Deliberate practice

In all honesty, I’ve struggled with reflective practice. I’m more comfortable facing questions requiring convergent thinking, with a definitive correct answer to strive for, than those requiring divergent thinking to reach an outcome judged with subjectivity. I’m somewhat uncomfortable with the uncertainty of whether I’m meeting expectations, and, being an analytical thinker, I find it difficult to know when to stop. I do proactively seek frequent feedback, which helps.

Until very recently, I’ve viewed reflective practice as an inconvenience – a distraction to my learning progress. This attitude, along with my focus on developing my Flutter capability, is largely responsible for my falling behind with my critical reflection journal. While I’ve recognised the value in understanding what went well (and should be applied again) and what didn’t (so do something different) in a given context, I’ve been puzzled by the apparent heavy emphasis for this module.

However, I’ve recently engaged with Anders Ericsson’s work on Deliberate Practice. It provoked a turning point for my perception. Building the following representation of Ericson’s cyclical process for incremental development of expertise helped me to see that the structured proactive approach to reflection stimulates creative insight and mental adaptation. This encourages elaboration, and the formation of associations between known and new concepts, to form alternative representations, and view situations from different perspectives to expedite learning.

I’m beginning to recognise that I should embrace reflective practice, as it could actually be my passport to app development mastery.

My Critical Reflective Journal will be brought up to date by 29^th April

Deliberate practice expedites learning. Active retrieval provides a self-assessment of my comprehension, which is fundamental in identifying improvement opportunity, enabling me to effectively plan future activity for efficient progress.

I have 3 weeks to post blog entries for weeks 5 to 11. Using my notes, I will dedicate 6-8 hours per week to achieving this.

Regular requests for Tutor/study group feedback, will help me continue to achieve incremental quality improvement.

Specific

I will post journal entries reflecting on the work that I have covered in weeks 5 to 11.

Measurable

I will use my Trello board to plan and implement weekly sprints, to include journal entries covering 2-3 weeks coursework, and chart my progress.

Achievable

Time is my key constraint, but I can afford to allocate 6-8 hours per week to achieve this. I’ve kept notes on everything that I’ve worked on.

Relevant

This module requires submission of a complete journal, and it’s a skill that I will use to assess and drive the progress of my continuing professional development.

Time-Bound

This will be done by 29^th April. I will complete entries covering 2 weeks coursework, each week, over the next 3 weeks

Keen to get a good handle on what reflective practice can do for me, I’ve been exploring the work of Anders Ericsson, and his concept of Deliberate Practice.

This has been a pivotal step in changing my perception and comprehension of the potential value that can be delivered by investing time in reflective practice. I think I’m beginning to properly get it.

While much of the material relating to reflective practice that I have previously consumed has helped me to form some level of understanding, I’ve found it to be a bit woolly, and difficult to draw solid conclusions that I can confidently apply to my own performance improvement efforts. However, I connected with Ericsson’s work on achieving expertise through the application of Deliberate Practice. he outlines a cyclical structure of definitive iterative steps that I can take in order to realise incremental progress toward mastery in any field, including my chosen field of app development:

Have a well defined specific goal.
Practice with intense focus – no distractions.
Seek immediate feedback on your practice.
Frequent discomfort – adjust your goal to push you slightly beyond your capability.

Quality mentoring to oversee this process will further expedite learning.

Ericsson dismisses the commonly held belief that an innate talent is the primary factor that dictates success (which gives me hope!), and offers the alternative theory that the key requirement is adaptability – a ‘gift’ which we all possess. He goes on to say that we are all ‘Homo Exercens’ – the practising man, committed to self-improvement.

He also clarifies that while practice is an integral part of improvement strategy, it is not an effective stand-alone strategy. He labels this approach “Naive Practice” and describes how spending hours repeating the same actions over and over again, will only deliver limited improvement, and never achieve expertise.

Tag: Deliberate practice

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