July 2020 – Education & Teacher Conferences Skip to main content
Deliberate Practice Doesn’t Align with Schooling (Well: Not Precisely)
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson

With his research into expertise – concert-level violinists, world-ranked chess players, elite runners – Anders Ericsson more-or-less created a new field of study.

How can we become amazingly awesome at challenging tasks? Ericsson has a system: deliberate practice.

As described in his book Peak (written with Robert Pool), deliberate practice has four key components:

Well defined, specific goals,

Focus,

Feedback (often from an expert, or an experienced teacher), and

Getting out of your comfort zone.

Gosh, that sounds a lot like school, doesn’t it? If we could structure our school thinking according to Ericsson’s research, perhaps we could help all our students become concert-level chemists, world-ranked fraction multipliers, and elite poetry analysts.

In fact, we already try to do so much of this, don’t we? We write goals on the board, encourage students to concentrate, give lots o’ feedback, and encourage students to try new things.

In other words: deliberate practice seems a perfect fit for schools. Obviously…

Or then again: maybe not.

The Popular Mistakes

Ericsson’s work has been most popularized by Malclom Gladwell’s book Outliers. You might oversimplify that book with this sentence: “The Beatles succeeded so spectacularly because they practiced 10,000 hours in Berlin.”

Peak briskly summarizes Gladwell’s inaccuracies:

First: 10,000 hours is a catchy round number, but lots of other numbers would have been just as accurate. 10,000 hours applies to one category of budding experts (musicians) at a particular stage (the age of 20) of learning one specific skill (the violin).

Second: even this much-touted number is correct only as an average. Half of the violinists whose data went into this number has practiced LESS than 10,000 hours.

Third: the Beatles weren’t practicing. They were performing. Ericsson’s research shows clearly: deliberate practice looks substantially different from ultimate successful performance.

These inaccuracies – important in themselves – also remind us: if we want to apply Ericsson’s research to our school work, we have to be more careful than Gladwell.

With that guidance in mind, let’s consider the fit between deliberate practice and education.

The GOALS Are Different

Research into deliberate practice focuses quite narrowly on specific kinds of learning.

He studied people wanting to be world champions in one (and only one) very specialized skill: chess, or hurdling, or concert piano playing.

He did NOT study what most teachers do: helping students be good enough at one skill to move on to the next.

For instance: I don’t want my students to win the “Angle-Side-Angle World Mathlympic Championship Gold Medal.” I want them to understand angle-side-angle well enough to move on to side-angle-side; and, ultimately, well enough to solve complex geometry proofs.

I don’t want them to win more National Mann Booker Nobel Book Prizes than anyone else. I want them to write good enough Macbeth essays so they’ll write even better Kindred essays.

In fact, I don’t want them to focus single-mindedly on any one thing. I want them to make gradual progress in all sorts of disciplines and skills: pottery, cooperation, Spanish, history, citizenship, driver’s ed.

It’s possible that deliberate practice will improve all kinds of learning – including school learning. But: let’s not be like Gladwell and simply make that assumption.

Our UNDERSTANDING OF TEACHING Is Different

Ericsson puts it this way:

One of the things that differentiates violin training from training in other areas – soccer, for example, or algebra – is that the set of skills expected of a violinist is quite standardized, as are many of the instruction techniques.

Because most violin techniques are decades or even centuries old, the field has had the chance to zero in on the proper or “best” way to hold the violin, to move the hand during vibrato, to move the bow during spiccato, and so on.

The various techniques may not be easy to master, but a student can be shown exactly what to do and how to do it. (Peak, p. 91)

Does that sound like education to you? Heck, we can’t get the field to agree on teaching strategies for one of education’s most foundational skills: learning how to read. Almost everything in our world is up for contentious debate.

Note that Ericsson is explicit: instruction techniques for algebra do not fit the pattern he studies. We don’t have decades-old tried-and-true techniques for teaching algebra (or grammar, or bunting).

