My own personal objective working at the IFS is to teach, learn from and promote skilled learners and students to their maximum potential.
There is a vast difference between an expert footballer and a beginner footballer.
That same difference in the level of expertise can be the reason coaches often predetermine the various details of a practice session, for example, the skills they want the players to perform, the sequence and the amount of time allocated. The skilled coach also provides feedback to the player about correct or incorrect parts of the skill.
Does this sound familiar?
What if the player was given some control over the practice conditions?
What if they could choose:
– When and if they wanted to receive feedback?
– What type of equipment they used?
– Demonstrations of the skill
Studies of self-controlled practice have found enhancements to motor learning and positive skill transfer.
The advantages of self-controlled feedback are:
– Practice is more tailored to learners’ needs (e.g. feedback, assistive devices, movement demonstrations)
– Learners have the option of receiving feedback after ‘good’ trials
– Learners may extract more, or more relevant, information from model presentation
– In general, self-control leads to increased motivation, more active involvement of the learner, and ‘deeper’ information processing.
To me, self-controlled practice has similarities to project based learning. What do you think?
Leave a Reply