedication to practice and having a support system is vital to produce superior outcomes. It is not all about methodical effort as Ericsson claims. In Malcolm Gladwell's book, one chapter is called "The Matthew Effect."
This effect describes how different biases can affect an individual's performance. When someone is practising a skill, especially with deliberate practice, coaches play an important role in how their practices go. If a coach sets high expectations and encourages their learners, the individual is more likely to take more from practice and perform better. The role of coaches is important during deliberate practice. Coaches can strengthen desired behaviors through encouragement, positive reinforcement, and technical instruction. Fostering a positive learning environment through deliberate practice is key for all individuals involved. It is also important for coaches to lay out their practices with specific skill training, variable practice, and training of open and closed skills. These factors lead to an intentional, deliberate practice, which ultimately leads to better learning and performance.
According to the American Psychological Association, the purpose of deliberate practice is to achieve high levels of expert performance. Studies also show that due to deliberate practice, an individual will experience high achievement. This is due to memory, cognition, practice, persistence, and muscle response that all improves through deliberate practice.

Characteristics of deliberate practice

Practice changes the human body physically and psychologically as it increases in skill level. Skills that are learned through deliberate practice are specific and time spent practicing is crucial for the individual. If an individual spent a short amount of time with high intensity during practice, they are not as likely to succeed as an individual with a long-term commitment to the practice and skill.
According to Ericsson, a practice session needs to follow these criteria in order to be considered "deliberate":
  1. The task should be well defined, with a clear goal, and should be completely understood by the student.
  2. The student should be able to do the task by himself.
  3. The student should be able to access immediate feedback about his performance, so they can make the changes needed to improve.
  4. The student should be able to replicate the tasks or similar tasks repeatedly.
  5. The task must be designed by a teacher and must be performed following a clear instruction by the teacher.
If the practice session follows all the criteria except for the last one, then, according to Ericsson, should be called "purposeful practice".

Rebuttal to the 10,000 hour rule

Malcolm Gladwell developed the highly popular 10,000 hour rule. This rule states that if an individual spends 10,000 hours of full concentration and intense effort in their certain skill, they will become an expert at it. However, Anders Ericsson's article focuses on how the amount of time does not affect the elite status but how deliberate the practice is. Ericsson states "it is now quite clear that the number of hours of merely engaging in activities, such as playing music, chess and soccer, or engaging in professional work activities has a much lower benefit for improving performance than deliberate practice".

Behavioral versus cognitive theories of deliberate practice

Behavioral theory would argue that deliberate practice is facilitated by feedback from an expert that allows for successful approximation of the target performance. Feedback from an expert allows the learner to minimize errors and frustration that results from trial-and-error attempts. Behavioral theory does not require delivery of rewards for accurate performance; the expert feedback in combination with the accurate performance serve as the consequences that establish and maintain the new performance.
In cognitive theory, excellent performance results from practicing complex tasks that produce errors. Such errors provide the learner with rich feedback that results in scaffolding for future performance. Cognitive theory explains how a learner can become an expert.