That’s why education is hanging out with psychology and neuroscience: to develop and understand new techniques.

The Role of FEEDBACK Is Different

Ericsson’s model follows a precise feedback pattern:

The student practices a discrete skill.

The teacher provides specific feedback.

The student tries again, and improves.

The student recognizes her immediate progress, and continues to grow.

In education, however, the cause/effect relationship between feedback and progress gets MUCH more complicated.

Specifically, we know that short-term performance does not reliably predict long-term learning. In a research review that I cite often, Nick Soderstrom makes this important claim:

“Improvements in [short-term] performance can fail to yield significant [long-term] learning—and, in fact, … certain manipulations can have opposite effects on learning and performance.” (Emphasis added)

In fact, we’ve got an entire field of memory research that focuses on “desirable difficulties.” The relevant headline: if students get everything right immediately, their work isn’t difficult enough. We need them to be struggling more to ensure long-term learning.

If Soderstrom and the “desirable difficulties” team are right – and I certainly think they are – then the feedback pattern essential to deliberate practice doesn’t align with the kind of teaching and learning that schools prioritize.

We Think Differently about FUN

Throughout Peak, Ericsson and Pool emphasize that deliberate practice requires determination and focus, and rarely results in fun.

Experts don’t become experts because they enjoy this work more. They keep going despite their lack of enjoyment.

For instance, he describes a study of participants taking a singing lesson. Those participants who were NOT professional singers felt relaxed, energized, and elated after the lesson; it allowed them to express themselves in a way they didn’t usually get to do.

However, the participants who WERE professional singers felt relaxed and energized, but NOT elated. They were working, not expressing themselves. In Ericsson’s words, “there was focus but no joy” (p. 151).

Schools, however, want at least a little fun – maybe even a little joy – during the day. We needn’t focus excessively on making everything delightful. But, more than a deliberate practice model, we should keep in mind our students’ rightful need for connection and even elation.

In Conclusion

First: although I’m arguing that deliberate practice doesn’t necessarily promote the kind of learning that schools undertake, I do (of course!) admire this research pool, and Ericsson’s towering role in it.

Second: Education suffers from a strange problem right now: we’ve got too many varieties of plausible-sounding guidance.

The problem isn’t finding something to try. It’s deciding which of the dozens (hundred?) of options to choose.

I certainly think that a deliberate practice model might be useful for teachers to know – especially teachers who focus on creating world-level experts.

But: I don’t think it should be the primary educational model for most of us.

We should think about managing working memory overload. And fostering attention. And creating the optimal level of desirable difficulty.

Let’s not be like Gladwell and simplistically apply Ericsson’s model to our work. Let’s find the parts that fit us perfectly, and use those to help students reach their Peak.


If you’re the sort of person who reads this blog, you’re also the sort of person likely to know that Anders Ericsson passed away at the beginning of July. In addition to being a world-renowned scientist, he was also famous for being an immensely kind person.

Certainly that was our experience here at Learning and the Brain. We have so many reasons to miss him.

Mind in Motion: How Action Shapes Thought by Barbara Tversky
Rebecca Gotlieb
Rebecca Gotlieb

Mind in Motion: How Action Shapes Thought is the recent book by Barbara Tversky, an emerita professor at Stanford University, a professor of psychology at Teachers College at Columbia University, and a past president of the Association of Psychological Science.  In this book, she argues that spatial thinking is the foundation of all thought, including abstract thinking. Tversky draws on nine general principles of cognition to show how we think about space and movement and how we use them to think. Among these principles are the ideas that: with cognition there are always trade-offs; action models perception; minds can override perception and impute missing information; and cognition mirrors perception. She suggests that when there are too many thoughts to hold in mind, we put those thoughts into the world in various ways, and the way we put ideas into the world is similar to how the ideas are stored in our minds.

