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The Four Essential Components of Deliberate Practice

The document outlines the four essential components of deliberate practice according to research: 1) Being motivated to improve performance, 2) Designing tasks based on existing knowledge with brief instruction, 3) Receiving immediate feedback on performance, 4) Repeatedly performing similar tasks. It also notes that practice must be intentional, aimed at improving skills, tailored to one's current ability level, and include feedback and repetition.

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299 views2 pages

The Four Essential Components of Deliberate Practice

The document outlines the four essential components of deliberate practice according to research: 1) Being motivated to improve performance, 2) Designing tasks based on existing knowledge with brief instruction, 3) Receiving immediate feedback on performance, 4) Repeatedly performing similar tasks. It also notes that practice must be intentional, aimed at improving skills, tailored to one's current ability level, and include feedback and repetition.

Uploaded by

VvadaHotta
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

The Four Essential Components of Deliberate Practice

Research into the history of education (dating back several thousand years), combined with more
recent scientific experiments have uncovered a number of conditions for optimal learning and
improvement. Again, from K. Anders Ericsson, here are the four essential components of
deliberate practice.

When these conditions are met, practice improves accuracy and speed of performance on
cognitive, perceptual, and motor tasks:

1. You must be motivated to attend to the task and exert effort to improve your
performance.

2. The design of the task should take into account your pre-existing knowledge so that
the task can be correctly understood after a brief period of instruction.

3. You should receive immediate informative feedback and knowledge of results of your
performance.

4. You should repeatedly perform the same or similar tasks.

Its important to note that without adequate feedback about your performance during practice,
efficient learning is impossible and improvement is minimal.

Simple practice isnt enough to rapidly gain skills.

Mere repetition of an activity wont lead to improved performance.

Your practice must be: intentional, aimed at improving performance, designed for your current
skill level, combined with immediate feedback and repetitious.

What Deliberate Practice Means for You

1. Natural ability is no excuse.

If youre 55, maybe you shouldnt set your sites on becoming an NBA center. Some
physical limits are obvious. Most other limits are cop-outs or relics of old
misunderstandings about talent.

Whats cool is that even limits of brainpower can be overcome with deliberate practice.
One-on-one tutoring has shown to greatly reduce the differences in achievement between
students of different cognitive abilities.

2. How you practice matters most.


To benefit from practice and reach your potential, you have to constantly challenge
yourself.

This doesnt mean repeatedly doing what you already know how to do.

This means understanding your weaknesses and inventing specific tasks in your practice
to address those deficiencies.

3. How long you persevere determines your limits.

Becoming an expert is a marathon, not a sprint.

You cannot reach your mental and physical limits in just a few weeks or months. To grow
to the top of your game, youll have to persevere for years.

Your practice has to be deliberate and intense, but it also has to be carefully scheduled
and limited in ways to avoid burnout and long-term fatigue (both mental and physical).

4. Motivation becomes the real constraint on expertise.

Practice isnt always fun. Its an investment into improving yourself, your skills and your
future.

In order to practice with intention for long enough to become an expert or gain useful
skills, you have to find the motivation to make the investment.

Where will you find that motivation?

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