A new concept I have learned this week is the difference between practicing a skill to attain a sufficient level of achievement, and spending time in deliberate practice that will result in the development of talent. I have spent the last 12 months learning guitar and made great progress. However, I realise that to really excel in my chosen instrument, I need to spend more hours each week in deliberate practice to attain the musical proficiency needed to perform in front of an audience. Deliberate practice requires hours of observational learning, self-reflection, on-task skill refinement and coaching and feedback (O’Donnell et al., 2016).
Learning about deliberate practice and how to incorporate it into the classroom is important for teachers …show more content…
For example, if I was teaching students to play basketball and could see that some students were struggling with the basic elements of the game, I would break the learning down into simple steps and spend one lesson learning how to sufficiently dribble the basketball. Next, I would focus on shooting the basketball into the net, and then I would focus on defence and the students could practice how to block the ball when another player is shooting. By using this strategy I am breaking learning down into smaller steps and deliberately practicing just one aspect of that learning until the students have attained a proficiency before moving to another aspect. Rather than have the students learn all the elements of basketball at once, by breaking down the elements of the game and encouraging the students to participate in deliberate practice of particular skills, this will enable them to refine and become more proficient in playing basketball than if they were just to practice playing a basketball game every session without that specific learning. Plant, Ericsson, Hill & Asberg (2004), state that for deliberate learning to be successful, students need to be able to concentrate fully, be in an environment where they won’t be distracted, and to have access to the necessary resources needed to improve their skills. Although some of these requirements for deliberate practice may be hard to attain teaching a classroom of over 20 students, as a teacher I will endeavour to provide students with opportunities to improve their
Learning about deliberate practice and how to incorporate it into the classroom is important for teachers …show more content…
For example, if I was teaching students to play basketball and could see that some students were struggling with the basic elements of the game, I would break the learning down into simple steps and spend one lesson learning how to sufficiently dribble the basketball. Next, I would focus on shooting the basketball into the net, and then I would focus on defence and the students could practice how to block the ball when another player is shooting. By using this strategy I am breaking learning down into smaller steps and deliberately practicing just one aspect of that learning until the students have attained a proficiency before moving to another aspect. Rather than have the students learn all the elements of basketball at once, by breaking down the elements of the game and encouraging the students to participate in deliberate practice of particular skills, this will enable them to refine and become more proficient in playing basketball than if they were just to practice playing a basketball game every session without that specific learning. Plant, Ericsson, Hill & Asberg (2004), state that for deliberate learning to be successful, students need to be able to concentrate fully, be in an environment where they won’t be distracted, and to have access to the necessary resources needed to improve their skills. Although some of these requirements for deliberate practice may be hard to attain teaching a classroom of over 20 students, as a teacher I will endeavour to provide students with opportunities to improve their