Tversky’s bold foregrounding of spatial thinking will be of interest to individuals who study and attempt to shape thinking, such as educators and psychologists, as well as to individuals who think in space and movement for their work such as chemists, designers, architects, and dancers. She argues that actions in space allow us to integrate information from our senses and to understand the thoughts and intentions of other people so that we might mimic, coordinate, and cooperate with them. In social situations, verbal thinking often falls short relative to visual thinking.

For example, generally we are better at visually recognizing faces, emotions, and scenes, than we are at describing them. Gesturing is one example that Tversky offers of the power of action for supporting thinking. Gestures can express ideas more directly than words and can do so in a way that forces abstraction. How we gesture can reveal how we think about the relation among ideas (e.g., people’s gestures about time reveal the linear and sequential way we think about events). Further, when people are unable to gesture they have more difficulty describing ideas verbally.

The primacy of visual representations is evident in our linguistic history. Visual representations of ideas predate written representations of ideas by thousands of years. For example, it is widely accepted that “see” means “understand” and “look” means “pay attention to.” The way we visually represent ideas or relationships (e.g., with maps, sketches, diagrams, and comics) often distorts those ideas or relationships so that the most salient parts are emphasized and less important parts are excluded. Tversky argues that diagrams and pictures can be very helpful for learning ideas since they can communicate quickly and directly, and can express more than one meaning.

Relatedly, drawing ideas can aid understanding by making the ideas more concrete and promoting coherence and feasibility within parts of the idea. Spatial thinking, which includes creating physical or mental representations and engaging in mental rotation, is related to mathematical ability. Teaching spatial thinking, which can be accomplished in a variety of ways, including for example, through sports, could help to support youth’s math performance.

Tversky reviews what various visual symbols, including dots, lines, arrows, boxes, and certain diagrams, reveal about how we think about a range of topics. She asserts that the way we reason about space, perception, and action is the backbone for how we reason about social, emotional, scientific, philosophical, and spiritual issues. She argues also that while assuming different perspectives can slow the process of coming to understand something, it will ultimately result in a fuller understanding and more creative problem solving.

Tversky concludes by introducing the intriguing concept of “spraction,” which posits that actions in space design our world and create abstractions in the mind. Readers will understand from Mind in Motion that in considering how to augment cognition, we should rely not only on language but also on spraction.

Tversky, B., (2019). Mind in Motion: How Action Shapes Thought. Basic Books, Hatchette Book Group.

Retrieval Practice is GREAT. Can We Make It Better?
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson

By now you know that retrieval practice has lots (and lots) (and LOTS) of research behind it. (If you’d like a handy comprehensive resource, check out this website. Or this book.)

The short version: don’t have students review by putting information back into their brains — say, by rereading a chapter. Instead, have them pull information out of their brains — say, by quizzing themselves on that chapter.

It’s REALLY effective.

When we know that a technique works in general, we start asking increasingly precise questions about it.

Does it work for children and adult learners? (Yes.)

Does it work for facts and concepts? (Yes.)

Does it work for physical skills? (Yes.)

Does it work when students do badly on their retrieval practice exercises? Um. This is awkward. Not so much

That is: when students score below 50% on a retrieval practice exercise, then retrieval practices is less helpful than simple review.

How do we fix this problem?

“Diminishing Cues” and Common Sense

Let’s say I want to explain Posner and Rothbart’s “Tripartite Theory of Attention.” In their research, attention results from three cognitive sub-processes: “alertness,” “orienting,” and “executive attention.”

Depending on the complexity of the information I provide, this explanation might get confusing. If a retrieval practice exercise simply asks students to name those three processes, they might not do very well.

Common sense suggests a simple strategy: diminishing cues.

The first time I do a retrieval practice exercise on this topic, I provide substantial cues:

“Fill in these blanks: Posner and Rothbart say that attention results from al______, or_____, and ex_______ at______.”

A few days later, I might ask:

“Fill in these blanks: Posner and Rothbart say that attention results from ______, _____, and _______  ______.”

