Deliberate Practice

By: Carol Grant-Watt, Head of School

On one of my walkabouts the past few weeks I encountered our students participating in the outdoor education planning and orientation day and stopped to watch and ask questions. The first was a group of Elementary School students learning to put up a tent. For some, this was a challenge and for all, it became a matter of organizing, delegating, and doing. There were different leadership styles on display and different approaches to the problem at hand. Teachers gave great instruction, suggestions, and encouragement, and ultimately all the tents were completed.  The outcomes were similar but not the process. That was the magic in what I was watching – individual students figuring out multiple ways to meet the goal together. 

I mention this because my adult self would view this task as fairly simple. As I reflected on what the students were doing, it occurred to me that for many of them, it was their first time setting up a tent and like all of us, we are not experts out of the gate. New learning needed to occur and this involved making connections and mistakes, and enduring a little frustration at times. The teachers provided a safe environment for the students to learn and find success.   

A second group was learning how to make a fire.  As an avid fan of the show “Survivor”, I know that fire is essential and it was exciting to see our young campers learning this skill. As an observer, I listened to the instructions given by the teachers and the rationale for the steps taken. Once again, the complexity of this task dawned on me. Strategy and science mixed with, a little bit of luck and the right amount of oxygen provided by the fire-maker brought it all together. Of course, once it is mastered the task becomes easier; however, it takes time and patience to learn new skills. 

Some students mastered the task very well and others took longer. It was also important to note the conditions were set to provide the maximum opportunity for success.  What would our young campers do in less than ideal conditions?  Success is based on many factors such as prior fire-making experience, motivation, conditions of materials, confidence, and a myriad of other factors.  I imagined the students translating this experience to a camping adventure when the importance of making it happen had higher stakes.  Practice is important but are there other factors that are equally as important? 

Malcolm Gladwell popularized the idea of the “10,000-hour rule of practice” in his book Outliers (2011).  In a 1993 paper, Ericsson and two colleagues described their research into the role of “deliberate practice” in the success of violin students.  In a recent article on EdSurge  (May 5, 2020, https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-05-05-researcher-behind-10-000-hour-rule-says-good-teaching-matters-not-just-practice  ) Jeffrey Young interviewed Ericsson  who had this to say:

“Practice is important, and it’s surprising how much it takes to master something complicated. But Ericsson’s research suggests that someone could practice for thousands of hours and still not be a master performer. They could be outplayed by someone who practiced less but had a teacher who showed them just what to focus on at a key moment in their practice regimen.”

So what lessons can educators take away from this scholar’s research on teaching and learning? And what advice does Ericsson have for professors shifting to online teaching during COVID-19?

As Gladwell noted, they found that it took a remarkable amount of time on such practice—some 10 years’ worth or 10,000 hours to gain mastery. But what Gladwell left out is the role of the “deliberate” practice, meaning work under the guidance of a teacher.

What worked best for that, says Ericsson, is for students to receive personal instruction with a teacher who is able to assess them individually and determine “what would be the next step for [them] to actually develop and improve.” Otherwise, students might stall out, despite hours of practice.”

As I take you back to my two outdoor learning examples, I will take this opportunity to thank the dedicated and skilled teachers who I work with every day.  Watching them work with students at various places of mastery and learning, creating safe environments to learn new concepts and skills and to enrich and individualize is a remarkable thing to see in practice. I want to assure you that our accountability to the individual nature of student learning is something we all take seriously. With this in mind, I am excited to share in the coming weeks our focus on deep learning and engagement in our daily work.