Practice
“Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.”
— Gladwell (2008)
You might have heard of the “10,000 hour rule”; it suggests that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert in a field. However, recent research suggests that it is not just the quantity of practice that matters, but the quality of practice1
If you are looking for a task to practice now, see the
The idea of “Deliberate Practice” was described by Anders Ericsson to emphaise the importance of focused, structured practice in developing expertise (Ericsson et al., 1993).
Deliberate Practice is:
Purposeful and Structured: Practice sessions are specifically designed to improve performance, often focusing on particular aspects of a skill.
Includes Feedback: Immediate feedback is essential, allowing the individual to understand their performance and make adjustments.
Challenging: The tasks undertaken are neither too easy nor too difficult but are optimally challenging to maximize learning, and require:
Focus and Attention: High levels of focus are required, and practice sessions are often mentally challenging rather than mechanically repetitive.
Learning to practice
At school, teachers take responsibility for designing a structured scheme of practice for children. At university, you are expected to take more responsibility for your own learning.
The “Practice” element of this scheme is designed to help you develop some of the habits and skills you need to develop your own deliberate practice.
Themes
Practice activities are related to five core themes:
How practice tasks work
Each week, in the Briefing, a member of staff will explain the task for the week.
Some tasks must be completed individually. Others need cooperation among your tutor group.
The main task should take no more than 30 minutes. Extension activities or extra practice will be available if you for to focus on a particular area.
When you have completed the task, you will upload your work to Psybot for immediate feedback, and to keep a record of your learning.
All the materials needed for the tasks are available on this website. Tasks are linked from the theme pages in the menu, and from the weekly list of tasks.
Recording your practice
Each week, you will record your practice with PsyBot.
When you upload this work, Psybot will provide instant feedback. For example, we might compare your answer to an ‘ideal’ answer written by staff. Or it may ask you some followup questions to extend your thinking.
You tutor will be able to see the work you have uploaded to PsyBot, and the feedback you were given. We encourage students to visit staff in office hours to review their work, or if they need further help or clarification.
Getting human feedback
In addition to progress meetings, all staff in the school offer two “office hours” each week during which students can ask questions or seek feedback on the work they have done.
References
Footnotes
The 10,000 rule was popularised by Malcom Gladwell in Outliers, based on the work of Anders Ericsson and others. A meta-analysis (i.e. a review of all the quantitative studies available, Macnamara et al., 2014) suggested that the relationship between practice and expertise was not as strong has had been claimed. However, deliberate practice remains the primary predictor of expertise in many fields, and is typically the only factor which we have individual control over. Inherited general intelligence or working memory capacity may also predict expertise, but we can’t choose our parents! For a detailed discussion of the evidence, see Hambrick et al. (2020).↩︎