The role of deliberate practice in expertise: Necessary but not sufficient

The paper discusses recent data on deliberate practice in chess, and argues that other factors mediate expertise in chess

Educating programmers: A reflection on barriers to deliberate practice

Copyright @ 2013 HEAProgramming is a craft which often demands that learners engage in a significantly high level of individual practice and experimentation in order to acquire basic competencies. However, practice behaviors can be undermined during the early stages of instruction. This is often the result of seemingly trivial misconceptions that, when left unchecked, create cognitive-affective barriers. These interact with learners' self-beliefs, potentially inducing affective states that inhibit practice. This paper questions how to design a learning environment that can address this issue. It is proposed that analytic and adaptable approaches, which could include soft scaffolding, ongoing detailed formative feedback and a focus on self-enhancement alongside skill development, can help overcome such barriers

NOT-SO-DELIBERATE, DELIBERATE PRACTICE: A Contextual Framework for a Part-Time Interpreter

As a part-time interpreter without abundant opportunities for skill development, deliberate practice is essential, yet can be difficult to attain. Several key themes are revealed in this research of a part-time interpreter’s deliberate practice while considering the role of the inner expert (Reeves, 2014). Using this perspective, deliberate practice is approached by considering the contextual factors surrounding an individual’s engagement in a practice profession. Personal factors influencing a practitioner’s feasibility in engaging in deliberate practice are considered. Findings show the need to be flexible when implementing deliberate practice and to follow one’s own context prior to applying prescribed definitions of deliberate practice in isolation

How students use deliberate practice during the first stage of counsellor training

Deliberate practice, in the form of ongoing commitment to skill development outside of direct clinical work, has been proposed as a means of enhancing therapist competence and expertise. In this study, a deliberate practice orientation was introduced into the first phase of a counsellor training programme. Students’ experiences of learning and using deliberate practice in relation to the acquisition of counselling skills were investigated using a mixed-method design. It took time for students to internalise principles of deliberate practice. They reported a wide range of deliberate practice learning activities, both within and beyond the classroom, and regarded these tasks as having made a significant positive contribution to their learning. The findings of the study underscore the value of viewing deliberate practice as an approach to learning that can be articulated in multiple ways. It is important for future research to identify the forms of deliberate practice that are most relevant to enhancing competence within the specific context of therapeutic work.</p

Enhancing Counselor Education and Supervision through Deliberate Practice

Abstract: Professional and student counselors must develop and maintain their counseling skills in order to engage in ethical and effective counseling. Recent research suggests that graduate education and supervision has little effect on client outcomes. Investigations of expertise development have given rise to deliberate practice, a framework which structures skill development research and instruction. Deliberate practice involves individualized coaching, repetition, and solo practice in development of optimal performance. This conceptual article introduces deliberate practice as a framework for enhancing effectiveness of counselor education and supervision practices. Applications of deliberate practice to teaching and supervision and suggestions for future research are provided. What is the public significance of this article?: Counseling pedagogy uses a variety of methods in classrooms and supervision to help novice counselors develop key skills for their work. Deliberate Practice may be an effective method to help counselors develop more effective skills for working with their clients. Deliberate Practice provides a unified framework to help integrate common methods across teaching and supervision, and emphasizes the use of repetitive practice and individualized feedback

Developing Expertise through a Deliberate Practice Project

Ericsson (2001) defines expertise as follows, “Expert performers can reliably reproduce their performance any time when required such as during competition and training” (p. 194). Merely practicing a skill repeatedly will not result in expert performance. However, “deliberate practice” can improve performance. Deliberate practice is defined as “…tasks that are initially outside of their current realm of reliable performance, yet can be mastered within hours of practice by concentrating on critical aspects and by gradually refining performance through repetitions after feedback” (Ericsson 2006, p. 692). Mindset effects deliberate practice. Dweck (2006) describes two types of mindset: fixed and growth. A fixed mindset perceives intelligence and ability as static despite effort. A growth mindset embraces effort as a means to improve ability. Closing the gap between graduation and certification may be facilitated by deliberate practice. This action research project describes the introduction of deliberate practice and mindset in an interpreter education program

