Second lesson we can learn from sports: Training and developing skills,

The first part of this series developed ideas around starting early and broadly in sports training. The second part deals with training and skills acquisition, and the development of expertise. From the ten rules we initially set, the ones we will address in this post are:

(1) A strategy of training as many students as possible in basic skills of the sport.
(4) Training occurs in stages beginning with basic skills, to specific competition skills, to expert performance skills.
(5) No one is excluded in early stages through aptitude or skills tests, but everyone has the opportunity to learn basic skills.
(6) Training is not limited to sport specific skills, but also includes character and psychological training.
(10) Skill levels, interest, and task commitment become more important as athletes get older and develop into expert or elite athletes.

One model that discusses the acquisition of skills under direction of an instructor, is the Dreyfus and Dreyfus Five Stage Model of Skill Acquisition. Dreyfus and Dreyfus published their book describing this model in 1980: A Five-stage Model of the Mental Activities Involved in Directed Skill Acquisition. http://stinet.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA084551&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf.

The five stages are: novice, advanced beginner, competence, proficiency, expert. In very short, what distinguish these stages are two things: how a person interacts with the rules of the task, and the volume of task features a person can handle.

A novice has to have the task broken into small, context-free features by the instructor and can recognize these features, because the instructor describes them (even demonstrates). For example, a child learning to play basketball, has to learn ball handling skills out of the context of the game itself. Also, the novice needs to have the instructor make the rules of the task explicit and judges his own performance by his adherence to the rules.

An advance beginner learns more features and examples of those features, and are able to recognize features not given by the instructor but that fits with the experience. This person knows performance rules, knows non-situational features, and recognizes situational aspects. He still judges his performance by edherence to rules. Performance is slow, uncoordinated, and laborious. In our basketball example: the young player can start to learn certain moves and features of the game, can run some drills, but still cannot play a game.

In competence, the features and aspects of the task become overwhelming. The learner starts creating hierarchical organizing categories to make decisions. The decisions have to do with reaching goals - the learner selects a plan, perspective, or goal and then selects features and
aspects most important to that goal, perspective, or plan. Choices between many options becomes important and creates uncertainty and necessity. Where Novice and Advanced Beginners are not concerned with results, just rule adherence, the competent performer is concerned with results – there is an emotional connection and responsibility for results. With experience competent performers start distinguishing between features and aspects that works in a given situation, and remembers the senses of opportunity, risk, expectations, threat. These memories (based in experience) become basis for proficiency. Our young basketball player can play games now, but still need a lot of coaching and makes many mistakes.

In proficiency the learner recognizes a situation as similar or different from previously experienced situations and can come up with an appropriate plan without conscious planning. The proficient learner sometimes experiences breakdowns in “seeing” due to in sufficient experience that lessens as experience and situational understanding increase. Our basketball player can now play games and only occasionally will make a mistake.

The expert understands, acts, and learns from results without any conscious awareness of the process because his database of classes of similar situations that require similar actions becomes immense. What is important about an expert is that her actions and choices relevant to the tasks happen with no conscious thought and no reference to the original rules - it is entirely internalized.

It seems to me that young sportsmen and women learn skills in their chosen sport in much the same way. The crucial understanding for us is that at any point along the acquisition of skills, a person may decide to participate at that skill level and progress no further. Progress along the continuum of skill acquisition occurs entirely voluntarily and due to effort and application and time spent in pursuing proficiency. As acquisition progresses, the effort required increases and task commitment becomes more and more important. It also seems to me that fewer and fewer people gain the higher levels of skill acquisition.

In the next post we will relate this information to learning in school.

I welcome comments to this blog. To make a comment, click on the envelope below marked "Comments."

First lesson in talent development from sports: Start young with everyone

This first discussion combines several of the ten strategies listed in the previous blog posting:
(1) A strategy of training as many students as possible in basic skills of the sport.
(2) Start young with opportunities to learn the sport and participate.
(3) Access to sports is open to everyone who may wish to participate.
(5) No one is excluded in early stages through aptitude or skills tests, but everyone has the opportunity to learn basic skills.
(7) In early stages no one is excluded if they do not display the predispositional characteristics, so that they have the opportunity to possibly develop those characteristics.

These 5 strategies have one common philosophical basis: make opportunity available to as broad a population as possible and give everyone who shows interest basic training. Then see what pops up.