A week later:

“What three sub-processes create attention, in Posner and Rothbart’s view?”

And finally:

“Describe how attention works.”

The first instance requires students to retrieve, but offers lots of support for that retrieval. Over time, they have to do more and more of the cognitive work. By the end, I’m asking a pure retrieval question.

“Diminishing Cues” and Research

So, common sense tells us this strategy might work. In fact, I know teachers who have stumbled across this approach on their own.

Here at Learning and the Brain, we like common sense and we REALLY like research. Do we have research to support our instincts?

Yes.

In 2017, two researchers put together an impressive combination of studies.

They looked at different study strategies: review, retrieval practice, diminishing-cues retrieval practice.

They tested participants after different lengths of time: right away, 24 hours later, a week later.

They tested different amounts of studying: 3 sessions, 6 sessions…

You get the idea.

Because they ran SO MANY studies, they’ve got LOTS of data to report.

The short version: “diminishing cues retrieval practice” ALWAYS helped more than traditional review (rereading the chapter). And it OFTEN helped more than plain-old retrieval practice (self-quizzing on the chapter).

If you want the details, you can check out the study yourself; it’s not terribly jargony. The process is a bit complicated, but the key concepts are easy to grasp.

To Sum Up

Retrieval practice helps students learn.

If we want to ensure that it works optimally, we should use it multiple times — and successively remove more and more scaffolding from the retrieval practice questions we ask.

Common sense and research agree.

Executive Function Isn’t What You Think It Is (Maybe)
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson

As a soccer coach, I want my students to get better at soccer.

As an English teacher, I want my students to get better at English.

And, as a hip-hop dance instructor, I want my students to get better at hip-hop dance.

To accomplish those goals, I usually teach them soccer, English, and hip-hop dance.

That is: I need to tailor my teaching SPECIFICALLY to the topic I want my students to learn. Sadly, for instance, when I teach English, I’m not helping students learn soccer (or math, or dance…)

Wouldn’t it be great if I could teach some GENERALLY useful skill that would boost their abilities in all those areas? This broad, overarching skill would make my students better soccer players, English essayists, and hip-hop dancers. That would be amazing

Answer Number One

For a few decades now, we have mostly thought that the answer to that question is “no.”

Despite all the hype, for example, teaching young children to play the violin doesn’t make them better at math later on.

The exception to that general rule: EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS.

When children get better at, say, inhibition, they improve across all their studies.

In soccer, they resist the temptation to run to the ball, and instead play their position.

In English, they break their bad habits — like using too many dashes — and choose good ones instead.

And in dance, they follow the tricky choreography that steers them away from the (super-tempting) downbeat.

So, executive functions — task switching, prioritizing, self-control, etc. — help students generally.

No wonder we spend so much time talking about them.

Answer Number Two

Professor Sabine Doebel wonders: what if that account of executive function is just wrong.

  • What if executive functions — like so many other things — depend on specific, local circumstances.
  • What if we don’t develop general abilities to inhibit actions, but we learn specifically that we shouldn’t run to the soccer ball (or use dashes, or step on the downbeat)?
  • And, what if getting better at one of those local skills doesn’t make me better at any of the others?

She explains this argument in a Tedx talk. Happily, this one includes an adorable video of children trying the famous “Marshmallow Test.” (It also has an even more adorable video of children trying the less-well-known “Card Sorting Task.”)

She has also recently published a think piece on this question in Perspectives on Psychological Science. This document, naturally, is more technical than a Tedx video. But it’s certainly readable by non-experts who don’t mind some obscure technical terminology.

Why Do We Care?

If the traditional account of executive function is accurate, then we can help students generally by training their EFs.

If Doebel’s account is more accurate, then — alas — we can’t.

Instead, we have to help students learn these specific skills in specific contexts.

Because Doebel is proposing a new way to think about executive functions, I don’t doubt there will be LOTS of institutional resistance to her ideas. At the same time, if she’s right, we should allow ourselves to be persuaded by strong research and well-analyzed data.

