Deliberate Practice

Within this experience, I was incorporating my knowledge of self and aware of the need to work within my own level of competence. Given my lack of experience regarding the skill presented, I decided that it would not be appropriate to perform such a skill in the given environment without my instructor. Benner (1982) describes the levels of proficiency from novice to expert and the differences between each level. Most notably, the method in which to travel from novice to expert is experience, gathered from both theory and actual practical situations. While in this practice setting, while I had the theory, I lacked the actual practical situations in order to have the experience to feel comfortable performing the skill.

In the reading, The 10,000-Hour Rule, by Malcolm Gladwell he writes about practicing for a certain amount of time to really master something. I believe that his argument isn’t too credible and it doesn’t apply to every field.

Practice can be the key to improving. In every area of education, in every sport, with every musical activity, anything that requires a good performance, those who practice tend to understand the material more. Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers states just how important this can be. Going off of the idea that “practice makes perfect”, his entire second chapter is dedicated to persuading his audience to believe 10,000 hours is what it takes to succeed. Examples Gladwell provides include how Mozart didn’t create his greatest works until later in his life after he had gained experience, how the Beatles performed in multiple practice concerts in Hamburg, Germany before becoming musical sensations, and how Bobby Fischer and chess grandmasters

Building upon the previous chapter, we begin to understand how all the right ingredients for achievement and success can be present, and yet they may never happen without a stroke of luck. Becoming an expert at some skill is earned by putting in hard work across several hours, approximately 10,000 hours. Being born in the right year, or time

Early specialization is characterized by year-round training in a single activity, beginning at a young age, apart from other activities with the goal of developing expertise (Ericsson et al., 1993). Ericsson and his colleagues studied pianists and violinists of varying skill levels and discovered that the expert musicians typically began training between ages four and five while the non-experts started training later in life. Moreover, a pattern emerged indicating that the level of performance attained related to the amount of deliberate practice. By age 20 the best performers had spent over 10,000 hours, an intermediate group had put in 8,000 hours, and the least accomplished group only 5,000 hours. In their theory of deliberate practice, Ericsson et al. (1993) suggest that talent plays no role in the development of expertise, rather it is an effortful activity motivated by the goal of improving performance. Typically, deliberate practice requires a high amount of concentration and must be carried out over time. The obligation to significant amounts of deliberate practice in one sport from a young age has been demonstrated as one approach to developing elite athletes (Helsen et al., 1998).

For example, in order for me to learn how to do injections, or draw blood I’d have to practice in a clinic. Doing these tasks correctly means asking others for help when needed, setting a goal, and planning out the strategy to learning it, monitoring my progress, and getting feedback from others about my performance. The best way deliberate practice can help me fully learn these new skills is by practicing them repetitively. You know the saying “practice makes perfect?” You can’t learn how to do billing, or how to administer injections overnight. It takes time, and effort to learn something new. Paying attention to what you’re doing is very important as well.

Given previous research, it was hypothesized that mental rehearsal and physical practice is more effective in improving performance in sport, rather than doing no practice at all.

Repetition of a particular skill enables a worker to become more competent in [performance, and eliminates poor practice.

“A theory of general psychology that states the differences between expert performers and normal adults reflect a life-long period of deliberate effort to improve performance in a specific domain. (Ericsson, K. A).”

Cote et al. (2007) points out the principle of the power law of practice, where great improvements are seen in the initial stages of practice, but the improvements level-off as one becomes an expert. This power relationship seems to be converted into a more linear relationship with increased deliberate practice. Violinists were studied, and time spent in deliberate practice was examined. By 18 years of age, experts accumulated 7,400 hours of practice, whereas intermediate-level performers had 5,300 hours, and lower-level performers only completed 3,400 hours. This linear law of practice seems to be generalizable to other domains, namely sport and chess (Cote et al., 2007, pp. 185). Although deliberate practice is very important, it is not the sole predictor of elite-level

Deliberate practice is the ability to make oneself able to practice on a regular basis. This can apply to virtually anything that you would need to get better in. Deliberate practice also includes the ability to set a specific goal. This goal is used for getting to a certain point that will make you better at the thing you are practicing. You’ll also need a teacher to help you see mistakes that you can then go and fix while you’re practicing. With all of these things combined you’ll set a strong foundation for you to be able excell in your topic of work.

Secondly, another set of skills that I acquire is the use of persistent and determination amid goal setting. The skill has brought me this

The analyzation of deep practice is the main purpose of chapter 1 of “The Talent Code”.In particular, the author wants to explain that the deep practice is the best way to get skills. Deep practice is characterized by practicing more and more time the same exercise,making a lot of mistakes, until the individual can perform it properly without making any mistakes,saving the time.

Ericsson and Charness (1994, p. 525), postulated that, “Recent research has shown that expert performance is predominantly mediated by acquired complex skills and physiological adaptations.” Attaining expertise is achieved through the development of skills and comprises three stages which are the cognitive, associative, and the autonomous.

Apparently, there is this assumption that we can each match one another in executing various tasks as long as we are trained and practically exposed to the same. We can for example handle accounting tasks with ease in the workplace, as long as we acquire the right training and exposure. However, that is not the case as Gregg had just learnt.