STRUCTURING THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE

1. STRUCTURING THELEARNING EXPERIENCE

2. STRUCTURING THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE • Most practice periods have several skills which need to be performed • Key is how best to design the practice so that all skills can be learned most efficiently

3. PRACTISING SEVERAL DIFFERENT TASKS Blocked practice Random practice

4. BLOCKED PRACTICE Rehearsal of one task, followed by next, etc, • Same movement over and over • Technique practice / drills • Advantage: concentrate on one skill • Learn • Refine • Correct

5. RANDOM PRACTICE Perform number of different tasks in no particular order • Rotate continually between the tasks • Never perform same task twice in a row

6. CONTEXTUAL INTERFERENCE EFFECT When individuals randomly practice a variety of movements, their performance during practice is less successful than that of individuals practicing movement in blocked fashion. However, when participants resume performance at later time, those who practice under random conditions demonstrate superior retention compared to those who practiced under blocked conditions.

7. WHY RANDOM PRACTICE? More Meaningful and Distinctive Learning • When changing from one task to another athletes appreciate distinctiveness of the different tasks. • Therefore making each task more meaningful in their long-term memory. • More meaningful and distinctive memories are more durable, more easily recalled for use at a later time.

8. WHY RANDOM PRACTICE? Spacing of Movements: The Forgetting Hypothesis • When moving from task A to task B athletes forget what they did on task A while they are trying to figure what to do on task B. • Then , when they come back to task A, they need to generate a plan for that task all over. • The benefits from this form of practice is evident when they resume task performance at a later time.

9. WHY RANDOM PRACTICE? • The act of repeatedly generating task solutions or movements plans is one way to understand how random practice actually enhances learning. • This is referred as retrieval practice, because athletes are forced to practice the skill of retrieving necessary performance information from long-term memory. (Bjork, 1975, 1979)

10. Practical Implication How often have you heard people say that learners need to practice the task “over and over until they get it right.” The paradox of blocked-practice is that it produces effective performance during initial rehearsal but does not create lasting learning.

11. Blocked Practice During blocked practice athletes either fail to practice the target skills or they practice target skills in a context that is not the same as that of the target context. Target skills – The task an individual wishes to perform. Target context – The environmental context in which an individual wants to be able to perform a skill

12. Target context Blocked practice Preceded by regular varied conditions. Not preceded by regular varied conditions. Requires the generation of a solution on each attempt. Requires the generation of a solution only on first attempt. Allows only one chance for success. Allows many chances for success. Same movement is not repeated on successive attempts. Same movement is repeated on successive attempts Corrections are not allowed on next attempt. Corrections are allowed on next attempt. Features of a skill performed in the Target Context and in the Blocked Practice

13. Preparing athletes for the target context “There is a whole bunch of dribbling drills, but my complaint about some of them is that they aren’t connected to the actual skill and situation in a game. No drill is any good unless it’s used in some form in the game.” (Carril & White, 1997)

14. Stages of Learning • Verbal – Cognitive Stage • Motor Stage • Autonomous Stage

15. Verbal – Cognitive Stage • Learners are confronted with entirely unfamiliar task. • Learner spend a lot of time talking to himself (verbal) • And thinking (cognitive) about different strategies • Instructions, demonstration, and other types of verbal and visual information are very useful for learners. • Instructions aim is to help individuals to see something they have learned or experienced in the past that is similar in some way to the new skill they are trying to learn.

16. Motor - Stage • Learners focus shifts to refining the skill by organising more effective movement patterns. • Learners demonstrate more consistency as their movement becomes more ‘stable’ • Learners become more efficient in producing their movements. • At time it appears they perform almost effortlessly. Open skill • A skill performed in an environment that is unpredictable and where movement must be adapted to meet the demands of changing environment (soccer).

17. Autonomous Stage • Learner don’t need to think about every component of the skill they are performing • Individuals demonstrate increased automaticity in their sensory analysis of environmental patterns. • During this stage self-confidence increases. • Individuals movement is characterised by reduced physical and mental effort and improved style and form. • Capability to detect errors in movement becomes highly developed • Performance improvements are more difficult to detect. • But still learning / improvement is far from over.

18. Resource Motor Learning and Performance A problem-based learning approach Richard A. Schmidt / Craig A. Wrisberg