This question won’t be answered for a long time.

But, we can use our (general or specific) executive function skills, restrain our impatience, and keep an open mind.

What’s Better than Attention? Attention + LEARNING!
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson

To learn in school, I need to pay attention.

More precisely, I need to pay attention to the subject I’m learning.

If I’m attending to …

…the sudden snowfall outside, or

…the spider on the ceiling, or

…the odd squeaking sound coming from the radiator,

then I’m not paying attention to…

…the Euler bridge problem, or

…the subjunctive mood, or

…the process for setting group norms.

We teachers wrestle with this problem every day. What can we do to help students pay attention so that they learn?

But Does It Work in Real-World Classrooms?

This urgent question has an obvious answer — and that obvious answer has obvious problems.

Obvious Answer: exercise. We’ve got lots of research showing that exercise enhances various neural processes essential to long-term memory formation.

And, we’ve got research — especially with younger children — that movement and exercise in class enhance attention.

Obvious Problems:

First, all that research doesn’t answer the essential question: “do movement and exercise help students learn?” We know they enhance attention. And we know that extra attention should boost learning. But: does it really work that way?

Second, most of that research on in-class exercise happens with younger students. What about older students? And, by “older,” I mean “older than 3rd grade.”

Wouldn’t it be great if someone looked at the effect of exercise on attention and learning in older students?

Good News, and More Good News

A research team in Canada has explored these questions. And, they did so with a helpfully clear and sensible research paradigm.

They invited college students (who are, indeed, older than 3rd graders) to watch a 50 minute lecture on psychology.

One group watched that lecture straight through, with no breaks.

A second group took 3 breaks, each one lasting five minutes. During those breaks, they played a fun video game (“Bejeweled”). That is: they DID take breaks, but they DIDN’T exercise during those breaks.

A third group also took 3 breaks, each one lasting five minutes. During those breaks, they did aerobic exercises: jumping jacks, high knees, etc.. Like the second group, they DID take breaks. Unlike the second group they DID exercise.

The results?

Lots o’ good news:

First: the exercise group were considerably more alert during the whole lecture than the other two groups. (That is: their heart rate was measurably higher.)

Second: the exercise group paid attention much better. They remained on-task about 75% of the time during the full lecture.

By way of contrast, the no-break group started at 60% on task, and fell to 40%. And the video-game group — who took a break but didn’t exercise — fell from 70% to 30%. YIKES.

Third: We care about alertness and attention only if they lead to more learning. Well: 48 hours later, the exercisers remembered more.

That is: they remembered 50% of the lecture, whereas the other two groups remembered 42%.  (50% doesn’t sound like a lot. But the point is: it’s considerably more than 42%.)

So, this study tells us that older students (like younger students) benefit from exercise during a lesson.

Specifically, they remain more alert, stay on task more, and learn more.

BOOM.

Final Thoughts

First: I think it’s helpful to see how each research study builds on previous ones. This study gives us important new information. But, it does so by drawing on and extending research done by earlier teams.

In educational psychology, no ONE study shows anything. Instead, each study builds incrementally on earlier ones — and creates a more interesting, more useful, more complex, even more contradictory picture.

Second: in this study, the students watched video lectures. Their experience wasn’t EXACTLY like online learning. But: it was an interesting relative of online learning.

Should we extrapolate from this study to encourage our online learners to move? That doesn’t sound crazy to me.

Third: One interesting question in this study. The students who took breaks — including those who exercised — took MORE TIME than those who didn’t. The “no break” group took 50 minutes; the “exercise break” group took 65.

So: they learned more — AND it took more time for them to do so. We have to be honest with ourselves about that finding.

My own view: I’d rather give up some class time for exercise if it means students attend and learn more. And, if that means I have to present less content, I’m okay with that exchange.

After all: it doesn’t matter if I teach material that students don’t learn. My job is to help them remember. Exercise breaks do just that.