User:Drrrobertson/Deliberate Practice

Deliberate Practice is sometimes referred to as deep practice. It requires more than simple repetition of the skill being learned. Deliberate practice requires mindfulness and reflection with a long term commitment to skill advancement.

History
According to K. Anders Ericsson, an expert in deliberate practice, research by Adriaan de Groot and Chase and Simon (comparing the performance of experts and beginners generated a great deal of research leading to the examination of specifically what is involved in achieving excellence. In the 1980's there was a surge of books published about topics such as exceptionally creative individuals, prodigies (, and exceptional performance and performers. The public took particular interest in savant syndrome as shown in the movie Rain Man and child prodigies as shown in the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer. Savants are able to achieve mastery specific areas such as mathematics, music and games such as chess even though they have low ability in most other areas of life. Some experts argue that savants have still received the same amount of deliberate practice as other masters and were able to completely focus neglecting other areas. As for child prodigies they argue the child been emersed in the skill their entire lives and have received many hours of deliberate practice. K. Anders Ericsson also notes that the emergence of computers sparked interest in artificial intelligence which generated additional research in mastery. Additionally, the popularity of sports has generated a large amount research in practice and ultimately deliberate practice.

Theorists
Sir Francis Galton was the first scientist to investigate common causes of excellence. His research led him to conclude three factors are required to achieve excellence: innate ability, eagerness to work, and "an adequate power of doing a great deal of very laborious work". His work inspired further research into the type of work or practice required to achieve excellence. Psychologist K. Anders Ericsson has been a pioneer in researching deliberate practice. He is the most current and commonly cited expert in deliberate practice. Howard Gardner has debated with Ericsson over whether deliberate practice is a sufficient explanation for excellence. Gardner credits multiple intelligences for excellence. He argues individuals are born with innate pre-dispositions to explore certain areas which are: linguistic, musical, spatial, logical-mathematical, bodily kinesthetic, and interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence. Shin'ichi Suzuki argued that every child can achieve excellence with the proper training.

Defining Deliberate Practice
"Ericsson explains deliberate practice as continually practicing a skill at increasingly more challenging levels of performance with the intention to master it. Ericsson describes the process of deliberate practice as follows: The acquisition of expert performance extends over years and even decades, but improvement of performance is not an automatic consequence of additional experience. Merely performing the same activities repeatedly on a regular daily schedule will not lead to further change once a physiological and cognitive adaptation to the current demands have been achieved. The principal challenge for attaining expert performance is that further improvements require continuously increased challenges that raise performance beyond its current level. The engagement in these selected activities designed to improve one’s current performance is referred to as deliberate practice. Given that these practice activities are to be outside the aspiring experts’ current performance, these activities create mistakes and failures in spite of the performers’ full concentration and effort— at least when practice on a new training task is initiated.” (p. 116) Geoff Colvin explains eight aspects of deliberate practice in his article Why Talent Is Overrated which are: 1) Deliberate practice is designed specifically to improve performance 2) Deliberate practice can be repeated a lot 3) Feedback on results is continuously available 4) It's highly demanding mentally 5) It's hard 6) Set goals Before the work 7) Self-observation during the work 8) Self-evaluations after the work

Deliberate Practice vs. Practice
Deliberate practice is different from simple Practice (learning method) because it requires awareness and reflection. Practice is simply repeating the necessary components to complete a skill. For example, kicking a soccer ball at goal over and over without thought. Deliberate practice requires repetition but in addition it requires thought and reflection. Daniel Coyle found a critical aspect of excellence is learning from mistakes. He noticed that individuals who excelled would often times be noticably aware of their mistakes and make immediate corrections. Going back to example of soccer deliberate practice would entail paying attention to the corrections that need to be made and then making those corrections. Individuals involved in deliberate practice are likely to have a increasingly challenging training plan that has been developed to promote advancement and they are highly commited to following that plan. Someone involved in simple practice would likely be repeating the same training exercises over and over again without attention to change or advancement.

Research and Application
Majority of research on deliberate practice is related to mathematics, sports, music, chess but it is expanding to include professional careers and education. Daniel Coyle gives great examples from his observations of these areas in his book The Talent Code of individuals in sports, music, and chess achieve greatness. Like Ericsson he found a certain amount of practice must be dedicated to development of a skill (Typically around ten years). He observed that in addition to certain types of environments and coaching that development must involve deliberate and commited practice in order to achieve excellence. Anique B. H. De Bruin, a cognitive psychologist, has completed a large amount of current research on deliberate practice and chess. A lot of her research looks at the components of deliberate practice that involve self-Explanation, self-monitoring, and self-regulation. Van de Wiel and her colleauges (2011) recently completed a study on deliberate practice in medicine and how physicians learn. A recent chapter from the American Psychological Association (APA) educational psychology handbook explores enhancing students’ performance in traditional education and the implications from the expert–performance approach and deliberate practice.