To practice and practice developing one or more skills, you need to choose an effective and targeted strategy . The problem is that often there are many potential strategies for practicing . So how to choose the best one? How to identify and select the one that best suits your needs?
'For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.'
Aristotle
This week i have already spoken more generally - of how you can be a good teacher or coach, but in this article I intend to focus on a particular method of practice to develop skills you already possess.
How to practice: here are the aspects of you should focus on -:
- Repetition and Effort:
Does the practice you have chosen bring you to work at the height of your ability, to repeat, to force yourself and make sacrifices? Here is an example scenario: Master A chooses only one student to write the tables on the blackboard. Master B creates a "game" in which each multiplication is verbally required for the whole class, so only one student is called to answer. The best result is obtained by master B because he creates as many efforts as there are students : everyone must strive and solve a problem . In the class of teacher A, instead, only one student strives, while all the others can rest and limit themselves to observing.
- Commitment:
Is the practice engaging? Do you require extreme care? Do you use emotions as a push towards achieving goals? Example: two piano students attempt to learn a short but difficult passage of a piece. Pianist A plays the song 20 times. Pianist B tries to play the piece perfectly - without errors - five times in a row, starting from scratch every time he makes a mistake. The best result is the pianist B because the method is more involving . Playing a song twenty times in a row is boring and becomes a routine based solely on the goal of reaching twenty repetitions. Engaging to perfectly play the passage for 5 consecutive times, however, is much more stimulating.
- Value:
Does the task on which you exercise relate directly to the skill you wish to develop? Example: two basketball teams often miss free throws. Team A tries free throws at the end of training with each player who only makes 30 consecutive free throws. Team B exercises intermittently to practice free throws during a training game, with players who have suffered a foul under pressure and tired, just as happens during official matches. The best result is team B because the players train themselves to build a real skill ie to make free throws while exhausted and under pressure . No player in a basketball game must make 30 consecutive free throws!
- Accurate and rapid feedback:
Practicing effectively also involves receiving a flow of accurate and detailed information: how do you work well? Where are you wrong? Scenario: two students practice to improve their test results for admission to a closed-ended faculty. Student A undergoes a test version of the test and receives the result after one week. Student B undergoes a trial version for each section of the test, evaluating himself and reviewing each part in detail as soon as it is completed. The best result is obtained by the student B, who can count on a system of accurate, direct and immediate feedback . Knowing immediately if you made a mistake or if you answered well, tends to remain imprinted, while discovering it in the distance of days it does not help much.
Conclusions
The basic idea of the method is simple: whenever you find yourself having to choose between several strategies to practice, choose the one that maximizes all four aspects described above . In this way you can improve the quality of your practice and practice profitably , channeling your efforts towards an effective and rapid learning strategy .