Transforming a 4th year Modern Optics Course Using a Deliberate Practice Framework

We present a study of active learning pedagogies in an upper division physics course. This work was guided by the principle of deliberate practice for the development of expertise, and this principle was used in the design of the materials and the orchestration of the classroom activities of the students. We present our process for efficiently converting a traditional lecture course based on instructor notes into activities for such a course with active learning methods. Ninety percent of the same material was covered and scores on common exam problems showed a 15 % improvement with an effect size greater than 1 after the transformation. We observe that the improvement and the associated effect size is sustained after handing off the materials to a second instructor. Because the improvement on exam questions was independent of specific problem topics and because the material tested was so mathematically advanced and broad (including linear algebra, Fourier Transforms, partial differential equations, vector calculus), we expect the transformation process could be applied to most upper division physics courses having a similar mathematical base.Comment: 31 page

Deliberate Practice in Professional Speaking Expertise

The purpose of this study was to explore expertise development in professional speaking from the perspective of deliberate practice. A convenience sample of 10 elite and 12 experienced professional members of the National Speakers Association participated in 30-60 minute phone interviews in which they described behaviors and activities that contributed to their skill development in speaking and what factors motivated them to pursue excellence in their craft. The group of elite subjects averaged 62.9 years of age (SD = 8.03) and 34.9 years (SD = 7.78) of professional speaking experience. The experienced group had an average age of 53.3 years (SD = 13.14 years), and an average of 22 years (SD = 12.42) of professional speaking experience. Interviews were recorded and transcribed. Bricolage analysis of the interview data resulted in the identification of 16 potential deliberate practice activities and 9 factors that motivated professional speakers to engage in skill development activities. A follow-up questionnaire with a total of 65 items was administered in order to obtain measures for frequency of engagement, perceived relevance to expertise development, and perceived effort required to engage in each of the 16 activities. The questionnaire also included 9 items on motivation, a 5-item life-satisfaction scale, and 3 biographic questions. Eighteen participants completed the follow-up questionnaire (response rate of 82%). Five themes emerged from the data that are indicative of deliberate practice in professional speaking: community, attitudes, self-development and learning, experience and repetition, and self-monitoring and feedback. Four types of motivational factors appeared to support deliberate practice engagement among professional speakers: passion, temperament, supportive environment, and practical necessity. No statistically significant differences were observed between experienced and elite professional speakers in their deliberate practice behaviors, motivation for deliberate practice, and life satisfaction ratings. The frequency, relevance and effort scales in the questionnaire instrument possessed strong reliability measures (Cronbach\u27s alpha = .85, .86, and .84, respectively). Implications for deliberate practice research and public speaking pedagogy are discussed

Toward an explanation of continuous improvement in expert athletes: The role of consciousness in deliberate practice

In a body of research spanning three decades, Janet Starkes and her colleagues have produced a wealth of empirical evidence on the importance of deliberate practice in the development of elite performers. Within this corpus of work, a number of studies have alluded to the important role that self-focused attention plays in helping skilled athletes to refine inefficient movements during deliberate practice. Unfortunately, these studies have largely under-represented the role that somatic awareness plays in facilitating further improvement amongst sports performers who have already achieved elite status. In seeking to address this issue of continuous improvement in elite athletes, the current paper marshals evidence to suggest that reflective somatic awareness plays an important role in the practice activities of elite performers. In particular, we argue that such awareness enables elite athletes to consciously and deliberately improve their movement proficiency. More generally, we propose that Shusterman’s (2008) theory of “somaesthetic awareness” offers expertise researchers a potentially fruitful theoretical framework for future research on skill advancement at the elite level of sport