Dr. Ralph Richards of the Western Australia Institute for Sports delivered a paper at a convention in 1999 in which he outlined the identification and talent development of swimming athletes (www.wasa.asn.au/html/coaching/rtf/tid-ascta.rtf). “The best form of Talent Identification and Development,” says Richards, “is mass participation. The best way to identify talent is to have large numbers of young children exposed to quality learn-to-swim programs and then to keep them in the sport during the age-group years.”

This happens in most all sports. Opportunities to participate is open to all who wish to participate, and everyone gets quality instruction in the rules and philosophy of the game, as well as opportunity to practice and play. My brother Ben lives in South Africa and used to coach boys' rugby at his son's school. I watched him once working with a team of 6-7 year olds in a game. He was on the field with his boys, directing them, giving them guidance and advice as they played their little hearts out. Once he had to physically turn a little boy around who was well on his way to the opposing team's end zone. I watched him pat the little guy on the backside and say - Go the other way, tiger! The other team's coach was doing the same things. At that stage it wasn't so much about winning, as about learning and enjoying!

Many of those little boys continued playing rugby for their elementary school, and some played for their secondary school. One or two even went on to play for their university or town rugby club. They all love rugby, though, and are informed (and very vocal) fans and spectators.

What is striking is that none of those little guys are told - you can't play because you are not good enough. How ludicrous would that be? How do we know which ones are going to develop into fine players and which ones will drop out of the team after one season?

Contrast this with talent development in schools. We don't give any particular attention to the bright kids until second grade (and then only in those states that identify gifted kids at that age). Then we test them for intellectual ability, and we set an arbitrary cutoff score and the ones who make it are crowned as "gifted" and the ones who don't make the cut, very often never again have the opportunity to try out for the "gifted team."

No wonder we miss a lot of talented students who could have gained immensely from enriched curriculum and instruction! No wonder the dropout rate amongst high ability high schoolers is increasing steadily - kids are bored with school and take their GED and go on to college.

So Rule #1 in Catharine de Wet's School of Dreams: Every single child in my School of Dreams gets enriched curriculum and instruction. Any child who shows interest in a topic can pursue that topic. We won't ever use test scores to admit a child or exclude a child from any subject or course we teach. Their performance, and continued interest, will determine whether they go on to more advanced courses in that subject or domain.

Impossible to do, you say? Only if we continue to organize schools based on age and lockstep curriculum. Who says all 6 year olds have to enter school and learn to count and learn their letters and their colors? Who says a 6 year old who already knows those things should not be in a different class with kids who have commensurate abilities? Who says we cannot schedule classes in different subject at the same time for all grades so that a third grader can attend a reading class with fifth graders who read at the same level? Or a fourth grader who struggles with mathematical concepts can attend a math class with third graders? Who says?

You may answer, "Everybody!"

WHY?

Lessons for Gifted Education Learned from Sports

Living in Alabama, and working across the street from the Bryant-Denny Football Stadium in Tuscaloosa has had its inevitable effect on me. I have developed a deep interest in college football courtesy of Paul Finebaum (local sports radio host) and Coach Saban, and not excluding the fine young gentlemen who actually do the work on the field.

This has made me reflect on how differently sports coaches approach talent development from gifted educators. For the next several weeks I will be discussing this issue, since I sincerely believe we can learn valuable lessons from sports.

In short, we can learn the following 10 strategies from sports;
(1) A strategy of training as many students as possible in basic skills of the sport.
(2) Start young with opportunities to learn the sport and participate.
(3) Access to sports is open to everyone who may wish to participate.
(4) Training occurs in stages beginning with basic skills, to specific competition skills, to expert performance skills.
(5) No one is excluded in early stages through aptitude or skills tests, but everyone has the opportunity to learn basic skills.
(6) Training is not limited to sport specific skills, but also includes character and psychological training.
(7) In early stages no one is excluded if they do not display the predispositional characteristics, so that they have the opportunity to possibly develop those characteristics.
(8) There are opportunities to be involved in a sport beyond active athletic performance.
(9) There are opportunities to be involved in a sport socially or recreationally.
(10) Skill levels, interest, and task commitment become more important as athletes get older and develop into expert or elite athletes.

If you stick with me through the next few weeks, we will discuss one or two of each of these strategies each time.